THE GUARDIAN, 21 MAY, 2011

THEGUARDIAN,Saturday,Maj2l,20U

MetroNotes "

Hybrid maize plants in Seed Tech irrigation demonstration farm. Blantyre, Malawi

This is a follow-up to the story published in The Guardian of April 2, 2011 on the visit of the Director of Communication, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nairobi, Kenya, Mrs. Sylvia Mwichuli. She visited Nigeria in pursuit oUIG,RA's moves to revolutionise agriculture in Africa through the use of hybrid seeds. AGRA recently facilitated a field trip of 19 seed sllctor stakeholders from Ghana to Malawi (Southern Africa), to learn how liberalisation of foundation seed is helping the agricultural sector to grow in Malawi. Debo Oiadimeji, who was on the trip, reports.

1\. IlAlAWI, in 2005, was one of the poorest coun· IVltries in Africa. But today the story has changed. Mala,wi which used to import food from neigoouring countries like Zimbabwe is now exporting food to other countries. Although the statistics have been changing, per capita i_ncome used to be slightly less that a dollar in Malawi. The poverty level has dropped from 45 to 15 percent:. It is envisaged thatitwill drop further. The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, has made signifi· cant strides to revamp the economy via the agricultural sector. .

Access to improved seeds is the key to development and growth of the agricultural sector in Malawi. There is a functional relationship in the seed delivery value chain which includes plant breeders, seed regulators. seed companies, dvil sadety and fanners, which ensures that fanners are able to access high-quality seeds of suitable varieties at the right time. In places like luchenza, in the southern part of Malawi. Cassava was said to be over-produced and the excess is being use as firewood. In Malawi. everywhere from the capital city, Ulongwe to Blantyre is planted with hybrid maize, cassava and other legume crops.

During the recent study tour by the stakeholders in the agricultural sector from Ghana to Malawi, seed companies like Seed Co, Monsanto, Pannar, Malawi Seed Traders Association and Chitedze ~'Research Institute were visited. It was discovered that the success of the agricultural sector is due to sound poliCies (by the government) and commit· ment of all stakeholders.

agriculture is put in the front burner by the government. Thatis why Malawi is nowacountrythat is self-sufficient in food, particularly maize.

Kanandi regretted that some people believed that agriculture should not be subsidized. "Even the Malawi government has been struggling with donors who are asking the government to remove subsidy on agriculture. Our President had to put his feet down and say that there must be subSidy on agriculture; he surmised.

He pointed out that 80 percent of the faming community in Malawi are small holders farmers.

Therefore, there is no way they could afford to buy a bag of 50 kg fertilizer which is sold for about 80 dollars at the open market:. " With that price, a poor farmer in the villages could not afford to buy a bag of fertili~er to apply in his maize farm. That is why the government of Malawi has reduced the price of a bag of fertilizer from 80 (US) dollars to 20 dollars or less than that:.

The government keeps putting in place measures to encourage agriculture in Malawi," he said.

With what he called 'Public Income Generating Programme', the Malawi government is empoweringordinary people in the villages who are paid to maintain roads and to do other community development jobs. 'That on its own helps the ordinary people to get some incomes from the government to buy fertilizer," he said.

In Malawi, tobacco he said, is a major means offoreign exchange for the country. But with the ongoing anti ·smoldng campaigns, the government of Malawi he explained, is looldng for a substitute to' tobacco.

Therefore, crops like pigeon pea, groundnuts, soya beans and cassava are being planted in commerdal quantities.

Although the farmers are still using animals to till the land, plans are in the pipeline by the government to provide the farmers with implements. In spite of that, in the last five years, the farmers, he said, have been overproducing food crops.

AGRAin its Wisdom, had given two Nigerian Universities, Ahmadu Bello "And therefore there is surplus of maize; so how we take care of the surplus that we have proUniverSity (ABU), Zaria and University of lbadan (UI) about '.' , , ~ do duced? How do we deal with post-harvest losses?

Another thing is tllat Probalbly it is high time we §300,000grant for two years to train llgricultural scientists. The , started thinking of an exit strategy to the substimaster'sprogramrtle was meant foreighfstudenfs. AGRA" has also . '" tute programme," he stated.

He suggested that the government think of madeavailable.grant to UniverSitY CifGhanai Legan, to train students ,;' investing the funds it is using for the subSidy proin addreSSing some other crucial probfrom:; Nigeriaand other West AtriOati ¢duntries at level in Accra. ' gramme lems like storage facilities. "We have been overproTheirivestment in University of Ghana is $6 million. They .are ' ducing maize and we should not allow them to With six million peasant farmers out of the population of 13 million, farming is serious business in the three region ( South. North and the Central Region) in Malawi.

Mr. Alfred Mtukuso, Director oC Agricultural Research Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Ulongwe recalled that the government is in partnership with local and international organisations to develop the agricultural sector.

"We have been able to succeed by using improved varieties of food crops. Our biggest challenge has been ~o get the improved maize varieties from the researchers to the factories. That has been our special dilemma; he said.

In Malawi new seed varieties must be tested in his ministry and certified before it is released offiCially.

Mtukuso disclosed that Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been instrumental in strengthening the partnership between the stakeholaers in the agricultural sector in Malawi.

AGRA he said, has been makihg funds available for the ministry to conduct its research programme and to train their staff.

Mr. Geoffrey Kanandi, a legume breeder (legume crops include, pigeon pea, soya beans, cow pea, beans) and the National Coordinator for legume Research in Malawi disclosed that essentially, they are conducting researches to address the con· straints that are there in the farming sector.

He pointed out that under the liberalisation policy of the governmen~ prices of agricultural inputs are determined or pre-<letermined by the government, but researches are done at the universities and research institutes. There are ongoing researches on tobacco, sugar cane, tea and coffee etc.

Kanandi disclosed that there are three classes of seed development. There is the breeder seed, p,roduced and supervised by,the breeder himself. 'We have what is called basic seed or foundation seed.

This can be produced by deSignated farmers. It is the foundation seed that is planted to produce certified seed. 'This is the seed that can be bought by the farmers at any outlets and shops in the country," he said.

The seed companies, he stressed, have to maintain high ethical standard of the seed materials to r.roduce foundation seed from tlle breeder seed.

There is a cost associated with that as the seed companies are geared towards maldng profit:. But secondly. there must be an assurance thatwhatever foundation seed they produce will be sold. So the situation becomes very tricky," he reasoned.

He clarified that the seed companies want to produce foundation seed because currently, there is a high demand for foundation seed and particularly for legume.

In the case of Malawi for example, the legume breeder said the government has put in place what he called a 'substitute programme', where, seed varieties of different crops are subsidized by the government:. "If you produced sufficient foun· dation seed, that of certified seed will not be a problem. But if you limit production of foundation seed then it means certify seeds availability will also will be affected; he analysed.

He said that in Malawi breeders are mostly government employees. And seed companies can also get their own breeders.

But the breeders worldng for the seed companies have to work in collaboration with government breeders. ' A vibrant seed sector, as he puts i~ is the brain behind food security in Malawi. "Therefore, I need to mention it here that availability of good quality seeds is the key, it is actually the engine to agricul. tural development in Malawi as well as any country where agriculture is importan~" he said.

Before, he admitted, agriculture was not given its due in Malawi. But now, even in terms of fun.ding,

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10 iMEmONOTES

'Better Seeds Better HalVest' tons of maize and it has grown in the last 10 years CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 to producing 10,000 metric tons of mai ze. or three grai n reserves. Recently, there is another Hygiene, he averred, is very important in the waregrain reserve that was officially opened by the house and in the factory House keeping is very President in lilongwe, to secure what we have over- important too. produced. The environment is suitable. We are not According to him, all those tllings make a seed house presentable and can earn it more trust fro m importing any agricultural product," he said.

Mrs. Grace Kaudzu, Seed Technologist and a team customers. leader atthe Seed Certification and QualityControl, Monsanto is .another big seed industry in Chitedze Agricultu re Research Station, lilongwe, Lilongwe. Daniel Dandalo, Plant Manager of the disclosed that their mandate is to ensure that, high- company, explained that Monsanto Malawi does quality seeds are made available for the farmers. only hybrid maize seed. "Once somebody satisHes "Our IOle ISto ensure that anyvanety that a breeder our requirements, we give the person a contract to deSIgns meets our standard,' she saId. produce seed for Monsanto. We get our own field According to her, the farmers are supposed to reg- managers who go and monitor each and every ister with the research station. During registration, stage of the production. We also have field inspecthe farmers are supposed to explain the origin of tors who are the regulatory authority and who the seed in order to maintain the characteristic of gives us the go ahead to go to the next stage. After the variety. the seed has been harvested, we bring them into "We conduct seed inspection. We make sure tl,at tl,e factory to be processed," he sa id. there are no diseases in the seeds. This is done for Also Mr. Frank Samidu, the Managing Director of hig h quality seeds. From there we take the sample S~ed Tech, Blantyre, disclosed that he started the to tl,e laboratory. We also train the tarmers," she company after discovering some loopholes in the said. seed industry "I discovered that some of the new She explained how the subsidy system works in varieties were not getting to the farmers. So we felt Malawi: ''The Seed Traders Association of Malawi that we can come inasawayofbridgingthegap to (STAM) and the ministry of agriculture will sit mUltiply and distribute such varieties to farmers. down, depending on the amount of seed that is "Sooursloganis'bringingtechnologytothe farmavailable or depending on thenumberof the bene- ers .. .Thatwas afterthe liberalisation policy by the ficiaries. Together we actually determine the price government. We registered with Chitedze Harvesled Soya bean seeds al Funwe farm, Mangochi OiSlriC!, Malawi of the bag sizes of the seed like maize."

Research Institute for regular inspection. In .200s, Kaudzu, maintained that under the Iiberalised sys- we had our first loading to the farmers which was mechanise our operations. From 25 hectares we for eight students.

"AGRA has also made available grant to tern, the govern ment only allows the members of abouno metric tons. As I am talking to you now we intend to plant250 hectares this coming seasons," University of Ghana, Legon, to train students STAM to supply seed to the subsidy programme. are now handling three varieties oT maize, MH 23, he said ''The seed companies usually market their products 27 and MH 18.. ." he said Loti added that they are expectmg a tum over of from Nigeria and otl,er West African countries on the radios and televisions. The beneficiaries are In 2007, Samidu reminisced, he was granted 1.4 mllhon (US) dollars in the ongoing production. at PhD level in Accra. The investment in Edward SengB, a medical scientISt at the University of Ghana is above S6 million. They giving coupons. We have maize coupon, legume AGRA soft loansto improve his production. coupon etc. So they can just go to the nearest agro He regretted that in Malawi even with a good pro- UruveCSlty of MalaWl, lauded the government for are goi ng to train 40 PhD students for five dealer to buy th eir seed. It is tl,e coupon that the posal, the banks wiU not lend a seed company Its strides in the agricultural sector in Malawi. The years/' he stated. agro dealers will use to redeem tlleir money from money without good collateral. ''They will say: government is encouraging researches in agriculIsso ufou agreed that the impact of the prothe ministry," she explained. 'your proposal is very nice but where is the securi- tural sector of seeds tf,at can survive drought gramme in the sub region will take time to The ministry of agriculture she said is working ty7'Theywill want the seed companies to safe their "With irrigation we can now produce crops like mature.

Dr. Augustine Langyintuo, the Policy Officer with the Police to curb sharp practices in the sub- money with them, but when it comes to lending maize throughouttheyear. Somuchawakening is sidy system. money to farmers, they make sure you have the col- going on and the people had received it Some of for AGRA, Kenya, described the tour as a sucFelix Jumbe, tl,e Secretary General of the Seed lateral," he frowned. the research institutes will give people a hybrid cessful learning trip by Ghanaian stakeholdTraders Association of Malawi recalled that all the In Mal~wi, tl,e seed companies can also produce goat to pr?d,!ce milk When itgives bi';!'h, the per- ers. ''The idea was for them to understand how stakeholders are workmg towards the same goal in foundation seed. But the breeders produce the son wtlf gIVe It to h,s or her neIghbour. the seed companies works in Malawi, baSically Malawi. "Come in October and listen to the adver- inbred lines; "We go and take the inbred lines and Senga warned that the government should do th ey have seen the transparency with which osem ent by the seed comparues on the radlos;~ou do the backing ( do the cross-polhnatlon to multi- somethmg to check waste, noting that It WlII the stakeholders are working together and I will be amazed! because each company will say: my ply th e inbredlines~ The first crossing can also be make no sense for peo"le to produce so much think it is something which they will want to vanety of seed IS the best'. called foundation seed, but that IS our job. We do only to waste same. He saId there IS need for them implement in Ghana," he stressed.

He insisted that AGRA's focus is to help to "With this and that it will make you rich. We have produce foundation seed from inbred lines. Here, to start using cassava to make starch instead of reform the seed sector in Ghana and Nigeria. found that it is contributing to adoption of certified that is the set up," he said. people using it as firewood. seeds ..It is now 43 per cent and we want to take He disclosed further that seed companies like to Dr. Kapram Issoufou, Programme Officer of AGRA There is no reason Africa should be importing adopoon to 80 per cent We have also seen a produce foundation seed because not doing so Programme for African Seed Systems (PASS) for food, he said. "I think that it is time for the demand for legume seeds. In the past the belief is retards their productivity. 'The job of the regulato- West Africa with his regional office based in Accra, stakeholders from Nigeria to also embark on that you don't need certified seeds for legu me. Now ry authority is to inspect what weare doing. I know Ghana opined that the government is opening such a trip. The basic problem in the seed secthe farmers are assured that they will get the right that in some countries like Tanzania and Nigeria, the field of production of foundation seed to tor in Nigeria is that there is no complete Iiberresults from the use of improved varieties of foundation seed is controlled by the government, every organisation that has the capacity to do so in alisation of the production of foundation seed.

Legume seeds. Certification is the key in the seed but it retards the growth of the industry. for exa m- Ghana. The trip to Malawi, he noted, was to edu- In Ghana, Iiberalisation was not complete in industry in Malawi," he said. .. pie, If I am planning t<,> grow SO hectares of a cer- cate the stakeholders on the production of foun- the sense that we used to have one parastatal One of the seed compames VISIted was Seed Co in tam vanety and I don t have enough foundation dation seed m Ghana. maintaining and producing foundation seed," liIongwe. Mr. John Lungu, Operations Director, of seed, what do I do?," he queried.

He drew a line in the sands to show that AGRA is he said. the factory recaUed that tlle company started at a J--Iesaid that although In places like America, there working in Nig~ria, the same wax it is working in Langyintuo harped th at Kenya, Zimbabwe and 10)N ebbs, but over the years It has grown by leaps are weU-established compames selhng foundation other West Afncan counmes. We faahtated a Zambia are among other shining examples in and. pounds. "When we started tl,is company we seeds, they don't disappoint farmers. roundtable disc;ussion in April in Abuja (afterThe Africa, where liberalisation of the founcation dldn t have our own plant We started by using Another benefiCIary of AGRA's grant in Malawi is GuardIan pubhcatlon on AGRA/, between the seed is growing the agricultural sector. 'The otl,er people's facilities in processing our products. Funwe Farm, in Mangochi District Thandize Loti, National Agricultural Seed Counci (NASC)and th e reason why we chose Malawi is actually that We were baSically importing our stocks from our the General Manager of the company, disclosed private seed companies. At the end of the day, it Malawi has just come out of theabyss.And you head office in H~rare, Zimbabwe. We started our that they have got support from the government was agreed that NASC wiU involves the private still have companies that are just starting to own production ih 2002 and we have been growing and AGRA to develop hybrid legume seeds. "We seed co'!'jJanies in the production of foundation grow. AGRA supports all stable food crops. It is ever smce.We have 2kg, skg, IOkg, and 25 kg packs have got our own agro dealers wno are there in the seed. Thl~ IS the farthest we have gone m Nlgena not just maize. The crop we support depends VIllages, the poorest of the poorest We have imple- and I thmk that IS a very Important step. The on the country," he said. for tl,e maIze seed," he noted.

He described AGRA as a charitable organisaThe company staned production with 60 metric m ents like tractors, planters etc. We are trying to NASC's role is to ensure quality control not to produce foundation," he said. tion whose funds are from a few major donors, AGRA in its wisdom, Issoufou said, had given two like the Bill Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Nigerian Universities, Ahmadu Bello University Foundation. "We have quite a number of (ABU), Zaria and University of Ibadan (U1) about organisations who are putting money in S300,000 grant for two years to train agricultural AGRA, but there is still need for more supscientists. The master's programme was meant ports," he said.

We hereby notify the general public that Ascon Oil Company Limited is the owner of a Petrol Filling Station situate at Ibafo , along Lagos-Ibadan E x press way in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, that the tittle document over this petrol filling station is a Deed of sub-Lease dated 29th December, 1999 and reg is tered as Number 49 at Page 49 in Volume 576 of the Land Registry Office Abeokuta , Ogun State. That the original copy of this tittle 'document is missing and all efforts to recover it has proved abortive, the general public should take note.

Daniel Dandalo. the Plant Manager of Monsanto with the d!3legates from Ghana dur-

Iljjll~"~"~~ certificate of occupancy belonging to Alhaji Abubakar Aminu inrespect of 2 Bedroom Flat at second floor Block E. Flat 5 at Abdullah; Adamu Estate Ije road, Obalende was destroy e d by flood