The development comes at a time when the country’s seed development sub-sector has registered a decline compared to its peers in the region, namely Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

AS part of efforts to arrest a decline that has been registered in the country’s seed development sector, government has registered 21 new seed specialists to join the 68 who are already in the field, bringing the number of seed specialists in the country to 89.
According to a notice issued by the head of the Seed Services Institute, Claid Mujaju, in the Government Gazette of April 22, 10 seed professionals have been designated seed inspectors while another 11 have been designated seed analysts.
According to the notice, of the 10 inspectors, one from the Seed Potato Company will specialise in seed potato, and two from Kutsaga Seed Association will specialise in tobacco seed while the remaining seven (two from Mukushi Seeds and five from the Zimbabwe Technological Solutions) will specialise in all seed crops.
Of the 11 newly registered analysts, three from Kutsaga Seed Association will specialize in tobacco seed, another three from Pioneer Seed company will specialise in maize seed while the remaining five (one from Agriseeds and four from Prime Seeds) will specialise in all seed crops except tobacco and cotton.
Cotton seed is currently analysed and inspected exclusively by specialists from Quton.
The development comes at a time when the country’s seed development sub-sector has registered a decline compared to its peers in the region, namely Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
According to a country report on Zimbabwe prepared by Mujaju and Munyaradzi Jonga, which was presented to The African Seed Access Index in March last year, while the South African seed development sector was judged to be mature, and those of Kenya and Uganda were regarded as growing, the Zimbabwean seed development sector was judged as declining.
According to the report, while there has been real growth in the number of seed houses in Zimbabwe over the years, a number of factors were militating against the seed development sub-sector in Zimbabwe, hence its declining regional ranking.
The Zimbabweans seed sector is much smaller than that of regional powerhouse, South Africa, almost equal to that of Kenya, but is much bigger than that of Uganda.
The report cited a host of factors that are affecting the sector, one of which was the shortage of analysts and inspectors to ensure that high standards are maintained.
With 40 active seed breeders producing an average of 35 new seed varieties every three years, Zimbabwe compared favorably with Kenya which has 68 seed breeders producing 60 varieties within the same period.
However, South Africa’s mature seed industry that has only 53 active seed breeders is a run-away winner as it can produce about 310 new seed varieties every three years.
Uganda is worse off, with 11 active breeders producing only 19 seed varieties every three years.
The report identified the brain drain that affected the country during the hyper-inflationary era as the main reason why the country was having a serious shortage of seed professionals to keep check on seed standards.
The latest appointments serve to fill in this gape.
“The law in Zimbabwe stipulates that no seed company can be registered without an inspectorate section in place. However, the few companies that have been adversely affected by recent brain drain or staff attrition are supported by the Seed Certifying Authority,” the country report pointed out.
The report also highlighted that serious shortage of resources by the country’s public seed inspectors and analysts has negatively affecting adherence to strict standards.
“Private inspectors are, on average, better resourced in terms of vehicles for mobility compared to the public ones. As such, public inspectors depend on transport from seed companies. Being chauffer-driven in a private seed company vehicle can compromise the impartiality of inspectors. Whilst seed companies inspect 90 percent of their fields, public inspectors inspect the remaining 10 percent as a quality control measure,” the report said.
The country currently has licensed six private seed testing laboratories from Seed-Co, Pannar, Prime Seeds, the Forestry Commission, the Tobacco Research Board and Quton respectively to test and certify seeds for the local market.
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