Seed systems Management: a private sector perspective
Speech delivered by Michael Keller, ISF Secretary General, at the first FAO Roundtable Forum on “Sustainable Seed Systems Management on 8 December 2022.
Dear Director General,
Dear Representatives of Countries,
Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends,
I am honored to provide a short keynote speech during “the First FAO Roundtable Forum on Sustainable Seed Systems Management” on the role of the private sector in sustainable seed systems.
There is no need to reiterate the challenges we are facing in the agricultural and food production globally, we all know this!
I will start with an optimistic call on our capacity to build joint actions at international, national and quite more importantly on local levels and among the seed value chain actors composed of the private and public sectors, farmers, NGOs, and civil society organizations to empower farmers!
Is it not all about empowering farmers?
According to FAO in 2016, “Seed security exists when men and women within the household have sufficient access to quantities of available good quality seed and planting materials of preferred crop varieties at all times in both good and bad cropping seasons”.
Is it not all about building seed choice to empower farmers?
I am not here to compare or even set in opposition formal and informal seed systems, or prioritizing community breeding over private sector breeding or vice versa. No, if we want to succeed, we need to strengthen our capacity for open dialogue, working in trust and create space to better understand and respect each other at international, national and local levels. Talking alone does not empower farmers. It’s time to walk together in the clear common direction and this by being aware of our complementarity!
I am here to tell you that empowering farmers is a mission that the private sector carries out day by day. We know that it can only be sustainable if the relationship with the farmers is based on trust and the use of quality seed is providing them sustainable positive outcome.
All of us are aware that farmers’ needs and preferences vary among countries, regions, and even on the farm level depending for example on soil type and market demand. Farmers’ diverse needs translate into their choice for landraces or varieties coming from public breeding, community or commercial breeding. The reality on the ground is that farmers access their crop seed from different sources. Therefore, our bottom line should be “all farmers need good seed!”.
It is about the right seed, at the right moment, in the right quantity to support farmers of all sizes to achieve the right harvest and allow her or him to build a sustainable way of farming!
From agro-ecological, regenerative, conventional, organic, to biotechnology-driven solutions in agriculture…you name them, all of them have a role to play but none of them will solve the problem alone. Therefore we cannot think in exclusive approaches, but in inclusive ones. There should be interrelation among various approaches because no one single approach can be the solution. And we should take this into account when we are building the structures and policies needed to continue the genetic improvement of crop varieties.
Because empowering farmers is accepting that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There is no silver bullet that will solve everything in one go.
As we put farmers in the center of our action, I would like to remind everyone that in a recent independent dialogue for the UNFSS 2021, co-hosted by the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) and ISF, a survey showed that 82% of farmers considered new improved varieties as important to respond to climate change and 81 % of farmers considered it as important for sustainability in the food systems. Perhaps also of importance as mentioned last year in Ethiopia, 50,000 smallholder farmers were offered the possibility to choose between landraces and commercial varieties of tomatoes or onions through information and education programs organized by the private sector, and nearly 90% of them switched to commercial varieties as this allowed them to improve their livelihood thanks to increased yield from crops that withstand pest and diseases.
What this tells us is that, clearly, there is room for the private sector to contribute and be one among many actors and solution providers to farmers.
I am here to highlight that the seed sector in its diversity of over 8,000 seed companies — family owned, cooperatives, small, medium size companies, or multinationals who are active in breeding, producing and trading hundreds of crop seeds — all share the joint vision of “a world where quality seed is accessible to all, to support sustainable agriculture and food security”.
Needless to say, there is a wide range of not-for-profit corporate social responsibility initiatives: capacity building, technology transfer farmers’ extension services, support to genebanks to the creation of supply chains, etc… All of these point to the same goal: to build resilient seed supply, to offer seed choice, to create sustainable business models and win-win situations.
The private seed sector, aware of its responsibility as provider of the first and most critical input in sustainable agriculture production, has always seen the conservation and use of genetic resources as highly critical. The access, use and circulation of genetic resources is an essential driver to achieve the SDGs. Many times, it was mentioned during FAO meetings that there is an interdependency between countries on the conservation of genetic resources. We certainly welcome the action on genetic resources in the action plan, but we know also that we need to go further to build a clear system for access and use of genetic resources including a clear and realistic benefit sharing.
The private seed sector is powered and sustained by innovation. It is in our DNA. Continued genetic progress through plant breeding innovation is essential for meeting the challenges on agriculture and food production. We can look back and see that, over the past 50 years, it was the joint effort between public and private sectors that contributed and drove the yield increases up to 90% in different crops, in order to increase food production to feed an increasing population. Today over 200,000 varieties are accessible worldwide coming from the private sector; the joint capacity to cope with ever quicker ecological and demographic changes is more needed than ever before. The close connection between the private seed sector and the farmers and their markets is a basis for the badly needed adaptive capacity in breeding.
Latest breeding methods such as genome editing can speed up this process and make it more efficient. What is even more important is that crops that have been left out of the much-needed breeding progress of the last decades can now get a second chance. Underutilized crops that are important for local communities can now benefit from these new applications.
We welcome the core activity focus on enhancing production of quality seed and planting materials, because quality assurance including seed health, as starting point of plant health is of utmost important.
But, as I emphasized from the beginning, it is not only about what the private sector can do, it is about cooperation and partnership and what we can do together!
My role today is to emphasize that the private seed sector sees itself as a partner of FAO and its motto “fiat panis — let there be bread”, as seed is a crucial starting point for food security. Like last year and more even this year with the diversity of challenges the world is facing “fiat panis” should be a unifying driver for the public and private sectors, farmers, civil society, indigenous people. In complementing each other’s actions, we can succeed together.
Allow me to insist that too many times we have the impression that the role of the private sector is challenged or even denied in finding solutions for farmers, we hope that this conference and the action will help to build the needed trust for collaboration.
In a world of seed dependency to build seed choice need a unified enabling environment through sustainable seed systems at the national level and local level, composed of a diversity and multiple levels of solutions. This requires different stakeholders to work together, recognizing each other’s strengths and contributions guided by a joint vision and some joint principles.
The private sector certainly invest far more in R&D than any other actor, and it is crucial to build a seed value chain for farmers including the increased information and trialing mentioned as an action where the private sector is keen to collaborate. When we are looking to facilitate the genetic improvement of crop varieties by demonstrating efficacy of improved varieties and enhance adoption of improved varieties, the private sector can and should play a role, also to support agroecology and other innovative approaches. Why not link the dissemination of innovative approaches on precision breeding and seed treatment which are extremely important with demonstration on the efficacity of improved varieties? We would clearly like to contribute more directly in this core activity and here we see opportunities also to strengthen the relationship with CGIARs.
Cooperation is a proven way of making progress, as we see in many countries where there are efficient partnerships between the private sector and public organizations. These partnerships play a significant role in variety demonstration, scaling-out farmer-based quality seed production and out-grower schemes. The scale of production, processing, and distribution of quality seed of improved varieties from those sectors has increased over the last years. And let’s not forget very often the public seed production was a starting point for the creation of private cooperatives.
But it is also about policies which are enabling seed choice and partnerships!
FAO defines seed policy as “a statement of principles that guides government action and explains the roles of relevant stakeholders in the coordination, structure, functioning and development of the seed system comprising both formal and informal sectors. The seed policy normally serves as the overall framework for regulatory instruments, such as the seed law and related legislation.
Our capacity to empower farmers depends on an enabling, predictable and clear international and national regulatory environment. For many areas of the seed sector such as seed quality, varietal identity, certification and seed health we have well defined international standards, agreements and guidelines established by various intergovernmental organizations (OECD, ISTA, UPOV, IPPC, and others). These instruments form an integral part of the functioning of the private seed sector worldwide and have proven beneficial for the agricultural production of those countries who joined these platforms. I call upon governments to join, implement and put in place the relevant systems thereby enabling farmers to have access to high quality seed and new plant varieties to help us to provide improved quality to all farmers.
Beyond regulatory frame and seed policies, the contributions of the private seed sector and many other seed suppliers, depends on existing infrastructure that enables the supply chain from production to commercialization and ensures the delivery of the right seeds at the right places through local seed production and shipping. it is about our capacity to build action to build cooperation between the different layers of seed supply to work sustainably together.
Therefore today, we are looking to FAO to be a bridge builder, from being a convener to be an even greater contributor or even driver for policy discussions.
Can this be a starting point for reshaping the discussion and building a transformative workflow also within FAO, based on our complementarity and built on trust?
It is time to upgrade existing game changing examples from the national level and work on elaborating models of finding solutions together. Recognizing our diversity but recognizing that we all can contribute to SDGs would be a real game changer, therefore the core activity on organizing consultations on modern plant breeding techniques and integrated seed systems is of importance and we would like to suggest that we can even organize joint dialogues at national level. Today I am here to tell you, and I insist on this point that the private sector fully recognizes, like in past, that no single actor can solve alone all the questions raised by this conference, and we are ready to act on the ground to move forward in trust towards sustainable seed systems for seed resilience to enable seed choice. We cannot wait until 2030 — we have to act now.
Seed is Life.
