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Project
summary
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A
rural stockist that does packaging and distribution of improved
maize seed. The initiative is led by
Crown Seeds, a new seed company operating amongst smallholder
farmers in the
Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces
of South Africa |
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The
New Seed Initiative for Maize in Africa (NSIMA) Project has the goal of
stimulating the development and delivery of improved maize varieties to
farmers in southern Africa. The basic underlying rationale of this
Project is that most smallholder farmers are not using improved seeds,
and consequently a fundamental constituent of productivity gain is
missing. NSIMA is tackling this issue through a number of strategies,
beginning with fostering the development of improved and adapted maize
varieties through support of National Maize Breeding Programmes in seven
SADC countries and funding the breeding activities of CIMMYT-Harare.
Several new maize breeding lines, open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) and
hybrids have been released into the seed sector. In order to identify
superior varieties, the Project has provided 336 regional variety trials
to partner institutions in which 117 varieties are being tested in
2006/7 season. These trials are a means of identifying elite varieties
which are then further tested in farmers’ fields using the Mother-Baby
Trial system. This system is as a dependable means of determining farmer
preference of varieties and serves as a reliable guide for variety
release and distribution. A significant proportion of funds were
allocated to NCUs for variety evaluation to strengthen dissemination and
adoption of new varieties.
Many
of the breeding materials and varieties developed by NSIMA are taken up
by NARS and the private seed sector, and entered into the National
Variety Registration Processes in respective countries. In 2006, a total
of 98 maize varieties were released in SADC states with the majority
released by the private seed sector in South Africa and other organizing
releasing 30 varieties in six other states. Of the 13 releases of OPVs,
12 were derived from CIMMYT, while the two QPM hybrids released
originated from CIMMYT.
Tanseed International, a small seed company in Tanzania became the first
indigenous seed company to register three maize varieties in the country
during 2006.
The
release process amongst SADC states is not presently harmonised, and
thus any institution can register the same variety in multiple countries
after meeting various requirements which tend to be costly and
time-consuming. NSIMA supported the SADC Seed Security Network to
formulate a SADC Seed System in order improve the dissemination of new
varieties. The system has been endorsed by the Ministries of Agriculture
of all SADC states.
NSIMA also supported several NARS production of Breeders’ and Foundation
seed in order to improve supply by small seed companies and community
based seed producers especially in rural areas. It also conducted
training and technical back-stopping activities for NARS, NGOs, private
seed producers and universities in order to produce and disseminate
improved seed. These efforts were supported by those of the NCUs
participating in the project through research, extension and seed
production.
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