Regional seed companies play a key role in reaching smallholders. Who is leading in Africa and Asia?
This is the key question the Access to Seeds Index seeks to answer in its coming edition. Landscaping studies in a total of 53 countries in Africa and Asia have identified leading regional players in providing access to seeds to smallholder farmers.
This resulted in a list of approximately twenty companies for each of the three regions the Access to Seeds Index focuses on: Western and Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Although these regions differ considerably, they share three characteristics: great agricultural potential, food security challenges and a substantial smallholder farmer presence.
The first Access to Seeds Index showed the key role regional seed companies play in Eastern Africa to support smallholder farmer productivity. Encouraged by this insight, the number of regional companies covered by the Index will be expanded.
The lists have been composed by regional consultants making use of a network of focal points in the 53 Asian and African countries that are covered by the Access to Seeds Index. The lists will be examined by regional experts in October before finalization at the end of 2017.
Please see our Public Consultation Document for more information.
