African leaders and advocates call for seed sovereignty

At the Africa Ministerial Seed Summit in Eswatini, leaders and advocates called for urgent action to secure seed sovereignty and strengthen agricultural resilience across the continent.

Zakithi Sibandze of the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) urged that rural women be included in decision-making processes regarding the African Union’s Policy, Strategy and Action Plan on Farmer Managed Seed Systems (FMSS). The RWA argued that women serve as essential custodians of indigenous knowledge and seed preservation, and they proposed that these systems be defined as farmer-led and community-governed to protect their autonomy from formal regulatory requirements.

Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, emphasized that seed systems should be treated as strategic sovereign assets. He outlined three priorities for continental self-reliance: streamlining regional regulations to facilitate cross-border trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area, safeguarding farmer-managed systems by providing women and youth with access to finance and training, and increasing public funding for agricultural research to develop climate-smart crop varieties.