Uncertified seeds have taken over the market and have been an issue of concern to most governments on the Africa continent. This condition has made countries like Malawi pass into law a legislation spree to regulate seeds market.
In a news publication on DownToEarth website, a “$30,000 fine, or 20 years of imprisonment”- that is the punishment for trading uncertified or fake seeds in Malawi, had been laid down by its recent Seed Act.
Malawi government data estimates that close to 60 percent of seeds traded there are uncertified. The law, approved by the country’s parliament on April 4, provides for instruments to regulate the production, processing, certification, sale, import and export of seeds.
In a country where agriculture accounts for 80 percent of the employment opportunities as well as 80 percent of the total exports, the legislation was much needed. At least one would think so.
Its passage was preceded by nearly a decade of debate, with the approval to the Act stalled many times. The government deployed all reasons to justify the legislation, yet there is an uncomfortable question: “What happens to Malawi’s informal seed system, or farmer seed system?”
It accounts for 80 per cent of planted seeds. That leaves only 20 per cent of ‘formal’ seeds to be regulated by the current law? Farmer groups and civil society organizations see the law as an entry of commercial seed companies to the market to ultimately take over the indigenous seed system.
The law had more advantages than disadvantages, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima- Malawi’s Deputy Minister of agriculture, claimed at parliament. But, Ulemu Chilapondwa, vice-chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, offered a word of caution saying, “Multinational seed companies are overshadowing the domestic seed companies due to their resource advantage. This, therefore, calls for the government to put in place mechanisms that will protect the local seed companies. The new law may result in loss of income and livelihood of farmers engaged by domestic seed companies to produce seeds. This is because most multinational companies engage farmers from their country of origin to produce the seeds for them.”
Malawian farmers in recent years have experienced a gradual shift in the seeds sector: The improvised or high-yielding hybrid seeds from companies are replacing the farmer seed system.
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