The official launching of the CEMAC1 Seeds Catalogue took place on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Libreville ( Gabon ) in the presence of numerous guests including officials specialized institutes CEMAC, heads of various departments of the Gabonese Ministry of Agriculture, research institutions, the staff of the FAO Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa FAO and representatives of agricultural cooperatives and the local press.
This Catalogue is the fruit of several years of collaboration between FAO, PRASAC (Regional Centre of Applied Research for the Development Farming Systems in Central Africa), a specialized institute of CEMAC and relevant services of CEMAC member countries. This edition of the catalog covers 12 crop species of importance for food security in the CEMAC zone. Il contains a total of 211 entries on cereals (maize, millet , sorghum, rice ), legumes (groundnut and cowpea), roots and tubers (cassava , yam, sweet potato , Irish potato ), onion, and bananas (sweet and plantain). FAO was represented at the ceremony was marked by Mr. Jean Claude Nguinguiri , Acting Representative of FAO in Gabon and the CEMAC Commission by Mr. Adoum Hassan Bakhit , Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development. In their speeches, both officials stressed that access to quality seed is a prerequisite for increasing agricultural production and productivity, as well as for enhancing food security. In particular, the sharing of information on these plant genetic resources through a catalogue of this nature is needed to better exploit the potential of these resources in the sub-region. They also praised the exemplary collaboration between FAO and PRASAC in developing the seed system in the Central African sub-region.
