Mr. Mayi may want to consider the following idea based on his recommendations.
- A good seed policy must be put in place and addressed locally;
- Draw up a list of staple crops and develop a value chain around these crops in order to provide solutions in terms of employment and food security;
For Table 5.1 Actions and the Inequalities they address
Action – Improve the diversity of garden seed products available in all parts of Africa so that all African small farmers have at least the same diversity of garden seed products that are available to the South African home gardener
Inequalities they address –African women small farmers have unequal access to garden seed resources needed to produce new consumer products
A home gardener or small farmer in South Africa has access to a wide variety of garden seed products. See https://livingseeds.co.za/ or https://www.seedsforafrica.co.za/ . For example, the South African small farmer can grow at least 25 types of melons and 20 types of watermelons using the seeds that are available to South African home gardeners. This allows the South African small farmer to offer the South African consumer a wide variety of products. In contrast, far less garden seed products are available in other African countries.
In other parts of Africa, the woman small farmer entrepreneur is very limited by the types of garden seeds available in their country and the difficulty of obtaining seeds available in other countries. In most parts of Africa women small farmers cannot buy corn seeds that produce corn with strong stalks that are required by the three sisters gardening technique. They cannot easily import seeds that were developed by Native Americans such as Navajo melons see https://www.nativeseeds.org/products/2023-seedlisting-catalog . They also cannot easily import desert melon seeds that were originally grown in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Namibia to demonstrate African melon heritage to African consumers.
Dr. Paul Rigterink