Implications of the EU Proposed Regulation on the Production and Marketing of Plant Reproductive Materials (PRM) on Africa’s Food System

4 April 2024. Implications of the EU Proposed Regulation on the Production and Marketing of Plant Reproductive Materials (PRM) on Africa’s Food System

Agriculture plays a key role in supporting livelihoods and national economies in Africa. 

Given Africa’s close ties with Europe in trade and development, the developments in Europe regarding the proposed regulations on Plant Reproductive Materials are of significant concern due to their potentially far-reaching impacts.

Against this background, the PELUM Association in partnership with the African Organic Agriculture Network (AfroNet ), Broederlijk Dalen, and Bread for the World (BfW) organised this webinar.

Resource:

Munyi P. 2022. Current Developments in Seed Laws Harmonisation in Africa. Report to the European Commission. DeSIRA-LIFT 

Are breeders’ rights and farmers’ rights to seed in conflict or complementary in African countries? 

In its new publication Current developments in seed laws harmonisation in Africa, DeSIRA-LIFT provides key elements to answer this question. The report, written by Peter Munyi, reviews the international treaties and policy instruments that determine the plant breeders’ rights and farmers’ rights to seed.

The findings show that current seed policies need to (and can) be made more coherent and operational to support farmer-managed seed systems in Africa. More in particular, harmonisation efforts should be predominantly geared towards protecting local biodiversity, thus indigenous seed varieties and landraces, which are maintained and reproduced within farmer-managed seed systems.

In the African continent, the seed sector is under increasing public scrutiny. Several critical policy and trade shifts affecting seed laws are taking place across the continent, including the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

The publication is the first of a series of research outputs intended for the European Commission’s Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). It was produced in the framework of DeSIRA-LIFT, a service facility of the DeSIRA Initiative, that aims to underpin policy dialogue between the African Union and the European Commission with evidence and actionable knowledge on trends related to food systems transformation.