By Fredrick Obura
A new body to crack on fake seeds business that has led to poor crop yield over the past few years has been formed. The Alliance for Seed Industry in Eastern and Southern Africa (Asiesa) launched in Nairobi aims at ensuring stringent seed regulation and farmer education to weed out fake seeds in the market.
Dr Sally Kosgei, the minister for agriculture said the formation of Asiesa was timely and would help protect small scale farmers from exploitation. “Our farmers have fallen prey to bogus businessmen selling to them fake seeds, the repercussion has been poor yields that has left us with food deficit,” said the minister.
“The new alliance will help us tame fake seeds through farmer education and enhance the business competitiveness of seed companies and value chain enterprises in Eastern and Southern Africa,” she said on Thursday at the launch.
trade associations
Kosgei said the alliance would strengthen and establish national seed trade associations for efficient coordination of seed related issues.
She observed the move will help complement the ministry’s seed and plant variety Act under review, whose implementation is expected before the end of the year in fighting counterfeit seeds.
“The new alliance will help us tame fake seeds through farmer education to enhance the business competitiveness of seed companies and value chain enterprises in Eastern and Southern Africa,” she said.
Cases of fake seeds have over the past few months been on the increase affecting farmers in breadbasket areas of Narok and Trans Nzoia counties. In Trans Nzoia, local security team smashed a fake seed manufacturing syndicate after one tonne of uncertified maize seeds were discovered being sold at a leading supermarket in Kitale.
