By Prossy Nandudu
Farmers growing and producing traditional or indigenous seed are calling for support from the government to increase production.
Although the traditional seed is produced informally by small holder farmers, these are not yet recognized by the formal seed systems, farmers argue that indigenous seed account for 30% of seed sold and planted by farmers in the country.
According to Joseph Magezi, a farmer also chairperson of the Mityana District Farmers Association, indigenous seed has better food values unlike the formal seed, which he said can be adjusted to introduce some nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, iron among others.
He gave an example of goose berries (Entuntunu) which he said have natural elements that detoxify the kidney but its seed production is limited due to lack of support from the government.
On how much seed his group can produce, Magezi said that currently he works with 35 farmer groups producing indigenous seed of which majority are youth.
“We have many farmers, the youth but we just need some small money to support these people to produce more seed because the seed being sold today is not enough for the population,” Magezi said.
Some of the seeds being produced by Magezi and other farmers include beans, bananas, coffee, jackfruit, avocado, pumpkins, all types of yams, oranges among others.
On why they cannot get funds from government programs such as the Parish Development Modal, Magezi added seed production is not considered as a venture by those giving out the money.
He made the call on Wednesday during the capacity building workshop on ”Promoting Farmer Managed Seed Systems to foster Food Sovereignty and Protection of Bio-cultural Diversity in Uganda and the EAC region” organized by SEATINI Uganda at Hilton Hotel Kampala.
His call was re -echoed by Huzaima Sekalema, the head of Agriculture Trade for Rural Transformation program at the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Uganda.
According to Sekalema, research shows that over 75% of seed used by farmers in Uganda is sourced from the formal seed systems. The other percentage is from other sources including farmer managed seed systems.
“Unfortunately, current seed policies only recognize seed from the formal sources; however, it’s time now for the government to recognize seed produced by farmers. Once it is recognized then such farmers will be supported to make the seed better for production,” explained Sekalema.
He added through their engagements with the government, seed produced by farmers is considered not developed hence cannot be certified.
He added that although there is another class of seed, called Quality Declared Seed (QDS) which is seed produced by farmers, under the supervision of seed inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture, the system is restricted on the kind of seed to produce.
“So, through this engagement with stakeholders, we want to see how best the government can work with farmers to ensure that their seed is recognized and is not wiped out of the system by the current seed system in the country,” he added.
In response, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Seed Inspection and Certification in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Teddy Mary Asio assured the meeting that the government has plans of training those producing traditional seed to the acceptable standards. She added that the training will consider the good seed production practices, and the unique attribute that such seed brings on board.
