Most of the countries indicated self-sufficiency in the production, procurement and supply of seed of indigenous and exotic tree. The respective forest tree seed centres perform this role. The national tree centres were established through donor support from CIDA and DANIDA. These centres are functional in all the 11 countries covered by this report. The main function of the national seed centres is the procurement, collection, processing, storage and distribution of forest tree seed throughout the country. The seed centres are also indirectly ex situ seed gene banks for the conservation of forest genetic resources.
The National Tree Seed Programme of Tanzania harvests an annual average of 8.5 tonnes of seed from more than 130 indigenous and exotic tree species (Kindo, et al., 2002). In Zimbabwe, a total of 700 kg of bred Pinus spp. seed is collected from clonal and seedling seed orchards while a further 80 kg of bred Eucalyptus spp. seed is collected from seedling seed orchards. Seed from more than 50 indigenous tree species amounting 40 kg is also collected from identified seed stands in the wild. The demand for agroforestry tree seed in Zimbabwe was estimated to be about 2.3 tonnes. In Malawi, the annual seed demand is estimated at 8 metric tonnes (Gowela and Masamba, 2002). The seed production statistics for the other countries were not apparent from the reports.
