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Dr Joseph Made

Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
THE African Seed Trade Association Congress (AFSTA) begins in Victoria Falls today with 500 delegates expected to attend.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made will grace the four-day regional event together with the president of the International Seed Federation (ISF), Alvaro Eyzaguirre.

AFSTA was established in 2000 as a regional representative body for the African seed industry that promotes the development of private seed enterprises.

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Seed Trade Association, Walter Chigodora, said  Eyzaguirre’s presence in Zimbabwe was indicative of the important role the African agricultural sector plays in ensuring food security in the  world.

“The prerequisite of food security is quality seeds and this is where both AFSTA and ISF are playing a key role in influencing  responsive policies, rules and regulations  that govern the seed industry in particular and the agricultural industry in general,” he  said.

Chigodora said the Victoria Falls congress is being held against a background of the African continent’s projected growth of an average six percent which is way above European  economies.

“The other factors that highlight the importance of the African continent are that resource and agricultural output on the continent is on the increase; while it’s also acknowledged that the fastest growing middle class in the world is in Africa,” he said.

The meeting is expected to draw delegates from the International Seed Federation (ISF), Asia Pacific Seed Association (APSA), the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Others include the Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) and the United States Agency for International Development USAID.