1. Seed Security and Genetic Diversity – A View from Africa
Jim Gaffney
Agriculture Division of Dow DuPont
21 March 2018
Ankeny, Iowa

2. My wife’s village is in southern Cameroon ~ 300 km north of equator
My family’s farm is in northern U.S.
~ 5,000 km north of equator
My wife’s village is in southern Cameroon
~ 300 km north of equator

3. World Population Growth To 2100, by Region
Population in 1,000’s
World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision; United Nations, Dept. of Econ and Soc. Affairs, Population Div. (2015)

4. Global Issues Global Opportunities 1/4 World’s arable land
1/6 Global population
43% under 15 yrs old
By permission: . © Africa Interactive Maps®

5. Seed Security and Genetic Diversity
Seed security – farmers have consistent access to adapted, high quality genetics and high quality seed.
Seed INSECURITY is due to a number of factors, often in combinations:
Conflict and corruption
Poor leadership
Lack of value chains
Poor storage
Out-dated genetics
Counterfeit seed
Limited intellectual property protection (and therefore lack of investment)
Antiquated seed laws, dysfunctional or non-existent regulatory system (which in turn create combinations of above)

6. Challenges to Seed Security: Antiquated Seed Laws
Non-functioning Regulatory System
Example:
Tanzania seed registration process:
2 years Advanced Yield Trials
1 year “Uniformity and Stability” trials
1 year National Performance Trials
1 year Farmers Assessment
Dis-functional regulatory systems:
Transgenic traits
Africa has 54 countries, each with its own seed laws, some with functioning regulatory systems, some dis-functional, some not at all. Think about the U.S. – what if every state had its own peculiar set of rules and regs for commerce?
Technology cannot move forward at an even pace, or even at all in some countries.

7. Annual Maize Yield Increase (1991- 2014)
Kg-ha-1-yr-1
Van Ittersum et al., Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself? PNAS Early Edition.
Here’s how this plays out in Africa. Ethiopia, which has really opened up to outside forces and every day that goes by is more open to technology, is moving forward. Tanzania, for which I just described some onerous see laws, has some very productive land and great potential to be an East African bread-basket, but is going backwards in productivity.

8. Seed Law Harmonization Needs
Consistent
Application
Monitoring
And improvement in seed certification, quarantine and phytosanitary measures.
Followed by prompt evaluation and release of seed varieties 
Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA)
The good news is that industry is not the only ones to recognize this. New leadership in Africa is pushing for improvements.

9. Genetic Diversity – Value or Curse?
Is genetic diversity a value or curse? Crazy question, right? Of course genetic diversity is valuable. But its really difficult to employ genetic diversity into a modern breeding program.
Example: IRRI has over 10,000 rice accessions, in the seed bank, available for use, all with at least a bit of phenotypic information. But its overwhelming. How can a breeder make use of that?
We’re starting to understand how gene banks and see vaults and farmers’ landrace varieties can be more valuable. As sequencing becomes more thorough, more accurate, and more useful, we’ll understand more about the value of the underlying genetics of the diversity, and with CRISPR-Cas Advanced Plant Breeding, we can actually do something about it.

10. What’s Our Role?
Have faith in science and promote evidence-based decision-making
Be an objective, critical thinker
Help Africa take advantage of technology
I’m using “OUR ROLE” to mean all of us, working in science and agriculture. It is our responsibility to ensure politicians and policy-makers understand what is possible through objective thinking and collaborative efforts.