Corporate seed takeover hurting food production

….. As a Solution to the problem, the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity recommends for an immediate dismantling of the entire system supporting the use of corporate seeds

By Francis Maingaila

Lusaka (10-08-2020) – The corporate takeover of seed breeding and distribution by the multinational corporations by way of formalization and commercialization of the seed sector is negatively hurting the food production. 

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association Country Director Muketoi Wamunyima said in an exclusive interview that in an attempt to create an exclusive right to regulate the seed industry, the multinational corporations have caused changes to agriculture laws to facilitate the harmonization of seed market with uniform products.

Wamunyima said the introduction of intellectual property laws in seed market, both as measures to privatize the seed production and ban the non-registered seeds has removed the farmer’s rightsto preserve, share and plant seed of their choices saved from the previous harvest.

Wamunyima observed that the regulatory system is advocated in a number of countries in the sub regional African bodies, including the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) where a regulatory frame work which not only authorised a uniform seed marketedgrown among member states but also prohibits movements of all non-registered seeds.

“The measures surrounding the new seed regulations aim at creating a monopoly seed production that limits the farmers’ choice over which seeds to buy and criminalises the informal seed exchange systems.”

As a party to the sub regional seed protocols, Wamuny imapointed out, Zambia recently revised its seed regulations to ensure protection of intellectual property rights for those multinationals investing in seed.

“The changes to the seed systemnot only put the food sovereignty, food security and economic freedom at risk but also create a system that has narrowed the possibilities of producing alternative and more sustainable food systems.”

Wamunyima observed that small scale farmers who are the main producers of food are not represented but are compelled to use expensive uniform genetically modifiedseeds and other hybrid varieties that require very expensive fertilisers and chemicals that have impoverished the soils.

“The producing of seed hybrids and genetically modified seeds has become a huge businessfor multinational corporations at expense of small-scale farmers who could not afford additional costs and has puts them in great danger of losing control of their own land an adapted soil to that seeds.”

But some breeders and distributors of seeds in Zambia retorted that in a crisis where farmers are struggling with floods, drought, pests and diseases seed assistance programmes is a must to support food production.

For example, Seed Co Zambia Limited Chief Executive Officer Chance Kabaghe said in an exclusive interview that supplying certified, high-quality seed is one of the cheapest and most effective ways of achieving future food security.

Kabaghe explained that certified are specifically bred and treated for drought and disease resistance for high yields and a short growing period from sowing to harvest.

However, the PELUM Association strong man said while this is desirable, it may not work well in times like this when the country is grappling with the effects of COVID-19.

Wamunyima said the proposed measures have already proved impossible on account of expenses farmers will incur in an attempt to satisfy the conditions associated of the certified seeds.

“Besidesthe seeds and chemicals which the farmers will have labour to acquire, COVID-19 has come with new challenges, including lockdown to prevent exporting and importing the deadly virus which will make it almost impossible for breeders of the products to make them readily available.”

The only way out is to relax seed laws and regulations to allow farmers use the sovereign seed selected from previous farming season which does not require chemicals. The sovereign seeds are the cheapest and nutritious and are the most effective ways of achieving future food security.

Wamunyima effects of COVID-19 has impacted social and economic levels which has attracted border closures and lockdowns in countries faced with the plague which needs a re-look on how policies and strategies made as decisions can support communities to be more resilient to natural and unplanned disasters.

“The same applies to the food system with many countries still receiving from the effects of the drought and floods that ravaged recent farming seasons and coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Apparently, Wamunyima indicated, many farmers are now grappling to access markets for their input and products because of the induced restrictions as a measure to counter the infections of the disease.

Wamunyima noted that due to lockdowns and restricted movements as a result of Covid-19, the world is faced with the need and opportunity to relook at how policies and strategies should support communities to be more resilient to disasters.

“This need cannot be over-emphasised when it comes to food system. We are still recovering from effects of the droughts and floods that affected our past farming seasons and, with the Covid-19, farmers are faced with more challenges to access markets for their produce,” he said.

He said Food security and nutrition globally has faced a severe test indicating that poverty and nutrition levels are down scaling rapidly and more needs to be done to assure consumers of food security now and in the aftermath of the pandemic, which has decimated developed and emerging economies and swept off their liquidity.

According to the latest United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) report for Africa, more than half of the continent’s population is involved in the production of food as a livelihood strategy and agriculture forms a significant portion of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Despite this finding by the WFP, the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that not only food sovereignty and security is at risk but also self-sufficiency remains a problem with millions of people.

FAO country director George Okech said in an exclusive telephone interview that in terms of providing food not only agricultural land and water but also the ability to control and promote seed production matters.

In order to get out of this situation, Dr. Okech suggested, not only national access and benefit-sharing policies but also laws should support the sharing of plant genetic resources and related knowledge particularly among smallholder and peasant farmers.

Dr. Okech is of the view that the main purpose for an agricultural system is not only to provide food to either people within a country but also to trade food with another country with the intention of growing the economy.

He said the seed system not only plays an important role in determining the type, quality and cost of seed supplied to farmers but also determines the type, quality and the cost of food sold to citizens.

Effects of seed law:

Wamunyima noted that pressure from transnational corporations to liberalize markets, harmonize seed laws and allow Genetically modified Organisms (GMO) seeds has not only compromised the food production but also spell doom to farmers who could not afford to procure modified organisms and chemicals.

Increasingly, Wammunyima suggested, their access to genetic material, and the way they work with these seeds, is constrained by the proliferation of intellectual property rights owned by a narrow set of large and powerful international firms.

He observed that the changes in seed policies and laws not only reinforce a system that strengthens the power of these seed companies at the expense of farmers but also meant a change in the collective nature of seed.

Accordingly, farmers can no longer exchange, swap and breed seeds which have saved for centuries, to suit local conditions without legal consequences.

As private seed companies continue to grow and consolidate the seed sector, the focus is on a narrower range of seeds and commercially lucrative crops such as maize, which reduces biodiversity.

Additionally, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) expressed worry that the ownership of seed which is protected through plant breeders’ intellectual property rights, is a contentious issue.

Union president Jarvis Zimba said in an exclusive interview that the plant genetic resources not only have remained central to primitive accumulation but also become evident on how multilateral institutions are key to the negotiation and enforcement of the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights agreements.They are complicit in the reproduction of asymmetrical relations of global capitalism which demonstrate efforts to connect food security to further liberalization of agricultural trade.

He said this situation was perpetrated via the creation of an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) which he said is responsible for not only funding biotech research and development but also other technologies and policies to increase farm productivity in today’s world.

He said Agra has been providing capital to seed companies to improve the delivery of quality certified seed to smallholder farmers and Zambia is one of the main recipients of this funding.

Worryingly, countries where these investments are taking place have been encouraged to amend their policies and laws to ensure that the profits and interests of companies investing are protected through enforcement of intellectual property rights.

A Faith based organization also rejected the idea of using the genetically modified seeds and vowed to raise awareness on the benefits of organic farming.

Caritas Zambia executive director Eugene Kabalika said in an exclusive interview that organic farming is both sustainable and ideal because the variety of crops grown ensure soil fertility, preserve biodiversity, and are less vulnerable to climate change.

And Musaku Mukumbwa a peasant farmer from Lusaka’s peri urban recalled that there was a time in Zambia when people used to practice organic farming without worrying of chemicals to make the seeds to grow.

Mukumbwa said in an exclusive interview that the type of seeds people planted was carefully selected from the previous harvest and was stored in readiness for planting the next farming season.

“With the advent of the regulated seeds, the sovereign seed slowly being replaced by genetically modified seeds which require chemicals dangerously harmful not only to humans but also compromises the soil fertility.”

Sadly, Mukumbwa regretted, some people are giving up on agriculture because seed and chemicals are extremely expensive and the soil to grow sovereign seeds is compromised by the chemicals used.

According to Mukumbwa, the only way out of this problem is to retain organic farming.He stressed that the seed laws which the government adopted has given room to agribusinesses control over farmers’ lives and ultimately over all lives, by determining what to plant and what to eat.

Solution

The Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB) recommended the dismantling ofthe entire system the support the use of corporate seeds.

ZAAB Chairperson Emmanuel Mutamba said in an exclusive interview that the monopoly over seeds production and distribution not only violates food sovereignty but also undermines the right have to choose their ownfood.

He challenged the competition commissions to play a watchdog role to ensure that corporations do not take control of the entire food value chain from farm to folk.

He also advised the governments not only to view seed systems as a national heritage concern that ought to be protected and safeguarded for future generations but ensure that adequate funding to develop farmer’s managed seed systems and reject any external investment that comes with conditions provided.

“This must include reversing the changes to policies and laws that have taken place in the recent past which enables the multinationals organizations to have disproportionate control over economic resources in the agricultural sector.”

He added that the funding must be in the form of national funds, not foreign direct investment because this may lead to some form of co-option and thus the loss of sovereignty.”