Regional Cooperation In Seed Sector in South Asia Seeds without Border: Regional Cooperation In Seed Sector in South Asia Uma S. Singh & Abdelbagi Ismail IRRI

Seed Most critical input in agriculture Quality seed may result in 10 to 30 percent increase in productivity A vibrant and forward looking seed system is must for enhancing & stabilizing productivity Seed production, quality evaluation, certification & dissemination Varietal targeting, tracking and impact assessment

Seed System Varietal Development : 6 to 8 years for MAS generated varieties : 2 years Varietal evaluation and release: 5 to 6 years Time taken by a variety after release to reach farmers’ field : 2 to 3 years Breeder seed (BS) Foundation seed (FS) Certified seed (CS)/ Truthful-labelled seed (TLS) Formal and informal seed system Public and private sector

FEW FACTS There are varieties which are popular across several countries. A number of Indian rice varieties are being unofficially cultivated in Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and in few African countries Many countries share similar agro-ecological conditions There are varieties officially released from several countries.

Sub1 varieties released in Asia Breeding line Year Designation Country IR05F102 (Swarna) 2009 Swarna-Sub1 India INPARA-5 Indonesia 2010 BRRI dhan-51 Bangladesh 2011 Nepal Yemyoke Khan Myanmar IR07F102 (IR64) NSIC Rc194 Philippines INPARA-4 2017? IR64-Sub1 IR09F436 (Ciherang) 2014 Binadhan 11 2015 Ciherang-Sub1 IR07F101 (S. Mahsuri) Binadhan 12

Why regional cooperation in seed sector? To speed up the process of varietal release, awareness creation, seed multiplication and varietal out scaling for the benefit of farmers without sacrificing quality More efficient use of resources To encourage formal seed system To promote SRR and varietal turn over To encourage seed exchange/business

Regional Workshop for Cooperation on Seed Issues Dhaka Agreement 17 February 2013

India and Bangladesh: the key players 17 April 2002 Policies, Politics, Persistence and Pragmatism:Part 1 16-17 Feb 2013

Joint varietal evaluation and release Bangladesh-India-IRRI collaboration : Areas identified (Protocol signed on 17 February 2013) Joint varietal evaluation and release Reciprocal recognition of evaluation data for varietal release Reducing time for the evaluation of varieties released in neighbouring countries for similar agro-ecologies Reducing time for evaluation for MAS generated varieties Pre-release seed multiplication & promotion Encouraging private sector by providing level playing field. Harmonization of seed system Germplasm exchange

Regional Workshop for Cooperation on Seed Issues Kathmandu Agreement (18 October 2014)

18 October 2014

Kathmandu Agreement (protocol signed on 18 October 2014) * Protocol signed by Bangladesh, India and IRRI extended to Nepal * Three countries agreed to share the evaluation data and varieties released in their respective countries for release and commercialization in the other two countries for similar agroecologies

Implementation of the two agreements India directly notified 4 varieties released in Bangladesh and 2 from Nepal for cultivation in India Nepal relased 2 rice vareites from India for cultivation in Nepal

Siem Reap Agreement (9-10 June 2017)

Siem Reap Protocol 10 June 2017 L to R : Additional Secretary Agriculture, Bangladesh; Secretary Agriculture, Cambodia; Secretary Agriculture, India; Director General, IRRI; Secretary Agriculture, Nepal and Secretary Agriculture, Sri Lanka

Siem Reap Agreement Signed by Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, IRRI, Nepal and Sri Lanka Recognition of each others seed certification system Extending agreement to other crops like other cereals, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables, sugarcane and fiber crops. Myanmar joined agreement in October 2017

Way ahead Nigeria may think of joining this agreement Promotion of similar regional agreement among African countries

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