Introduction
The green revolution of the late 1960s to 70s created a great need for seed of improved High
Yielding Varieties (HYV) to be delivered to farmers for increased productivity. This need served
as fuel for accelerated development of seed programmes in developing countries. A cursory look at
the achievements of this era of rapid expansion in seed activities reveals that most of the seed
programs were not sustainable and in fact failed to meet the need of resource poor farmers, who
supply the bulk of the staple food of developing countries. Also the policies pursued by the most
of the governments ignored the informal seed sector, which incidentally provides for 80 - 90 percent
of the seed and planting materials needs of the farmers.
In view of this situation, and in keeping with FAO's mandate and leading role in the
implementation of both "The World Food Summit Plan Of Action" and "The Global Plan Of Action for
the Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture", the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources (AGPS) has focused its activities in the area
of Sustainable Seed Production and Seed Security (SSPSS). The new trust of the Sustainable Seed
Production and Seed Security considers the need for an informed bottom-top approach to seed policy
formulation and the need to create an enabling environment as well as necessary instrument for a
sustainable seed program that will meet the need of farmers at all times - normal and abnormal. For
this reason, the SSPSS covers four areas related to the:
- Establishment of Seed Policy/ Programme related networks/fora;
- Improvement of seed production systems including modern technologies and traditional skills,
well adapted to both the formal and informal seed sectors including on-farm seed production and use;
- Elaboration and development of quality control and certification regulatory mechanisms in line
with the international standards, aimed at facilitating and enhancing national and international
trade of seed and planting material;
- Establishment of Seed Security Consultative Groups to co-ordinate seed security activities
aimed at the mitigation of loss, and restoration of local crop diversity, and rehabilitation of
seed and planting material production and supply after interruption caused by natural or man made
disasters, and thus contribute to food security in calamity prone areas.
In line with FAO Medium Term Policy (MTP), AGPS collaborates with, and seek to form strategic
alliance with several technical/funding agencies and organisations among, which are International
Seed Trade Association /International Association of Plant Breeders
(FIS/ASSINSEL), International Seed testing
association (ISTA), Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
seed scheme, International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties
(UPOV), the Sub-Saharan Africa Seed Initiative
(SASSI) group of International Bank for Rural development (IBRD), Deutsche Gesellschaft fur
Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), and International
Funds for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
in Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and Pacific Seed Association
(APSA) in Asia and Pacific Region; International
Centre Agricultural Research for Dry and Arid region
(ICARDA) in Near East and North Africa
Region; and American Seed Trade Association
(ASTA), Federación Latinoamericana de
Asociaciones de Semilleristas (FELAS) in Latin America and the Caribbean Region.
Establishment of Seed Policy/Programme related networks/fora
Within the strategic framework of the FAO's medium-term plan, the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources
Service continues to provide vital technical guidance to member countries through the strengthening
and improvement of policies and programmes for sustainable production and supply of improved seed
and planting materials in member countries. In order to help these countries to build up viable
seed supply systems, a total of four Technical Regional Seed Policy and Programmes Meetings have
been conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Pacific, Near East and North Africa and Latin
America and the Caribbean respectively. These regional meetings on seed policies and programmes
revealed issues that undermine the effectiveness and sustainability of seed programmes in
developing countries.
Therefore, in order to effectively design and execute programmes to solve these
problems, the delegates of member countries, who attended these meetings unanimously decided to
form two regional Seed Networks namely - African Seed Network
(ASN) for Sub-Saharan Africa and Seed Network for
Asia and the Pacific (SNAP); and two
consultative fora named Consultative Forum on Seed for the Near East and
North Africa (CFS-NENA) and the Seed
Consultative Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean
(SCF-LAC). All these entities will be
supported by Scientific and Technical Working Groups (STWG), which will find solutions to the
issues identified as mitigating the proper development of seed production and distribution, hence
limiting the access of resource-poor farmers to seed, suited to their needs.
In view of FAO's comparative advantage in seed policy formulation, capacity to garner support of
its members countries and donors, and its role in serving as a public forum for the dissemination
of technical information, it was decided by the member countries' delegate at these different fora
that the these initiatives should be placed under the aegis of the FAO. The last of the regional
technical seed meeting will be conducted for the East European Countries and Countries In
Transition early in the year 2001.
The on-going dialogues among all stakeholders in the seed sector will lead to the development of a
Global Strategy for Seed Security (GSSS), which is vital for a successful implementation of Activity
Area # 3 of the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture and the World Food Summit Plan of Action for World Food Security.
The purpose of the Global Expert consultation is to define a global strategy on seed production and
supply, including a global mechanism of seed security for food security.
