Source: The World Vegetable Center Newsletter
August 21, 2009

Vegetable production in sub-Saharan Africa is low and has not improved very much over the past 40 years. A major constraint is the widespread reliance on old varieties and imported seeds that are often poorly adapted to local conditions. In its Vegetable Breeding and Seed Systems (vBSS) project, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center is working with the public and private sector in sub-Saharan Africa. On a recent trip, Dr. Peter Hanson, Tomato Breeder and Global Theme Leader - Breeding from headquarters and Dr. Mel Olouch and Takemore Chagomoka from the Regional Center for Africa in Arusha, Tanzania, explored the possibilities of working together with a number of selected seed companies in Eastern Africa. We talked to Dr. Hanson about some key issues.

Recently, you have been to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda where you met entrepreneurs
and had a chance to study the seed market. What was your impression?
The objectives of this trip were to learn about major vegetable seed companies in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and to meet key staff of these companies. I feel that it is essential to understand their capacity for vegetable variety development research and its constraints. And I must say nothing can replace an intense dialogue with the industry to develop good
understanding of their potential and constraints.

What did you learn from these meetings?
Many regional companies are capable of producing, packing, and marketing seed of open pollinated vegetable varieties. Certainly there is always space for improvement. Most companies lack sufficient vegetable research staff, especially plant breeders. Plant  breeders graduating from the universities have practical experience with field crops such as wheat, maize, or sorghum, and experienced vegetable breeders are rare. There is a dramatic knowledge gap. Without skilled and knowledgeable staff, no company will feel
comfortable to take the risk and invest in a volatile market.

What could be the Center’s role to improve this situation?
vBSS should seek out ways to promote vegetable breeding training of private sector staff with plant breeding backgrounds. We should continue to encourage companies to post their breeders for several months to a year at RCA to gain practical experience in vegetable breeding. We might also consider offering short courses at RCA or in other countries to strengthen breeder capacity building. A few of the companies that we visited seem to have the resources and interest to invest in expanding their own vegetable variety research and development capacity.

Does this mean that some companies are already performing rather well?
Let’s say they have potential. Most companies produce and market seed of open pollinated varieties but profit margins are modest. Seed companies view proprietary vegetable hybrid varieties as the key to a profitable investment in vegetable breeding research. There are market opportunities now for hybrid tomato, sweet pepper, and cabbage varieties, and perhaps in the future even hybrid indigenous vegetables. Many farmers are ready to pay extra for hybrid tomato and sweet pepper seed. Locally adapted hybrid tomato and hybrid sweet pepper varieties should be able to successfully compete with imported varieties. Local seed production of hybrid tomato and sweet pepper should be possible in Kenya,
Uganda, and Tanzania. Profits from the sale of hybrid seed would further encourage companies to invest in plant breeding research, and this will benefit all: The seed companies, farmers and consumers.
In addition to developing new lines that could become new open pollinated varieties or hybrid parental lines, I can imagine having more hybrid test crosses of tomato and sweet pepper. More test crosses means reduced effort in developing new lines, but lines could come from headquarters and other sources in the short term. Visiting company breeders could assist in test cross creation and evaluation and companies should be given the opportunity to license the promising project hybrids.

How will a stronger role of the private sector affect intellectual property?
We should continue to visit more of the stronger seed companies with the goal of strengthening linkages with private sector researchers. Companies will want exclusivity
over any project hybrids before they spend money to market them. I see no problem if vBSS granted exclusive rights to a company over a project hybrid as long as AVRDC retains its rights to continue distribution of the inbred parental lines. This is not a contradiction because the hybrid is a different entity from the parental lines that give rise to it. As long as the confidentiality of the hybrid parental lines is assured, the company markets the hybrid and AVRDC can distribute the lines to others. There are many tomato and sweet pepper lines for use as potential parents so it should be possible to generate several good hybrid combinations from a set of lines.

Dr. Peter Hanson
Tomato Breeder and Global Theme Leader - Breeding

Website: https://avrdc.org/

Published: August 21, 2009