DuPont Co.’s Pioneer unit hopes to expand its hybrid corn seed partnership with African governments and aid groups to Tanzania after setting up programmes for farmers to use its seed in Ethiopia and Zambia.
In Ethiopia, the Delaware-based company, which the biggest supplier of hybrid corn seeds in Africa, partnered with the government and the US Agency for International Development in 2013 and there are now 300,000 hectares (741,300 acres) growing corn using the seed.
In February, the programme was rolled out in Zambia and the company hopes to complete talks with Tanzania this year and launch the programme next year, Prabdeep Bajwa, the African regional business director for Pioneer, said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office.
The programme includes training and financing for farmers."We have to work very closely with governments,” he said.
DuPont, through its Pioneer and Pannar units, is trying to expand its seed business in Africa where there is about 35 million hectares of land under corn with an average yield of less than two metric tonnes per hectare, he said. That’s less than a third of the average productivity of US corn farms.
"We have had conversation in Ghana about the same deal," Bajwa said. The governments are becoming more receptive."
While genetically modified corn seed is used in South Africa it is not permitted elsewhere on the continent, boosting the potential for hybrid seed, Bajwa said.
Three-quarters of the world’s most severe droughts over the past 10 years have occurred in Africa, making farming risky for millions of smallholder farmers, most of whom are women and rely on rainfall to water their crops.
Maize is the most widely grown staple crop in Africa – more than 300 million Africans depend on it as their main food source. Maize production is severely affected by drought, which can lead to unpredictable and low yields, and at worst, complete crop failure.
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