Where Do We Stand After Ten Years of Harmonized Seed Trade Regulations in COMESA? Case Studies from Egypt and Sudan

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cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areasen_US
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen_US
cg.contributor.donorCGIAR Trust Funden_US
cg.contributor.initiativeFragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africaen_US
cg.coverage.countryEgypten_US
cg.coverage.countrySudanen_US
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2EGen_US
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2SDen_US
cg.coverage.regionNorthern Africaen_US
cg.creator.identifierBishaw, Zewdie: 0000-0003-1763-3712en_US
cg.creator.identifierYigezu, Yigezu: 0000-0002-9156-7082en_US
cg.creator.identifierGuush Berhane: 0000-0002-1947-9483en_US
cg.subject.actionAreaResilient Agrifood Systemsen_US
cg.subject.impactAreaNutrition, health and food securityen_US
cg.subject.impactAreaPoverty reduction, livelihoods and jobsen_US
cg.subject.impactAreaGender equality, youth and social inclusionen_US
cg.subject.impactAreaEnvironmental health and biodiversityen_US
cg.subject.sdgSDG 2 - Zero hungeren_US
cg.subject.sdgSDG 5 - Gender equalityen_US
cg.subject.sdgSDG 13 - Climate actionen_US
dc.contributor.authorBishaw, Zewdieen_US
dc.contributor.authorYigezu, Yigezuen_US
dc.contributor.authorBerhane, Guushen_US
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-30T16:32:59Zen_US
dc.date.available2025-01-30T16:32:59Zen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/172551en_US
dc.titleWhere Do We Stand After Ten Years of Harmonized Seed Trade Regulations in COMESA? Case Studies from Egypt and Sudanen_US
dcterms.abstract1. Background and context Effective seed systems that provide farmers access to well-adapted and quality seeds are crucial for food system transformation and improving food security in Sub-Sahara Africa. However, seed systems across SSA are at early stages of development and only a fraction of farmers in this region have access to improved varieties and quality seeds (FAO, 1998, Cromwell, 1987, Rohrbach et al., 2003, Hunga et al 2023) particularly for food security crops. Lack of access to quality seeds of well adapted varieties thus remains a critical bottleneck to transforming Africa’s food systems, in general, and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) region, in particular (Gaffney et al., 2016). An important historical precedence in the global varietal release and seed system development is that countries need not wait until local capabilities are developed to generate their own improved varieties. Historically, countries have benefited from sharing of imported improved high-yielding varieties developed through research and breeding programs elsewhere and facilitated by deliberate cross-border seed trade. A notable example is the cross-border trade of high-yielding rice and wheat varieties among the participants of the Green Revolution in Asia (Hazel, 2019). Besides facilitating the transfer of technologies, such cross-border seed trade allowed the introduction of diverse crops adapted to regions with unique environmental and agroclimatic conditions and enabled them to mitigate local challenges. Cross-border seed trade is however unlikely to occur in a vacuum and involves a robust national and regional seed sector organized with coherent and transparent seed laws and regulations that facilitate trade (Rohrbach et al., 2003; Hunga et al., 2023). An efficient and transparent seed regulatory system is crucial to ensure that farmers have timely access to high quality seed at an affordable price (See e.g., Kuhlmann et al., 2023). While cross-border seed trade and integration of regional markets can help resolve this challenge, lack of harmonized, lengthy, and bureaucratic varietal release and registration system, seed quality assurance and certification procedures, and inadequate phytosanitary and quarantine measures for seed import and export as well as non-transparent, and non-inclusive domestic seed regulations stand out as obstacles in this process (Daniel et al., 2019; Hunga et al 2023). Harmonizing varietal release and seed regulations is thus crucial for promoting regional seed trade and ensuring the safe movement of improved varieties and quality seeds across borders (Rohrbach et al., 2003, Kuhlmann, 2015, Kuhlmann, 2023). Regional organizations such as COMESA (The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) have been aspiring to bridge cross-border trade through harmonized seed regulations across member states (Kuhlmann, 2015; Hunga et al., 2023). A notable example is the strategic initiative of COMESA’s specialized agency of the Alliance for Commodity Trade in East and Southern Africa (ACTESA) to harmonize seed trade regulations across the COMESA region. The initiative, which is known as the COMESA Seed Harmonization Implementation Plan (COMSHIP) was signed by all member states in 2014 (COMESA, 2014; Kuhlmann, 2015). The launching of COMESA’s seed trade harmonization regulations is considered an important milestone for Sub-Saharan Africa’s seed sector development1. COMESA has collaborated with other regional organizations, including the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) to establish the COMESA-SADC-EAC Tripartite Free Trade Area, which includes harmonized seed trade regulations that aimed to streamline the marketing, and removal of barriers for variety release and registration as well as seed production, certification, and marketing (UNECA, 2012; Hunga et al., 2023). The COMESA regulations aim primarily to harmonize variety release and registration procedures, seed quality assurance and certification schemes, and phytosanitary and quarantine measures in the region (Kuhlmann, 2015; Gaffney et al. 2016; Munyi, 2022). An important feature in this regulation is that a variety is released and registered in the COMESA catalogueen_US
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Accessen_US
dcterms.available2024-12-01en_US
dcterms.bibliographicCitationWhere Do We Stand After Ten Years of Harmonized Seed Trade Regulations in COMESA? Case Studies from Egypt and Sudan.en_US
dcterms.formatPDFen_US
dcterms.issued2024-12-01en_US
dcterms.languageenen_US
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0en_US
dcterms.publisherInternational Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areasen_US
dcterms.subjectegypten_US
dcterms.subjectsudanen_US
dcterms.subjectseed regulationen_US
dcterms.subjectpolicyen_US
dcterms.subjectharmonizationen_US
dcterms.subjectcomesaen_US
dcterms.typePolicy Contributionen_US

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