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AGRA Launches Fund To Jumpstart African Seed Industry News & Events Archive
AGRA partnership to boost 20 homegrown African seed companies; Avail one million
Events
farm households with improved seed
KAMPALA, UGANDA – (2 April 2009) The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), in
Press Releases
partnership with the African Agricultural Capital (AAC) group, today launched the African Seed
Investment Fund (ASIF). Over the next five years, it will invest in at least 20 small- and
medium-size seed companies in Southern and Eastern Africa, infusing equity and expertise into an Speeches
industry that has languished for decades, and paving the way for raising the productivity and
incomes of at least one million farm households. Announcements

“The sole purpose of ASIF is to provide high quality seeds to smallholder African farmers, thereby
improving income and quality of life,” said Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA. “Direct Viewpoints
investment in local seed companies will allow African enterprises, working with local public crop
breeders and local farmers, to seed prosperity.” AGRA in the News

ASIF is the first fund of its kind: African-owned and targeted

specifically at promoting the growth of small- and
medium-sized African seed companies through long-term
For More Information
loans provided at below-market rates. ASIF will thus fill a
critical funding gap in African agricultural development
Stella Kihara
—financing for its seriously underdeveloped and
+254 735 380 199
undercapitalized seed sector.
Jeff Haskins
Across Southern and Eastern Africa there are over 50 small-
+254 7298 714 22
and medium-sized African seed companies, compared to
hundreds that operate in Europe or in the United States. To
help fill this gap, ASIF will operate in eight countries--
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique,
Agriculture News
Malawi and Zambia.
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
Having more than doubled in four years, sales revenues of African seed companies stood at about
US$2.5 million in 2006. Yet, in Eastern and Southern Africa alone, only about one-third of maize –
the region’s largest staple food crop – is produced from improved varieties. And African seed
comprises only a fraction of the global seed market, estimated at US$30 billion.

“While recent growth of the African seed sector demonstrates the high demand for good quality
seed, it falls far short of meeting that demand,” said Josephine Okot, Managing Director of Victoria
Seeds Ltd in Uganda. “Our women’s collectives are working hard to grow good seed for
distribution.”

Okot’s company contracts with some 200 growers, most of whom are women’s groups, to produce
high quality seed of a range of crops that includes such staples as maize, rice, sorghum and
groundnut. Companies like Ms. Okot’s stand poised to benefit from the new fund.

The lack of a robust African seed industry has left these farmers with few choices. Smallholder
farmers—who grow most of the food consumed in Africa—can neither afford nor access
high-yielding quality seed varieties of their staple food crops. Whereas improved seed has been
responsible for more than half of global yield increases, African smallholder farmers must rely on remains...
saved seed whose quality has deteriorated over time, producing the world’s lowest cereal yields
and ensuring chronic hunger and malnutrition. Press Kit
“Yet, Africa’s plant breeders have begun developing high yielding, locally-adapted seed that would
enable farmers to double or triple their yields,” said Joseph DeVries, director of AGRA’s Seeds About AGRA [Français]
Programme. “We now need a vibrant seed sector that gets these varieties to farmers. ASIF will Frequently Asked Questions
enable this--it is venture capital for Africa’s seed entrepreneurs.” Biography of Mr. Kofi Annan (64kb
PDF)
The AGRA-AAC partnership aims to jumpstart a well-capitalised, competitive and efficient regional
Photo of Kofi Annan
seed industry; with commercial incentive to produce, distribute and market improved seed varieties
that meet farmers’ demands. Board and Staff of AGRA
People in Action: Three Profiles
“Until recently, only well-off, large-scale farmers bought improved seed,” DeVries said. “The seed
Brochure (1.5mb PDF) [Français
market is evolving to recognize that the real markets is at the pyramid’s base, among millions of
PDF]
smallholder farmers. The prices, crops and varieties marketed need to reflect that.
B-roll
” AGRA is an African organization that finds practical solutions across the agricultural value chain to Statement on Crop Genetic
sustainably boost smallholder farm productivity. Its investment in ASIF is part of a comprehensive Engineering
approach to helping millions of small-scale farmers and their families end poverty and hunger. AAC
is a diversified agri-business fund, incorporated in Uganda in 2004, with a track record of spurring
the growth of pro-poor African agri-businesses.
AGRA in the News
Venture Capital for Seed Entrepreneurs

Alongside capital investment, the fund will provide business development services, including SciDev.Net
continual advice on issues like seed production, storage, and distribution and seed company Inter Press Service
management. Distributors will also be trained on the appropriate use of seeds and other inputs such New Vision (Uganda)
as fertilizer, to ensure the most efficient, safe and environmentally sound use of all. African Executive (Kenya)

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Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa http://www.agra-alliance.org/content/news/detail/920

ASIF will implement a gender policy that works to involve women actively as entrepreneurs, AllAfrica
workers, and smallholder farmers. Women make up the majority of Africa’s smallholder farmers
Archive »
and have the greatest impact on the livelihood of their families, yet face many impediments to
education, training and access to finance.

In addition to its larger loans to at least 20 African seed companies, ASIF will invest in about 10 Sign Up for E-News
early-stage businesses with big potential, said Tom Adlam, Managing Director of AAC. These loans
will range from approximately about $50,000 to $1,500,000 each. The fund overall will seek a net Type E-Mail Address
return of 3% on its investment.

“AAC’s management of the fund will build on our successes in reaching smallholder farmers,” Adlam
said. “These include working with more than one thousand farmers of organically-certified vanilla in
Uganda, and an investment in Kenya’s Western Seed company which distributes hybrid maize seed
that is drought-resistant and stress-tolerant.”

The drought-resistant maize varieties now reach about 200,000 farmers in Kenya, and has enabled
them to significantly increase maize yields.

“African farmers need improved varieties of maize more than any other farmer in the world. Their
livelihoods—their very survival—depends on it,” DeVries said.

And while maize will be an important crop for the program, it will not be the only one. Companies
producing seed for such staple crops as beans, cowpea, pigeonpea, rice, sorghum, millet and others
will be encouraged to apply.

To qualify, companies will need to meet investment criteria in three main areas: enterprise,
performance, and development criteria. The latter includes measures such as overall job creation,
skills development in rural communities, and an environmentally benign footprint.

“Rather than having to chose between poor quality low-yielding seed or high-cost hybrid seed
marketed by multinationals, African farmers will have another choice,” Ngongi said. “We can
foresee the day when dozens, if not hundreds, of small- and medium-sized African seed companies
are working across the region with local, public sector breeders to get low-cost, high-quality seed to
farmers from Ethiopia to Mozambique.

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About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale
farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programmes develop
practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while
safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key
aspects of the African agricultural value chain from seeds, soil health and water to markets and
agricultural education.

AGRA's Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United
Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is
AGRA's president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works
across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana.

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