The Malawi National Tree Seed Centre (MNTSC) is mandated to distribute tree seed inside and outside the country. The Centre has seed sources both in natural woodlands and plantations and has well qualified staff who are able to cope with the challenges of rising seed demand in the country. Due to public awareness on the effects of deforestation, more and more people are embarking on tree planting these days to reduce the problem. In the late seventies and eighties, there was high seed demand for exotic species like Eucalyptus but now this has shifted. People are now interested in growing indigenous and agroforestry species since the former had proved to have more side effects to the environment such as high soil moisture consumption which led to drying of water sources and also their high susceptibility to disease and pest attacks. The current annual seed demand is estimated at 8 metric tons (Gowela and Gondwe, 1999) and about 80 percent of this, is demand for indigenous and agroforestry species. The centre is able to meet about 90 percent of this demand from its collections. The other 10 percent is met from seed purchase from individuals who have been trained on how to collect and process seed. The centre is also operating as a semi-autonomous organization that is self-supporting through a revolving fund that was initiated in 1997. Since its inception, this system has proved to be the best method of sustaining a seed centre as compared to the old system where the centre depended on government allocations that were at times very erratic. These erratic allocations were hampering progress of the seed centre, as some seed were ready for collection when there was no money.
