June 21, 2022 (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development today inaugurated a two-day workshop to validate the draft report on Seed System Analysis in the IGAD Region in Addis Ababa.
The meeting is bringing together representatives from Member States’ Ministries of Agriculture, National Seed Authorities, farmers’ organisations, seed management private companies, other Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and sub-regional and international agricultural research institutions.
These sessions aims to validate the draft report on “Seed System Analysis in the IGAD Region” that will serve as a guide to collective activities and harmonised policies by Member States and other key stakeholders.
According to Dr Eshete Dejen, Programme Manager at the IGAD Agriculture and Environment Division: “This project engaged national governments, IGAD, local entrepreneurs and farmers to deploy new, high-yielding, climate-resilient seeds, modern farming knowledge and yield-enhancing good farming practices such as early-maturing, disease-resistant varieties and related crop management practices”. “It’s our strong belief that this collaboration in the agricultural input supply chain interventions will go far in addressing the issues the region has been facing in this unpredictable and challenging times,” he continued.
Ato Wondale Habtamu, Deputy Director General of the newly established Ethiopian Authority of Agriculture, in his opening remarks said that Ethiopia was happy “to be part of IGAD’s regional initiative to support seed system development and facilitate regional trade”. “We would like to see inter-REC partnerships for synergistic effects, rather than repeating similar process steps. In short, IGAD does not need to re-invent the wheel, but add up to and use what has been already achieved,” he declared before officially opening the meeting.
The Seed Systems Group, through the financial support of IFAD, has granted funding to IGAD to implement the regional component of ‘Building Back Better: Rural Livelihoods Recovery Initiative for the Greater Horn of Africa’ project. The project aims to address the farm input needs of the most vulnerable farmers and pastoralists of the four countries that are Djibouti, Eretria, Somalia , and South Sudan).
