News & Information

The availability of high-quality seeds is critical to achieve high crop productivity for a food secure country. But this has remained a pipe dream within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite the region having huge potential to maximise its agricultural productivity by leveraging on countries with advanced and robust seed systems.

Africa has a big challenge with feeding its large population that is put at 1.3 billion as at 2018. Africa’s population is 16% of the world’s human population. Food security in Africa is of global concern, considering its position as the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent. According to available data, Africa’s land area is about 30.3 million km², including adjacent islands, and it covers 6% of the Earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area.

Gaborone - A deadly heatwave is sweeping across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and killed at least one person in Botswana last week. There are fears that as temperatures reach above 40° Celcius, people’s lives and those of wild animals are at risk across the region with Botswana and Zimbabwe having also recorded a considerable number of elephant deaths related to heatwaves and drought.

More than 100 entrepreneurs who converged on Lilongwe for this year’s Dialogue Forum with an aim of brainstorming challenges which the sector faces when transacting businesses have expressed concern over poor business environment which the country is experiencing.

The U.S. government, in partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat and Zambian government, have formally commissioned the first hybrid maize seed export programme worth $370,000 from Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Researchers under the African Seed Access Index have recommended more efforts to involve private sector in introduction and development of improved seeds, seeds availability as well as put in place mechanisms to create more seeds access from farmers. The index by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa seeks to promote the establishment and maintenance of enabling environments for competitive seed systems serving African farmers.