IN order to receive development assistance, Tanzania has to give Western agribusiness full freedom and give enclosed protection for patented seeds. Eighty per cent of the seeds are being shared and sold in an informal system between neighbours, friends and family.
Under the new law, Tanzanian farmers risk a prison sentence of at least 12 years or a fine of over €205,300, or both, if they sell seeds that are not certified.
Tanzania applied the legislation concerning intellectual property rights on seeds as a condition for receiving development assistance through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NAFSN).
The NAFSN was launched in 2012 by the G8 with the goal to help 50 million people out of poverty and hunger in the ten African partner countries through a public-private partnership. The initiative receives the support of the EU, the US, the UK, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested US$8.4 million in an initial five-year investment in the first Early Generation (Foundation) Seed Production Entity in sub-Saharan Africa. Known as QualiBasic Seed, the entity established by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) will be based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Low access and use of poor quality foundation seed by companies result in low crop yields and crop failure affecting sustainable food production and costing the continent a valuable development opportunity.
QualiBasic Seed will address the acute technical, infrastructural and financial challenges seed companies face in the maintenance, multiplication and timely supply of quality foundation seed by supplying high quality foundation seed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the continent, overall improving farm productivity.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation acknowledge the huge donor investments in global public crop improvement programmes for the benefit of African farmers.
The breeding programmes have released high yielding and very adaptable crop varieties, for example, maize hybrids that offer high productivity opportunities. However, the benefits of these products are yet to be realised by smallholder farmers due to delayed seed production in some cases and low quality seed in others.
QualiBasic will be set up as a centralised production system that AATF will establish and nurture into a professional fully-fledged, independent and sustainable private sector-driven business within five years.
Its operations will start with foundation seed for maize in East and Southern Africa. At full functionality, it will serve other cereals and legumes across SSA.
QualiBasic will help smallholder farmers, especially women, realise the full genetic gains of climate resilient crop varieties developed through public research and development.
Three foundation seed production hubs with seed processing and storage facilities will be established in Kenya, Zambia and South Africa by the second and third year of operations to timely meet demand for products and avoid lengthy delays in seed movements.
Similar models to QualiBasic have been successful in the United States of America and India.
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