The Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has called for government’s support for the informal seed system in the country.

According to the NGO, such support will help develop the informal seed system and eliminate challenges posed by the formal seed system including difficulty in accessibility and cost.

The informal seed system, also referred to as a local seed system, is based on farmer-saved seed. These systems are dominated by farmer-saved seed where farmers themselves produce, disseminate, and access seed directly from their own harvest that otherwise would be sold as grain.

The Executive Director of CIKOD, Mr Bernard Guri, made the call while speaking in a radio discussion on a sister station.

“Rather than having our farmers battle with challenges of accessibility and cost, we are advocating for massive government support to improve the local seed system.

“The local seed system apart from being less expensive and easily accessible, its control will also be in the hands of local farmers and not the breeders as it is in the case of the formal seed system.”
Mr. Bernard Guri, Executive Director.

Mr Guri explained that the support should include the training of scientists to support the community seed system in a participatory manner to improve it, thereby giving ownership rights to the local farmers.

“Scientist can particularly look at how they could best help local farmers to select the best seed at the end of the farming season.

“Unlike the formal seed, the local seed does not need to go through any cumbersome processes of certification but then the quality is still high.”
Mr. Bernard Guri, Executive Director.

He further pointed out that the formal seed passed through re-engineering of plant genes including the injection of a terminator gene which according to him made it not suitable for replanting the following season. This, he said, was an infringement on farmers seed rights and should not be promoted over the local seed which maintained its original genes and could be replanted severally without losing its original yield.

Commenting on the Plant Variety Protection Bill, Mr Guri noted that the Bill itself was not about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) but it gave the breeders the opportunity to source genetic material which was not exclusive of GMOs. For this reason, he said, CIKOD together with other Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) was advocating for the government not to assent to the Bill currently before him, adding that assenting to the Bill would mean accepting GMOs.

Further justifying why the government should not assent to the Bill, Mr Daniel Banuoku, the Deputy Executive Director of CIKOD mentioned that one objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity says that communities must have access and benefit-sharing rights to a genetic material that was being used by industry or even private sector.

However, he noted that such an objective on the Convention on Biological Diversity was missing in the Plant Breeders Bill, pointing out again that breeders were not even allowed to disclose the original source of the seed.

“We are demanding that breeders should be compelled to disclose the original source of a seed when they are coming to register and also when they make a profit, they should share with the community they got the original seed from.”
Mr Daniel Banuoku, Deputy Executive Director

Mr Banuoku added that strengthening the local seed system would also lead to employment creation for farmers whilst also reducing the national expenditure on seed importation. He also explained that developing the local seed system would guarantee the country’s sovereignty and control over the agricultural system which according to him was necessary for this era of COVID-19.

“In the context of climate change different varieties of seeds will enable farmers to take advantage of seed diversity to adjust to climate change.”
Mr Daniel Banuoku, Deputy Executive Director