Zimpapers Logo

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter

TRADE in staple food within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) is expected to improve following the development of regional seed Standard Operating Procedures.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), working with Comesa’s specialised seed agency, the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) came up with the regional Seed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Comesa has said the SOPs was established in addition to the audit checklist mechanism for maize trade.

“As a procedure manual and checklist for maize trade are developed, AGRA, working with ACTESA, have developed regional seed SOPs to improve regional seed trade in staple food crops.

“This is in addition to the audit checklist mechanism for maize trade,” said the bloc in a media update.

These are provided for under the Comesa Seed Harmonisation Implementation Plan (Comship).

The plan was launched in 2019 and includes countries such as Zimbabwe, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

The initiative is part of the implementation of the AGRA-Comesa cooperation framework titled “Improved Regional Seed Trade in COMESA region”.

It is aimed at improving regional seed trade in maize, rice, soyabeans and rice as a way of catalyzing and sustaining an inclusive agricultural transformation.

– @okazunga