Policies for African seed enterprise development

The commercial seed sector has been slow to develop in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper examines the major impediments and identifies areas in which seed policies can be strengthened. Seed enterprise development has been hampere d by regulatory frameworks that favor parastatal enterprises and that inhib it commercial innovation. In addition, government and donor projects provid e large amounts of free or subsidized seed that further discourages seed en terprise development. In addition to regulatory reform and the curtailment of many seed distribution projects, there are other policy changes that nee d to be implemented. National agricultural research institutes need to inve st more resources in promoting their varieties and helping to stimulate com mercial seed production. Greater emphasis is required on regional strategie s for public plant breeding and private seed marketing. National policies n eed to strengthen input marketing capacity and infrastructure. Finally, don ors, governments and NGOs should shift from trying to encourage village-lev el commercial seed production and instead strengthen farmers' capacities to assess new varieties and to be effective consumers of commercial inputs. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.