The vegetable seed sector in sub-Saharan Africa has received little attention in the development agenda. Given the continent’s nutritional and economic challenges, it is high time to recognize the vegetable seed sector as an important engine for progress and growth. World Vegetable Center scientists teamed up with experts and managers of leading vegetable seed companies in Asia and Africa to define a way forward.

In most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, you will have a hard time finding a vegetable breeder: Horticultural research institutes are underfunded while seed companies tend to rely on seed imports and seed production of varieties introduced long ago. Why is this situation so different from many countries in Asia that now have a strong vegetable seed sector with many seed companies vying for market share by offering farmers good varieties and services? This question and others are the subject of “Africa’s evolving vegetable seed sector: status, policy options and lessons from Asia,” a recent paper published in the journal Food Security.

“The debate about Africa’s seed sector is so strongly focused on staple food grains, particularly maize, that vegetable seed is often forgotten,” said Pepijn Schreinemachers, World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) scientist and lead author of the study. He estimates about a billion dollars has been invested in strengthening Africa’s grain seed sector since the turn of the century, but success is still not obvious. Many grain crops are not naturally of interest to the private sector, even in Asia or Europe, unless there is a hybrid or GM option available. When trying to kick-start the private seed sector in Africa, why not start with the most profitable seed crops?

Schreinemachers gathered a group of seed sector experts to draw lessons and suggest potential action points for strengthening the vegetable seed sector in Africa to benefit farmers and consumers. It included well-known figures in the seed industry such as 2019 World Food Prize winner and East-West Seed founder Simon Groot, Advanta CEO Bhupen Dubey, Michael Ngugi of Simlaw Seeds, and Takemore Chagomoka and Learnmore Mwadzingeni from Seed Co.

The experience of Asia shows the vegetable seed sector offers an interesting business opportunity for many reasons. Not only is vegetable seed much more valuable than seed of most staple grains, it also can be produced on relatively small areas, does not require large storage facilities, and can be distributed easily. Vegetable markets are highly segmented (not just by species but also by consumer-preferred traits such as size, shape, color, taste, and texture) providing market niches for many companies. Furthermore, hybrid seed is available for most fruiting vegetables, which can help to protect ownership of varieties. Once farmers are connected to a reliable output market, they will prefer buying fresh seed over own seed-saving, even for open-pollinated varieties.

When governments in Africa and Asia liberalized their seed sectors in the late 1980s and early 1990s, not many countries had a strong vegetable seed sector. Farmers saved their own vegetable seed or used imported seed that was not always fit for the tropics. Private seed companies emerged both in Asia and in Africa in the early 1990s, but while many Asian companies invested in R&D to develop their own locally adapted varieties, most African companies built their business around seed imports and seed trade. Some of the key factors contributing to the success in Asia include the rapid growth of consumer demand, the availability of trained specialists, and partnerships between Asian and western seed companies.

The development of the vegetable seed sector in Asia is likely to have contributed much to a substantial increase in vegetable consumption and income for small-scale farmers, although there is need for better evidence on this, and there is certainly room for improvement as vegetable consumption in most Asian countries is far below what is recommended for good health.

Africa is now also experiencing a rapid rise in consumer demand for vegetables, largely driven by urbanization and income growth. The time is right to invest in Africa’s vegetable seed sector with the aim of creating a diverse seed market in which many companies compete for market share by developing locally bred and adapted varieties. Yet, there are hurdles to overcome. First, many seed companies in Africa lack the technical know-how in vegetable breeding research, which requires investment in capacity building. Second, seed laws and regulations in many African countries are not conducive to local vegetable variety development and seed production as there are fewer requirements on imported seed than on locally produced seed. To stimulate vegetable production in Africa, it will also be important to strengthen farmer extension to aid the adoption of improved varieties and good agricultural practices and to create more secure output markets for farmers, as high risk is a key impediment to enter into vegetable production.

Adding more “greens” to Africa’s Green Revolution can energize the private seed sector, stimulate smallholder productivity and income growth, and help address the nutritional challenges now facing African countries.