• Home
  • Agric
  • Sci, Tech & Innovation
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Hausa Articles/News
  • More
    • Business/Banking & Finance
    • Politics/Elections
    • Entertainments & Sports
    • International
    • Investigation
    • Law & Human Rights
    • Africa
    • Research and Development
    • Corruption/Accountability
    • Hassan Gimba
    • Column
    • Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Prof. M.K. Othman
    • Defense/Security
    • Education
    • Energy/Electricity
    • Entertainment/Arts & Sports
    • Society and Lifestyle
    • Food & Agriculture
    • Health & Healthy Living
    • Technology
    • International News
    • Interviews
    • Investigation/Fact-Check
    • Judiciary/Legislature/Law & Human Rights
    • Oil & Gas/Mineral Resources
    • Media/PR/Journalism
    • Elections
    • General News
    • Presidency
    • Press Releases
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Board Of Advisory
    • Privacy Policy
    • Ethics Policy
    • Teamwork And Collaboration Policy
    • Fact-Checking Policy
    • Advertising
  • The Stories
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Tension rises between NMA, TUC over leadership at FNPHY
  • Nigeria’s perennial flood: Occurrence of preventable disasters (II), By Prof. M. K. Othman
  • PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert
  • Kwara NMA rejects new medical allowance review
  • EU, NASRDA to launch satellite agriculture project in 2026
  • AGRA, FAO launch $580,000 project to reform South Sudan’s seed sector
  • Bauchi, UNICEF roll out water safety project in rural areas
  • Cyber intrusion: PRNigeria petitions police against NIPSS officials
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
AsheNewsAsheNews
  • Home
  • Agric

    AGRA, FAO launch $580,000 project to reform South Sudan’s seed sector

    July 7, 2025

    Mushroom: Expert says farming could add 25% to Nigeria’s GDP

    July 6, 2025

    Hungry fields, empty plates: Why Nigeria must act now on food security

    July 6, 2025

    Tinubu targets global competitiveness in agric

    July 6, 2025

    Maistrade unveils major fund for farmers, students, and small businesses

    July 5, 2025
  • Sci, Tech & Innovation

    EU, NASRDA to launch satellite agriculture project in 2026

    July 7, 2025

    Data privacy breach: MultiChoice faces major sanction from NDPC

    July 7, 2025

    Bill Gates warns, “Only a few jobs will survive the AI takeover”

    July 6, 2025

    BRICS leaders push for data safeguards in face of AI boom

    July 6, 2025

    Lagos, China move to seal economic, tech pact

    July 5, 2025
  • Health

    Tension rises between NMA, TUC over leadership at FNPHY

    July 7, 2025

    PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert

    July 7, 2025

    Kwara NMA rejects new medical allowance review

    July 7, 2025

    NDDC delivers relief to flood-hit Bayelsa communities

    July 7, 2025

    Local drug firms boost access to life-saving medicines — ACPN

    July 7, 2025
  • Environment

    Bauchi, UNICEF roll out water safety project in rural areas

    July 7, 2025

    Lagos vows tougher action against flooding

    July 7, 2025

    Lagos doubles down on single-use plastics ban

    July 7, 2025

    Thunderstorms, heavy showers to hit Nigeria starting Monday – NiMet

    July 7, 2025

    Midnight flood displaces residents in Katsina’s Dankama community

    July 6, 2025
  • Hausa Articles/News

    A Saka Baki, A Sasanta Saɓani Tsakanin ‘Yanjarida Da Liman, Daga Muhammad Sajo

    May 21, 2025

    Dan majalisa ya raba kayan miliyoyi a Funtuwa da Dandume

    March 18, 2025

    [VIDIYO] Fassarar mafalki akan aikin Hajji

    January 6, 2025

    Mafarkin gaisawa da makiyi, Tare da Sheikh Aliyu Y. Sokoto

    January 5, 2025

    [RA’AYI)] Adawar Siyasa A Jihar Sokoto Da Sauran Lamurra

    September 6, 2024
  • More
    1. Business/Banking & Finance
    2. Politics/Elections
    3. Entertainments & Sports
    4. International
    5. Investigation
    6. Law & Human Rights
    7. Africa
    8. Research and Development
    9. Corruption/Accountability
    10. Hassan Gimba
    11. Column
    12. Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim
    13. Prof. M.K. Othman
    14. Defense/Security
    15. Education
    16. Energy/Electricity
    17. Entertainment/Arts & Sports
    18. Society and Lifestyle
    19. Food & Agriculture
    20. Health & Healthy Living
    21. Technology
    22. International News
    23. Interviews
    24. Investigation/Fact-Check
    25. Judiciary/Legislature/Law & Human Rights
    26. Oil & Gas/Mineral Resources
    27. Media/PR/Journalism
    28. Elections
    29. General News
    30. Presidency
    31. Press Releases
    Featured
    Recent

    Tension rises between NMA, TUC over leadership at FNPHY

    July 7, 2025

    Nigeria’s perennial flood: Occurrence of preventable disasters (II), By Prof. M. K. Othman

    July 7, 2025

    PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert

    July 7, 2025
  • About Us
    1. Contact Us
    2. Board Of Advisory
    3. Privacy Policy
    4. Ethics Policy
    5. Teamwork And Collaboration Policy
    6. Fact-Checking Policy
    7. Advertising
    Featured
    Recent

    Tension rises between NMA, TUC over leadership at FNPHY

    July 7, 2025

    Nigeria’s perennial flood: Occurrence of preventable disasters (II), By Prof. M. K. Othman

    July 7, 2025

    PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert

    July 7, 2025
  • The Stories
AsheNewsAsheNews
Home»Food & Agriculture»Seed companies can make Africa food secure
Food & Agriculture

Seed companies can make Africa food secure

Abdallah el-KurebeBy Abdallah el-KurebeApril 24, 2018No Comments4 Mins Read
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

By Aghan Daniel

The rainy season is already here with us and most farmers have begun to plant various seeds nearly across Africa.

As the farmers descend upon their farms, one big issue that lingers among researchers is the inability of these farmers to access certified seed that can serve their immediate needs.

At the end of the planting season less than 20 per cent of all farmers would have planted
certified and clean seeds. The oft-told story of the seed sector in Africa is that it has always been grappling with a lot of challenges such as farmer apathy to adopting new and better varieties.

Given, it is incumbent upon the sector to engage more visibly among themselves than they have ever done before even as they target governments to keep their promises.
Such engagements must ensure that the seed companies, who are major tax payers in many countries, hold political and business leaders to account measuring their actions against their promises.

Bottlenecks that bedevil the sector, could, for example, be slayed if political leaders kept their word sprouting from their meeting in June last year where there was renewed commitment to allocate at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture. Whenever agriculture is neglected, there is always the risk of malnutrition, which, in the words of Kofi Annan, Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, represents political failure.

Take the case of fruits and vegetables. Many smallholder farmers in many parts of Africa
produce fruits and vegetables alongside their stable food – such as cereals, tubers and roots. Yet farmers are losing more than 50% of their crops due to lack of cold storage.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption (approx. 1.3 billion tonnes) gets lost or wasted.

Therefore, there is a need for post-harvest handling facilities for both horticultural produces and also for cereals.

As we write this opinion, the drone technology is the new fad. Drones or Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are revolutionizing agriculture, for example the use of remote sensing in agriculture. In essence, the use of drones for Precision Agriculture, farming, pest management and crop management is exploding worldwide.

Drones facilitate efficiency in agriculture and a new mode of farming has thus emerged –
Precision agriculture which is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops.

The seed sector in Africa should therefore keep the authorities on their toes so that such a technology does not by pass any country in the continent.

If that were to be done, many farmers and seed producers would benefit from enhanced
sustainable agricultural development and food security by improving the use of ICTs in the sector.

With two thirds of Africans dependent on farming for their livelihoods, boosting Africa’s
agriculture will no doubt create economic opportunities, reduce malnutrition and poverty, and generate faster, fairer growth.

That African farmers need more investment, better access to financial services such as loans, and quality inputs including seeds and fertilizers is a fact that need not be laboured on but rather acted upon. Its yield are millions of jobs.

Sadly, the neglect of these sectors has allowed inequality on our continent to accelerate.
Africa currently imports food worth US$35 billion each year. But African farmers should be producing the food and earning this money. The continent could – and should – be feeding itself and other regions too.

The reality on the ground is that it is possible to change the fortunes of African agriculture.

Comparison should therefore be made with changes in the telecommunications sector which have been described as possibly the greatest modern revolution this continent has seen – less than two decades ago, 70 percent of the African population had never heard a telephone ringing; today 70 percent have a telephone.

This is an inspiration that seed merchants need to use to boost our food and nutrition security and the prosperity in Africa.

Daniel is the Communication Officer at The African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) –
daghan@afsta.org

Africa AFSTA Kenya Seeds
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Tumblr Email
Abdallah el-Kurebe
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Related Posts

PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert

July 7, 2025

AGRA, FAO launch $580,000 project to reform South Sudan’s seed sector

July 7, 2025

Mushroom: Expert says farming could add 25% to Nigeria’s GDP

July 6, 2025

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Tension rises between NMA, TUC over leadership at FNPHY

July 7, 2025

Nigeria’s perennial flood: Occurrence of preventable disasters (II), By Prof. M. K. Othman

July 7, 2025

PHC neglect at the heart of Africa’s health crisis – Expert

July 7, 2025

Kwara NMA rejects new medical allowance review

July 7, 2025
About Us
About Us

ASHENEWS (AsheNewsDaily.com), published by PenPlus Online Media Publishers, is an independent online newspaper. We report development news, especially on Agriculture, Science, Health and Environment as they affect the under-reported rural and urban poor.

We also conduct investigations, especially in the areas of ASHE, as well as other general interests, including corruption, human rights, illicit financial flows, and politics.

Contact Info:
  • 1st floor, Dogon Daji House, No. 5, Maiduguri Road, Sokoto
  • +234(0)7031140009
  • ashenewsdaily@gmail.com
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
© 2025 All Rights Reserved. ASHENEWS Daily Designed & Managed By DeedsTech

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.