The African Union(AU) on Wednesday launched a new initiative to improve access to quality seeds for small-scale farmers across the African continent amid efforts to boost food production in the post COVID-19 pandemic era.
Various studies estimate that farmers in Africa lose up to 70 percent of their food production because of low quality or counterfeit seeds.
The 2019 Access to Seeds Index for Eastern and Southern Africa, for instance, found that in Uganda, 30 percent of the seeds planted by farmers are fake, a reality replicated across many African countries.
