Dr Aristotelous, Representative of His Excellency the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Dr Papachristodoulou, Director of the Agricultural Research Institute, Dr Costas Gregoriou, distinguished guests and participants, dear colleagues and friends.
To begin with, let me welcome all of you, on behalf of the FAO, to this important technical meeting on Seed Policy and Programmes in the Near East and North Africa, and express my sincere thanks to the Government and people of Cyprus for the warm welcome they have provided.
It is indeed a privilege for me to take the floor in this important event. This meeting has a broad technical coverage and its aim is to deal in an integrated manner with numerous issues and activities related to seed production and improvement, and to stimulate reflection on the important role that this sector is playing for crop and agricultural development in the Near East and North Africa.
It was in this region of the Near East and North Africa, that the first seeds were collected, saved and sown by the first farmers. The process of harvesting and replanting selected seed led to the domestication of crops, which today feed a huge segment of the world population. Today most farmers of the world continue to save seed from their harvests for replanting in the following season. They also often look for new seeds to meet particular needs and to adapt to changing circumstances. Many modern variety improvement and breeding programmes are based on local population and genetic diversity safeguarded by the farmers of this region.
Mr. Chairman, as you know, FAO is working at the forefront in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. It is sad to acknowledge that, with barely six months to the new Millennium, many developing countries, including countries in the Near East and North Africa, are beset with acute shortage of basic food. FAO, not long ago, launched the Special Programme for Food Security with special emphasis on assisting Member Countries to harness their potential for achieving food self-sufficiency. Embedded in this effort is the strategy to use good quality seed of adapted improved and local varieties as a tool for enhancing farm productivity.
Considering that seed is fundamental to farming, we should ensure that farmers have unimpeded access to quality seed of well-adapted varieties.
The Plan of Action adopted by world leaders at the World Food Summit in Rome, in November 1996, affirmed the need for food security for all peoples. Among others, the Plan of Action called for the creation of policies and conditions that will encourage public and private investments to contribute to food security and the mobilisation of resources to increase investment in areas linked to food security.
The formal seed production sector is of very recent origin, even in the developed countries. It evolved in response to a need for increased farm productivity in situations where a diminishing part of the population had to produce much more food to feed the greater populace concentrated in the industrialised areas and swelling cities. In the Near East and North Africa, where the formal seed sector is even more recent, there is abundant evidence that more than 90% of the planting materials needed to cultivate staple food are still provided through on-farm seed production and distribution that is organised by farmers themselves - the so-called "informal seed sector".
The age-old tradition of on-farm seed saving has been responsible for the diverse plant genetic base, which forms the "building blocks" of modern high yielding varieties developed by plant breeders. It is pertinent to recognise that by keeping resource utilisation in equilibrium with the environment through a range of strategies and techniques to cope with the vagaries of an unstable agro-socio-ecological situation, farmers have been able to lay a firm foundation for their survival.
Unfortunately, this time-proven innovation of seed self-provisioning is under siege from disasters (man-made and natural) leading to seed shortages, which threaten resource-poor farmers’ ability to carry on their farming activities. Such disasters as droughts, floods, storms, civil strife and wars, have in recent years, devastated parts of the Near East and North Africa with dire consequences not only for food production but also for the safety of the region’s plant biodiversity.
These problems were recognized by Governments when they developed the Global Plan of Action for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for agriculture. This Plan, adopted by 150 countries at the Leipzig International Technical Conference in 1996, includes a priority activity on "Supporting Seed Production and Distribution". It includes quite specific recommendations for governments, and their national agricultural research systems, taking into account also the views of the private sector, farmers' organizations and their communities.
Several regional seed initiatives and crop genetic resources related networks have been established in the region during the last years, assisted and sponsored by regional and international institutions and organizations such as: ICARDA, ICRISAT, GTZ, WANA, FAO etc., to mention only a few of them. These activities and particularly the networks are playing an important role in developing the member countries seed sectors. However, based on the analysis and findings presented in the background document of this Meeting, the need is recognized for better policy coordination and harmonization, in order that all efforts made by national, regional and international stakeholders and institutions to enhance the seed industry in order to meet the farmers requirements on PGR conservation and use, and seed and planting material production. The recommendations of this Meeting should provide member countries with valuable guidance for developing a concerted strategy for seed and planting material production and distribution systems, based on a sound seed policy and feasible seed development programmes. In achieving this FAO could provide valuable guidance and technical assistance.
At this juncture, on behalf of the Director-General of FAO, I wish to thank the Government of Cyprus for hosting this meeting. My congratulations go to the National Organizing Committee for so ably making all the necessary local preparations. I also wish to commend all my colleagues from the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, particularly Dr U.G. Menini, Chief of the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service, and Dr I. Sikora, the Seed Senior Officer, whose vision and dedication to the development of the seed sector have made this meeting a reality.
Finally, I wish to thank all the resource persons, participants and guests who are here with us this week. Special thanks are also addressed to all the international organisations and to the governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as the private seed companies and associations, that have responded to FAO’s invitation to attend this Meeting.
I thank you all and wish you a pleasant stay in Cyprus and a very fruitful Meeting.
