Please make room for vegetable seeds on your shelves
A team from the SafeVeg project in Burkina Faso made a plea to the general management of the seed company NAFASO. The aim was to convince the managers of this structure to give the importance they deserve to vegetable seeds.
Story and photos: Marcel Beria | May 11, 2023
CEO of NAFASO and the National Coordinator of SAFEVEG in Burkina Faso.
During the training week for the staff of seed companies in Burkina Faso, the National Coordinator of the SafeVeg project and two of her collaborators met with the General Manager of NAFASO, one of the most important seed companies in the country. The objective of the meeting was to draw the company’s CEO’s attention to the importance of vegetable seeds. Indeed, the company Neema Agricole du Faso (NAFASO) is a Burkinabe company based in Bobo-Dioulasso and specializes in the production, marketing and distribution of improved seeds in Burkina Faso and the sub-region. The only problem is that NAFASO, despite its size, is only interested in cereal seeds such as rice and corn.
It is important to remember that African agriculture has always focused on a limited group of products that include food crops (cereals and pulses), oil crops (soybeans, groundnuts, sunflowers) and industrial crops (coffee, cocoa, tea, oil palm and rubber). Vegetable crops, which are, among other things, important for nutritional security, employment and income generation, have yet to receive much attention.
The working session with the head of the NAFASO group allowed him to explain the potential of vegetables and their importance in the food and nutritional balance of Burkina Faso and to make a real plea for his company to create a place for vegetable seeds in the shelves of its stores scattered throughout the country. The CEO welcomed the approach and promised to restructure the seed department of NAFASO which will diversify in the coming months.
Partial view of NAFASO’s seed offers.
WORLDVEG IN THE NEWS
[Video] Da Ai Journal: Doomsday Ark (English/Mandarin)
Da Ai Televetion｜Taiwan, January 2024
[Video] OUR ISLAND: Seed exchange and conservation (English/Mandarin)
PTS, February 2023
[Video] Seed conservation and Breeding-2 (English/Mandarin)
Formosa TV, February 2023
[Video] Seed conservation and Breeding-1 (English/Mandarin)
Formosa TV, February 2023
New partnership agreement signed to improve global nutrition and food security ACIAR, February 2023
AFACI Newsletter Issue No. 22.
AFACI Newsletter, January – December 2022
[Video] PROJET NUTRIFOOD: Dr. Marco WOPEREIS visite le jardin scolaire de Goulo-Sodji à Zè (French)
AgricoTV, April 2022
Low-Cost Solar Dryers Yield Sustainable Incomes to Marginal Farmers of Koraput District in Odisha.
ICRISAT Happenings Newsletter, April 2022
Audience au Ministère de l’Agriculture, de l’Elevage et de la Pêche du Benin: World Vegetable Center porte le projet d’un symposium (French).
Benin ODD TV, April 2022
Team of scientists from Taiwan visits Nagaon
The Sentinel, April 2022
Interview with Edmond Totin, WorldVeg Project Manager for SAFEVEG on Climate Change in Africa (French)
UN News, April 2022
Why Seedbank Aren’t Just for Doomsday
BBC Future, April 2022
The scientists helping farmers kick the chemical habit
AFP, March 2022 – Published in France24, RFI, MSN, Global Times and others
Sharing Knowledge for Self-Sufficiency – International Aid in Fruit and Vegetable Production
Taiwan Panorama, February 2022
Pressing for policies that promote “forgotten foods”
Grow Further, 9 December 2021
Cherry tomatoes
KU Research Weekly, 2 December 2021
The fight of mushrooms in farmland. Biotechnology at the service of humanity
Spark Chronicles, 29 November 2021
Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) recognizes 2021’s five ‘most influential’ seed scientists in Asia-Pacific
Seed Quest, 19 November 2021
Un plan mundial para conservar la diversidad de frutas y hortalizas
A en verde, 10 November 2021
European donor delegation discusses partnerships for greater impact delivery in Malian agriculture
ICRISAT Happenings, 15 October 2021
