February 1, 2025
 

TASAI Inc. is conducting a seed sector assessment for Somalia. When complete, the study would be the 25th country to be covered by TASAI. The assessment is sponsored by the African Development Bank under the Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response to Food Crisis (SEPAREF) project. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Somalia office leads SEPAREF activities in Somalia. SEPAREF covers three additional countries including Burundi, Comoros, and South Sudan. The assessment will follow the standard TASAI methodology but with a deeper interrogation of the status of the seed policy instruments in the country, and will be conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

To kickstart the assessment, TASAI conducted an inception mission to Mogadishu, Somalia, from 28th to 30th January 2025. The mission entailed visits to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation to pay a courtesy call to Prof. Mahmoud Mahmoud, the Director General; the FAO Somalia country office; Filsan Ltd, one of the enterprising seed companies; and Zamzam University of Science and Technology, whose Agriculture faculty is conducting several field trials for local and foreign varieties of vegetables and maize. The mission culminated in a stakeholder workshop, attended by over 30 participants from the Ministry, and seed companies, which are members of the newly established Somalia Seed Trade Association (SOSTA), the FAO Somalia office, and Zamzam University.

Website: http://tasai.org

Published: February 18, 2025