AGRA

AGRA’s private sector-led Extension Approach, which involves Village-based Advisors (VBAs) using ‘Mother-Baby’ demonstrations to teach farmers how to increase maize crop productivity, has been adopted by the Kiambu County Government as a quick and cost-effective way of achieving food security. To date, more than 400 VBAs have been selected and trained by the County’s Agricultural Officers who are responsible for extension.  

Teresia Njoki, a farmer in Kiambu County who has benefited from the training, describes it as “lifesaver” that has positively changed her life. “I live here, and I have seen how VBAs have taught us. I have seen farmers put into practice what they have learnt. This encouraged me to attend the training sessions conducted by my VBA,” says Teresia. 

For Teresia, seeing is believing. “At first, I didn’t apply what I had learnt to my entire farm. On one side of the farm, I used the knowledge that I had beforehand; that is, planting five seeds in a hole and adding manure on top of them. This was the same practice that had failed me over and over again. Sometimes I thought to myself that old is gold because that is the only way I knew how to farm for all the years before the VBA training,” she says shyly. 

On the other side of the farm, she used seed of the new early-maturing variety, and planted only 2 seeds in a hole, instead of five, as advised by her VBA. “Wow! I was surprised to see the difference. The difference was like day and night. Not only were the maize cobs from my usual practice, small and dejected but there were fewer cobs per plant. This can’t be compared with the large, generous, bountiful, and healthy maize cobs I got by applying the training I got from my VBA,” said Teresia while visibly grateful. 

“Before my VBA came, there were no big harvests. We used to harvest tiny quantities such that the children could not eat to their fill. However, we now see the bigger harvests and the children are content. Also, we can sell the excess and do other things with the money,” adds Teresia.

Teresia’s fondest dream is for her children to access good education and to ‘be somebody in life,’ she shyly says. She is now independent and not living at the mercy of neighbors whenever she needs food. She feels that she can also help others, buy telling them her story, of how agriculture is transforming her life. 

Teresia’s story has been the story of more than 20,000 farmers in Kiambu County. Her story is one of belief that agriculture can be a successful venture. These farmers are hard-working people who are determined to embrace change and make it work in agriculture. And now they are visibly rewriting the history of their County. These are the farmers of Kiambu County in Kenya who have adopted the technology promoted by County Extension Officers working hand-in-hand with their Village-based Advisors.

IKINU, Kenya — While the climate crisis is a major contributor to food insecurity in Africa, a lack of information on good agricultural practices takes a fair share of the blame. Unreliable and sometimes nonexistent agricultural extension services have led to poor agricultural practices, which can lead in turn to low yields for smallholder farmers in many parts of Africa.

“I do not know who the extension officer is, yet I am the area representative. If I do not know the extension officer, how will the farmer know him?”— Stanley Kiarie, Kiambu County assembly member

In Kenya, for instance, the agricultural extension service — which used to be offered by the government for free — has broken down in recent years. Private sector alternatives are sometimes too expensive for smallholder farmers who have learned to farm without any professional help.

Stanley Kiarie, an elected member of the local Kiambu County assembly, decried the absence of extension services in his county.

“In the ward that I represent, Ikinu, for instance, I do not know who the extension officer is, yet I am the area representative. If I do not know the extension officer, how will the farmer know him?” Kiarie asked.

He added that in addition to having very few extension officers, the budgetary allocation to agriculture is inadequate to procure quality extension services for farmers in the county.

With the devolution of agriculture functions to the counties, however, extension services might slowly be making a comeback in Kenya.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has partnered with the Kiambu County government in Kenya’s central region to deploy agricultural extension services through a new “village-based adviser” — or VBA — model. Sometimes referred to as farmer-to-farmer extension, the model uses approaches that involve farmers themselves as agricultural advisers working with public, private, or NGO extension organizations.

Hannah Njoki, a farmer from Ikinu, used to harvest two bags of maize from her small plot, which measures 20 meters by 20 meters. That was before the advent of AGRA’s extension services initiative. She was among the first few farmers who were trained by a team from AGRA and the Kiambu County government. She then took to teaching her neighbors what she learned. This led to an improved yield on her farm, and she was able to help her neighbors improve yields on their farms.

“I now harvest five bags of maize from this same portion of land. I also use this same farm as a demonstration farm when other farmers come to learn,” she said.

AGRA’s mantra is that agricultural technologies and practices can only have a positive effect if they are communicated and implemented by farmers. The NGO estimates a ratio of 1 extension officer for every 5,000 farmers in most of its target countries. Its aim is to improve the ratio to 1 extension officer for every 500 farmers.

The VBA model, it said, has already reached this target in Kiambu County.

In addition to offering a grant and technical advice on the VBA model, AGRA partnered with seed and fertilizer companies in Kiambu County. Agnes Kalibata, president of AGRA, said that the transformation is evident on the farms.

“With very good extension services, which they have not been getting, and very good seeds and fertilizers, which they are getting from the companies that work here already, we are able to get this type of yield. So, the idea is to support the extension system,” she said.

Kiambu County’s governor, James Nyoro, is cognizant of the problem. He said he hopes that the extension services will improve livelihoods and food security in his county.

“Access to quality seeds and extension services has been a problem in the county, and we are working towards enhancing extension so that our farmers will be shown how to, say, plant maize, space it, and what to do when they have an invasion of fall armyworm,” he said.

In nearly two years since the initiative started in Kiambu County, 115 VBAs have been trained, and they have gone on to train 16,000 farmers. According to AGRA, informal surveys indicate that more than 10,000 farmers have increased their maize crop productivity by up to 100% since the extension services were introduced.

AGRA has implemented the program in a few other counties in Kenya and other countries in Africa. It hopes to improve food security through an increase in the number of VBAs.

Originally published on Devex

Gone should be the days when Malawi would only heavily depend on tobacco and tea as major cash crops and top forex earners.

The painful fact is that things have changed and the sooner farmers accept this reality, the better.

Slowly but surely, farmers in the country are understanding that there is gold in groundnuts, to the extent that some are producing the crop in large quantities for commercial purposes amid challenges in accessing capital.

Sensing the opportunity, some farmers in Salima District in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalonga would not afford to be left behind as they embrace the changes on the marketing.

In 2017, Chilimika Cooperative was formed bringing together groundnuts producers.

The group projects a bumper yield this season, according to Chilimika Cooperative Chairperson, Manase Chijaro.

Manase says the group has managed to grow on 8.2 hectares of CG 11 groundnuts and expecting to harvest 2,000 kilogrammes.

“This is the first time we are planting CG 11 seed, all along we have been planting CG 7 seed. We were told on the good farming practices to enable us have a good harvest. We have managed to plant the seeds on 8.2 hectares and we expect to make a reasonably 2000 kilograms,” Manase says.

Apart from making the cool cash from proceeds of the sells, Chijero also says the crop is essential in nutrition value.

Chijero said Chilimika Cooperative comprised 60 members but due to other pressing factors only 11 members stepped up the efforts to grow groundnuts.

The Alliance for Green Revolution on Africa (Agra) under the project Drought Tolerant Maize and Rosette Resistant Groundnut Varieties is advocating production of the crop.

Mwatitha Bayinati, a beneficiary of the programme says the initiative is ideal.

“Together with my family, which has been instrumental helping with the fields, we are planning to increase capacity,” she says.

Bayinati, however, says the corporative is facing numerous challenges including limited access to stable markets.

Agricultural Extension Development Coordinator for Chinguluwe EPA, Alice Kafunda, says selling collectively will improve farmers’ earnings.

“The farmers are on contract where they are growing CG 11 groundnuts seed and they are selling on collective marketing which the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development also encourage,” Kafunda says.

Meanwhile, Global Seed Company is prepared to purchase the groundnuts from the group this season.

According to Global Seed Company, Sells and Marketing Officer, Grey Chibwe, measures have been put in place to ensure that everyone benefit from the deal.

Under Agra’s drought tolerant maize and rosette resistant groundnut varieties, Global Seed Company received $221,000.

“As the company, we are prepared to purchase the groundnuts from the farmers at a good price without any conflicts because we already signed a contract,” Chibwe says.

Agra Country Director, Sofie Chitedze, says she is impressed with what farmers are doing to address food shortages and improve their economy status.

She says “the fields look impressive and that shows that this year’s harvests will be good.”

Through Agriculture Commercialisation initiative, the government is targeting smallholder farmers, encouraging them to work in groups to be competitive and have strong bargaining power on the market.

Testimonies of some rice farmers in the Northern Region indicates that there has been a tremendous increase in local rice production.

Since 2018, Mr Joseph Ton-Kurubil, a rice farmer at Botanga in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, increased his rice field from two to four acres and his yields also increased from about 15 bags (100kg) per acre to 50 bags (100kg) per acre.

He has attributed the situation to adoption of best agronomic practices such as planting and harvesting on time including; use of certified improved rice seeds, and fertilizer to ensure production of quality rice.

Mr Ton-Kurubil is not the only farmer recording success in rice production in the area as a host of other rice farmers in the area and also attested to the fact that they doubled their rice fields while yields have also more than tripled leading to increased incomes.

This formed part of testimonies of farmers at Botanga, and Nasia when a delegation comprising officials from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the German Government visited their rice fields to assess their operations.

The delegation also visited a local parboil rice processing centre in Tamale and AVNASH Rice Mills at Nyankpala to assess their off-taking operations on the rice produced by the farmers. 

The farmers benefited from the Public Private Partnership for Competitive and Inclusive Rice Value Chain in Ghana project being implemented by AGRA with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Special Initiative “One World-No Hunger” to increase rice productivity for smallholder farmers in the country.

The project, which began in 2018, seeks to deploy both short term and medium-long term solutions to enable the government achieve its sub-sector goal of becoming self-sufficient in rice production and improve livelihoods of 128,763 farmers by 2020.

It also seeks to strengthen and expand access to output markets and increase capacity of smallholder farm households and agricultural systems to better prepare for and adapt to shocks and stress.

As the project begun to record some successes, the beneficiary farmers also identified some challenges, key among them as limited access to combined harvesters to harvest on time and no formal standardised measuring system pegged at a price for purchasing rice from the fields.

Mr Ton-Kuburil appealed for a formal aggregator and a standardised measurement scale peg for price for which rice should be sold to aggregators to avoid the situation, where some aggregators continued to cheat farmers by loading in large sacks for low prices.

Mr Bashiru Musah Dokurugu, Associate Program Officer at AGRA, said Ghana Rice was of high quality and urged the citizens to consume it for improved nutrition and quality health.

Mr Roland Addo, a Representative of the Directorate of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, advised the farmers to take advantage of the government’s subsidised scheme to acquire equipment such as combined harvesters to harvest their rice on time and at reduced cost.

In South Sudan, sorghum is king of crops. Its flour is used to make kisra, a flat bread that is the most important meal for many communities. The flour is also used to make asseeda—a popular South Sudanese porridge.

Sorghum can be grown in a wide range of soils in the country and is resistant and tolerant to salinity and poor soils.

But, coming closely behind sorghum in status is maize—a crop that has gained more prominence with the growth in urbanisation.

Maize is used to prepare dura, which is a mix of cooked maize and millet and can be eaten with various traditional vegetables.

As more Kenyans and Ugandans open businesses in the country, ugali a popular maize meal in Kenya, has become an equally important meal in many homes in South Sudan. It is eaten with roast meat, fish, chicken or vegetables.

For years, farmers in South Sudan have grown low-yielding non-hybrid maize varieties whose seeds are either distributed for free by humanitarian organisations or imported from neighbouring countries, sometimes without testing their adaptability to local conditions.

This is about to change with the release of four new hybrid varieties, which were developed by Luka Atwok Opio, a South Sudanese scientist.

Since 2017, Mr Opio has been working on identifying, selecting and carrying out trials of maize hybrid varieties to come up with the most suitable ones for different agro-ecological zones in the country. He received financial support of $500,000 from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) and the Netherlands.

Agra is a non-governmental organisation collaborating with African governments to achieve a green revolution in the continent through different programmes among them improving seed systems by training local breeders and supporting countries to develop seeds locally.

A civil war that has lasted since 2013 has seen South Sudan remain food deficit. By January, the World Food Programme reported that over 7.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance.

Mr Opio worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to identify the country’s first hybrid maize varieties.

“We conducted trials in different areas including Yei Research Station, Palotaka Basic Seed Centre, Rajaf, Maridi, Lobone and Torit between 2017 and 2019, with a focus on high yield and tolerant maize varieties,” he said.

Higher yields

The sites were chosen based on their climatic conditions to produce higher yields. They later narrowed to four varieties with an average yield of between 3.96 tonnes to 4.8 tonnes per hectare, which is much higher compared with the best local non-hybrid cultivar that yields just one tonne per hectare.

The released hybrid varieties—PALOTAKA-2H, PALOTAKA-3H, NAMA-18H and PIITA-6H—are expected to improve yields and food security.

“With maize hybrids, farmers have the opportunity to double their yields per unit acreage and increase their incomes,” said Maurice Mogga of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in South Sudan.

For Mr Opio, who grew up in Pajok village in the Northern Equitoria State, where his parents were small-holder farmers growing maize, sorghum, seseme (simsim), and ground nuts among other indigenous crops, these varieties are a dream come true.

He imagined a time when he would help his family—and by extension the country—improve food productivity.

From Pajok, Mr Opio joined Comboni Secondary School in Juba, where he learnt that there were scientific ways of improving crop productivity, such as using improved seeds, use of good agronomic practices and even use of fertilizers.

“I always thought about my parents back at home and imagined how happy they would be if their farm productivity was to be doubled,” said the scientist.

This was his motivation as he joined the University of Juba to study agricultural sciences, before going to Makerere University for a masters degree in plant breeding. Today, he is pursuing his PhD at the University of Ghana in Accra.

“The selection and trials of these hybrid varieties is one of the biggest achievements in my life,” he told The EastAfrican

“I am sure that farmers will be overjoyed to harvest double their production or more just by planting the improved hybrid varieties.”

Civil turmoil

However, conducting the trials was not an easy task for the scientist. After independence in 2011, the country plunged into civil turmoil after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup.

This led to displacements, consigning development to the periphery.

“We have some of the poorest roads on the continent and were it not for heavy vehicles that came as part of support for this project, we would not have achieved anything,” said Mr Opio.

But he believes that with peace and stability, construction of road infrastructure is something the government can and should do with time.

Now that the varieties have been released, the next step is to identify suitable cultivars—which are plants selected for their desirable characteristics.

“After this, foundation seeds for the four hybrid varieties will be distributed to seed companies for multiplication. Thereafter, farmers will be able to access the certified seeds in the next one or two seasons,” he said.

Foundation seeds are pure seed stocks grown by or under the supervision of a public agency for use in the production of registered and certified seed.

“We continue to urge the government to consider investing at least 10 per cent of the gross domestic product in agriculture,” he told The EastAfrican.

“We can’t always depend on donors to fund our research. We also need cold rooms where we can store germplasm, and we need local financing to support further research activities to enable our country to catch up with the rest of the world.”

“We’ve just released four varieties with our target being high yield. In the near future, we need improved lines for drought-tolerant maize, disease -resistant varieties, and the same for other crops,” said the scientist.

The new varieties have been well received by seed companies, with Oryem Cosmas P’Lonam, the chief executive of Magwi Seed Company (Masco), which produces seeds for farmers in Magwi County of the Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan, saying, “This is something we’ve really been waiting for.”

Masco has been producing seeds whose parent materials are imported from Uganda. “Locally bred seeds are always the best because during the breeding process, trials are usually done locally to identify exact agro-ecological zones that suit them,” said Mr P’Lonam.

“We are happy that the government has released the hybrid varieties,” said Peter Waks from Kamuli Village, Lobone Payam (Administrative division) of Torit State.

“We look forward to planting them perhaps during the next planting season,” said the farmer who had taken refuge in Uganda following civil war, but has returned to continue with his farming activities.

The original version of this article was published by The EastAfrican weekly newspaper

Question N°1 : Que signifie pour vous la femme dans l’agriculture ?

Réponse :

La femme joue un rôle important dans l’agriculture parce que elle se retrouve dans chacun des magnons de la chaine de développement de l’agriculture.

Nous nous sommes impliquées dans le magnon  spécifique de la diffusion des nouvelles technologies agricoles précisément les semences de qualité OPV et Hybride de : Mais, sorgho, mil, arachide et niébé sans oublier les semences maraichères. Nous avons notre réseau de producteurs qualifies de semences et un réseau de distributeurs niveau village.  La Production, la vente et l’utilisation  de semence procurent des revenus ainsi que la sécurité alimentaire des ménages.  Pour augmenter le taux d’utilisation des semences nous conditionnons nos semences dans des petits sachets de 500g, 1 kg, 5kg, 10kg, 20kg, 40 kg pour qu’elles soient à la portée de toutes les bourses et nous installons des parcelles de démonstrations et organisons des journées portes ouvertes des nouvelles variétés puis que on a habitude de dire que le paysan croit à ce qu’il voit au lieu à ce qu’il entend.

Question N°2 : Qu’est-ce qui vous motive dans ce travail ?

Réponse : La sécurité alimentaire et l’esprit d’entreprenariat.

Depuis presque 15 ans  je fais ce travail à mon côté ma fille et mon époux agronome qui m’encourage beaucoup et ma fille a appris et continue d’apprendre à mon cote nommée comme Directrice Adjointe de Faso Kaba cette responsabilité lui procure le courage de s’impliquer davantage  j’ai confiance  qu’elle peut assurer la RELEVE qu’Allah lui accorde longue vie, bonne santé, la persévérance et surtout beaucoup de courage. Depuis que j’ai commencé cette activité ma famille est épanouie, on mange bien la sécurité alimentaire est assurée nous avons moins de soucis financiers, on a gagné la confiance de nos partenaires comme les banques locales, Institutions Internationales de développement de l’Agriculture de mon pays Mali de la sous régions.  Nous profitons pour remercier toutes les équipes de AGRA, SG2000  nos deux bailleurs de notre Société a son début difficile sans la recherche Nationale et ses partenaires CGIAR surtout les producteurs productrices et agro dealers enfin toute personne de loin ou de près implique dans l’agriculture.

Je suis devenu une référence par AGRA et ses partenaires, les organisations des femmes et des jeunes entrepreneurs, les projets etc. qui veulent avoir de la bonne semence ou les intrants de qualité, des conseils et encouragement à s’installer dans un magnon de la chaine.

En plus, l’activité nous a permis d’être indépendantes financièrement, de créer des emplois pour au moins 50 personnes par an dont 20 permanents et 50% femmes.  Nous sommes fières de participer à la réduction  du chômage des jeunes et des femmes et la paix dans. En plus de l’augmentation de la productivité,  la sécurité alimentaire réduction de la malnutrition des hommes et des animaux parce que nous nous focalisons sur les variétés des semences de double usage et haut rendement riche en vitamines.

C’est une fierté d’être sélectionnée par AGRA et ses partenaires parmi 646 candidatures pour le Prix Africain Alimentaire 2017 puisque ce Prix est donne à des personnes et Organismes qui se sont faits démarquées par leur façon de faire dans leur domaine d’activité.

Question N°3 : Quel espoir avez-vous pour la suite de ces activités?

Réponse : J’espère que beaucoup de paysans et de paysannes vont comprendre l’importance et l’utilité  des intrants de qualité dans l’atteinte de la sécurité alimentaire à cause de leur productivité. Ainsi la production et la vente de semence vont se poursuivre pour que le maximum de paysans puisse produire suffisamment pour le marché et la consommation familiale.

Question N°1 : Quels messages avez-vous pour les autres femmes ?

Réponse :

Je demande aux autres femmes urbaines et  rurales de s’impliquer d’avantages dans les activités agricoles surtout la diffusion et utilisations des nouvelles technologies les résultats de la recherche accompagner des conseils de bonne pratique techniques. Cela pourra leur permettre d’avoir plus d’autonomie financière et d’être encore plus utile pour leur famille et pour la communauté afin pour le pays.

Weyzero Weletebrehan Berhe is a 53-year-old farmer living in the northern Ethiopian Tigray Region. She lives in a small rural area called Lesaleso. The northern part of Ethiopia gets minimal rainfall and since virtually all theagricultural practices are dependent on rain, it is difficult to make a living as a farmer. After her husband died suddenly, Welete-Berehan was faced with the responsibility of raising four daughters alone while taking over the farming operation that is the main source of income and food.

Ethiopian Tigray Region. She lives in a small rural area called Lesaleso. The northern part of Ethiopia gets minimal rainfall and since virtually all the agricultural practices are dependent on rain, it is difficult to make a livingas a farmer. After her husband died suddenly, Welete-Berehan was faced with the responsibility of raising four daughters alone while taking over the farming operation that is the main source of income and food.

She owns a 0.5-hectare farm where she mainly cultivates teff, wheat and chickpea. Losing her husband, raising the girls, household chores, and labor-intensive farm work were overwhelming challenging at first. 

“I was very frustrated with all the responsibilities that came down on me and it was difficult to be a widow in a patriarchal community like ours’ she said.

Since she wasn’t able to work on the farm and raise her children at the same time, she started renting out her farmland to get half of the produce from her land in return. The crop that she received from that arrangement was barely enough for her own family consumption, so she was forced to sell “Tella” (a local beer).

She says with the development of the agriculture extension system, their strong educational and technical support and with investment of the money she saved from her business over the years, she started hiring workers for her farm, instead of renting it for a half share. She registered as a designated TAP (Technology Adoption Plot) farmer under IMPACT project.

She also has a radio set that she plays for her customers while they are drinking the beer she sells, and she listens to the radio along with them.

“I have learned the value of information through the years. I was blinded because I believed that I couldn’t be a farmer because I thought I knew nothing about it, and I couldn’t learn farming because I am a woman. The improved farming practices I heard on the radio showed me better ways of managing my farm and increasing my income”.

When project staff arrived at her house for a visit, she was talking to one of her workers about the safe application of chemical pesticides. She was advising him about protecting his face and mouth from contact with the chemical and to wear different clothing during chemical application — all information she used she heard on the radio. This radio show was one of the initiatives funded under AGRA’s three pillars—policy, systems and partnerships, within the 11-country Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Growth in Africa strategy.

“Being a mother of 4 daughters and being a woman myself, I learned from the radio programs broadcast on Demtsi Weyane Radio a day before, that extra caution should be taken when applying chemicals.”

Welete-Berehan said that she hopes to continue to learn new and better ways to farm, from the radio programs. Increased production on her small farm will give her family a better future.

Fátima Bolacha is a 53 years old widow who had to take care of four children. Today she is a well-established business woman based in Ribáuè district, where she runs her small milling company. She is operating formally since 2011 and currently employs 5 full-time workers, with additional seasonal workers hired during the commercialization period.

As a challenge, she had to overcome the local taboos related to the women’s role in society in order to get established and move ahead. The milling activity started in a small building made from local materials and a grain mill she purchased. In the beginning she was just processing other people’s maize in a small scale on a demand basis.

From the beginning, she had been running the business in a disorganized manner, without strict control of the working expenses (direct and indirect business costs), no record keeping of the daily and monthly sales and purchases, no adequate resources management plan, etc.), it was kind of a “business based in luck”. Nevertheless, she was able to grow and received support from a couple of projects.

To purchase maize during the harvest and marketing period, she used to hire a considerable number of seasonal workers, which she paid salaries and food and accommodation subsidies.

The Otumiha project is working with her since the end of 2017 and the project technician has been assisting her in business organization, setting up a consistent management and accounting system, and linking to a network of VBAs and other SMEs from different districts. She also benefited from training on better management skills (costs calculations, organizational management and governance).

In order to get additional support to the management of the company, Fátima is supported by her daughter (presently doing her under-graduate studies) who also was trained by Otumiha.

As a result of applying the knowledge acquired through training, the business is well organized and with adequate book-keeping, which made her eligible to get a loan from developing bank GAPI in December 2018 amounting to 1,000,000 MZN (about 16,130 USD). With this she bought 5 tons truck, additional equipment to improve the quality of her product, repair the premix machine used to fortify the flour, as well as expanded the working capital.

For the first time in history, farmers in South Sudan will now be able to grow four different hybrid maize varieties customized for their country’s environs, a move that experts believe will double or even triple the yield of the crop on their farms from the current 1.5 metric tons per hectare.

South Sudan’s farmers have for a long time depended on seeds from neighboring countries, either multiplied by a few existing seed companies in the country or distributed by humanitarian agencies. The productivity of these seeds was low as they were not adapted to local conditions.

Luka Atwok Opio, a senior maize breeder at the South Sudanese Ministry of Agriculture who bred the new varieties said that this is a milestone for a country that has for ages depended on low yielding Open Polinated Seed Varieties (OPV).

“The foundation seeds for the four new varieties will now be distributed to seed companies for seed multiplication enabling farmers to access certified seeds in the next season or two seasons,” said Opio.

According to the South Sudan Country Manager for AGRA, Justin Miteng, the release of these hybrid varieties is timely because the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has been sufficiently developed to monitor quality and ensure their purity. ‘In addition, through AGRA support, a system of extension through Village based Advisors (VBAs) and a network of agro-dealers have been established to ensure these varieties reach the farmer,’ said Miteng .

Generally, hybrid seeds are bred by crossing pollen from say, one maize variety with a different one. The main target is to take advantage of positive traits found in both parents such as drought tolerance, high yield, early maturing, and sometimes people consider the taste and color.

The new hybrids have been developed through the work of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) – with the support of various partners, notably the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands to South Sudan –  aimed at building functional seed systems in Africa. Support in this project covered the testing of the hybrids, production of early generation seed and linkages with the seed companies.  Luka Opio’s training at both Msc and PhD levels was also supported by AGRA.

Considering that such seed development programs take time to yield results – sometimes up to 10 years based on AGRA experience in working in 18 countries in Africa, this is a blockbuster moment for South Sudan’s agriculture.

“Building a functional seed system takes time and much longer in a country like South Sudan that has been through conflicts. This a great day for us and especially for the smallholder farmers in South Sudan” said Dr. Jane Ininda, a breeding expert from AGRA.

Released alongside the new hybrid maize varieties were three new common bean varieties, bred by Susan Tokwiny, also supported through the AGRA capacity building program to study plant breeding at Makerere University in Uganda. The bean varieties are resistant to diseases, have a short cooking time, and hence saves women labor; and have a good taste. 

The release of these 7 new plant varieties brings to 37 the number of varieties released and listed in the plant variety catalogue in South Sudan. AGRA is proud to have supported the development of 32 of these varieties.

To enhance food productivity in Africa, AGRA has trained 700 agricultural specialists at Masters and PhD levels. Beyond this, AGRA has supported the development of 15 private seed companies that now produce over 2,000MT of seed annually that is now being used by over 200,000 smallholder farmers, doubling their yield.

“The Food and Agricultural organization (FAO) of the UN(FAO) in South Sudan procures over 8000MT per year, most of which are imported. From now on, FAO is committed to purchase at least 25 percent of all their seed needs from national seed companies,”  said Meshack Malo, FAO South Sudan.