Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

234 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

C) Establishing seed production within the Union

Seed production within the Union addresses the need to increase yields and reduce costs related to

the purchase of inputs. Seeds available for Union producers are sometimes insufficient and often

of poor quality. Union members will gain more autonomy and be able to produce better if they

develop the capacity to produce their own seeds. Members identified maize, rice, cowpea, sorghum

and soybeans as priority products for marketing, putting these at the forefront of their own seed

production. Participants also identified their own specific needs to implement this. Thus, to produce

quality seeds, the Union must equip itself with adequate production equipment (including fertilizer

and seed base), processing equipment as well as premises to stock seeds. Training in composting

would be most beneficial. Finally, important standards regarding the land are to be observed, as

it must be sufficiently far from other agricultural land by being separated by a minimum of five

contiguous hectares of land. The Union must therefore find this land before starting any activity.

Some of the resources needed to achieve such an objective may be mobilized internally. Indeed, the

Union can use part of its estate for the land and the compost pits. The Union also already has the

human capacity and knowledge required to perform the necessary reforestation. However, external

resources must be mobilized for technical support such as mentoring by the Ministry of Agriculture’s

staff (for advice, monitoring, training) or seed certification, which is done by the same Ministry. As

illustrated in the results of the stakeholder analysis, good relations with the Ministry of Agriculture

should facilitate obtaining these resources.

Once all the resources have been mobilized, Union members will need to implement activities:

firstly, the Union should identify potential seed producers within its members and provide training in

composting. Secondly, efforts should focus on which agricultural production should be chosen, that

is which products should be prioritized in terms of seeds, as well as necessary resources for each

(What soil? What inputs? Any storage premises?). Once all of this is done, it will be very important

to obtain the seed certification from the Ministry of Agriculture and finally to prepare the marketing

of these seeds, in particular by applying the Union logo that will allow seed producers to develop a

brand and stand out in the market. In most cases, these activities can be performed with the Union’s

internal resources, while external resources are within its range (training and certification).

In short, establishing seed production within the Union can be done autonomously even if it entails

some governance implications, such as the need to create a management committee for monitoring

seed production activities. It will be set up according to procedures already established by the Union

and will not only be responsible for monitoring operations but also for marketing any seed production

surplus. All the different seed crops should be represented on the management committee, with one

member responsible for each crop. The options available to achieve autonomous seed production

quality are well within the scope of the Union.

The action plan for this proposal is as follows: