COMESA Harmonized Seed Trade Meeting Kicks Off in Nairobi

A meeting on the COMESA Harmonized Seed Trade regulations has kicked off in Nairobi and will take place for two days.

The meeting has been organized in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service.

The meeting was opened by the Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK), the Alliance for Commodity Trade in East and Southern Africa (ACTESA), a specialized agency for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the UK-funded FoodTrade East & Southern Africa (ESA)

The two-day meeting has brought together participants from leading seed companies to define the way forward with the COMESA Seed Harmonisation Implementation Plan (COMSHIP) in Kenya.

STAK, a strategic private seed sector association, and partner of COMESA in Kenya works with its members as well as with national and regional bodies to promote the creation of an open, competitive seed industry that will provide opportunities for investment, improve access to inputs for farmers as well as strengthen food security interventions.

Speaking at the opening, Duncan Onduu, Chief Executive Officer of STAK said, “The coming in place of the COMESA Harmonised seed regulations is welcome news to seed companies since this opens the window of opportunity to trade and access markets beyond the Kenyan borders.”

The meeting is part of an ACTESA project, funded by FoodTrade ESA, which has successfully supported the domestication of harmonized seed trade regulations in seven COMESA member countries namely Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Burundi, and Malawi. Out of the seven, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have domesticated the COMESA Seed Harmonisation Regulations and can now fully participate in the production, certification, registration, and trade of quality and improved seed varieties across the COMESA region. Similar processes of domestication of national seed laws to the COMESA ones are being led in Zambia and Malawi.

“Through the project with ACTESA, our programme has done a lot to promote coherence in the production and trade of seed across the region. By making it easier for private sector seed companies to invest in the development of new varieties, seeds will be more readily available to the smallholder farmers who need it most,” explained Steve Orr, Team Leader of FoodTrade ESA.