Supporting Africa’s next generation of seed sector transformation

Climate shocks, conflict, pests and input price spikes have exposed a common vulnerability: resilient agriculture cannot be built on fragile delivery systems. Better varieties matter, but so do certification, agrodealer networks, extension, regulatory capacity, finance and national investment plans. 

Across Tanzania, Liberia and Zimbabwe, CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program is working with national partners, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, the African Development Bank, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and others to strengthen the systems that connect agricultural science with farmers’ fields.  

Together, these country examples show how Scaling for Impact is helping move seed system innovations beyond isolated pilots — strengthening the partnerships, policies, investment pathways and delivery systems needed to reach farmers at scale. 

Liberia: from roadmap to investment platform 

In Liberia, seed sector transformation is being built around a five-year Seed Roadmap and Investment Plan linked to the National Agriculture Development Plan, the Dakar 2 Liberia Compact and the government’s broader agricultural transformation agenda. 

The roadmap focuses on rice, cassava, maize, soybeans, and aquaculture. It recognizes that ‘seed systems’ must include not only crop seed, but also cassava planting materials and fish fingerlings — the biological foundations of priority food value chains. 

The process began with a government-led Seed Summit in Monrovia, convened with TAAT, bringing leaders, technical partners and stakeholders together to identify constraints, priorities and a coordinated investment plan. Senior government involvement signaled its place in Liberia’s national transformation agenda. 

To meet 25% of national rice demand, Liberia will need certified seed rising from 4,442 metric tons in 2025 to 6,116 metric tons by 2030. Cassava will require planting materials rising from five million cuttings in 2025 to 50 million by 2030. 

Liberia’s Seed Sector Investment Round Table, held in April 2026, was designed as a deal-oriented platform where public priorities, private capital, development finance and technical assistance can align. Commitments focused on certified seed production, distribution networks, Early Generation Seed systems, local seed companies, and technical assistance. Public-private partnerships and blended finance are intended to build a more self-sustaining commercial seed market. 

Tanzania has moved from strategy development to investment-ready implementation. On 4 May 2026, the Government of Tanzania approved the Tanzania Seed Sector Development Strategy. Developed under the Ministry of Agriculture, with support from the International Water Management Institute, CGIAR’s Ukama Ustawi initiative (2022-2024) and the CGIAR Scaling for Impact program, New Zealand and Agricultural Sector Policy and Institutional Reform Strengthening (ASPIRES) project, it provides a framework for transforming the seed sector through 2030. 

It was launched alongside an Investment Plan at the Tanzania Seed Sector Stakeholders Forum in Dodoma, bringing together more than 500 participants from government, research, finance, farmer organizations, companies and partners. The launch attracted national media coverage, signaling a public commitment to align policy, investment, research, finance and delivery systems behind a more competitive and climate-resilient seed economy. 

Hon. David Silinde, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening seed production, distribution and quality control through TOSCI and TARI “to ensure that farmers have access to quality and safe seed.” His message captured the shift from isolated interventions to stronger systems capable of delivering quality seed at scale. 

The strategy is structured around availability, accessibility and distribution, quality assurance and certification, and an enabling environment for investment, innovation and private sector participation. By 2030, it aims to double the area under improved seed from about three million to six million hectares, while expanding Tanzania’s agridealer network from around 3,000 to 12,000. 

It also links seed systems to wider agricultural transformation: seed multiplication, market intelligence, extension, youth entrepreneurship, irrigation, and water productivity. Improved seed cannot deliver resilience alone. Farmers also need reliable water, climate-smart farming systems, advice, and markets. 

Zimbabwe offers a third version of the story. Unlike countries where the first challenge is to establish the basic architecture of a seed system, Zimbabwe already has one of Africa’s stronger seed sectors: active private companies, public breeding capacity and relatively well-established certification systems. 

Yet strong systems still face pressure. Drought, climate variability, weak rural infrastructure, counterfeit seed and limited smallholder access to certified seed continue to constrain productivity. The question is how to make an existing system more climate-smart, inclusive, coordinated, and investment-ready. 

The Zimbabwe Seed Business Summit and Seed Roadmap Workshop, held in Harare in May 2026, brought together government, TAAT, CGIAR partners, seed companies, finance institutions, farmer organizations, universities, youth groups and women-led cooperatives around a five-year Seed Roadmap and Investment Plan. The roadmap focuses on maize, wheat, sorghum, finger millet, pearl millet, soybean, beans, and groundnut. 

Participants reviewed regulation, variety development, seed production, distribution, marketing, quality assurance, certification and farmer access. Crop by crop, they linked improved varieties with the systems needed to multiply, certify, market and use them. The wider challenge is shared: connecting climate-smart seeds with farmers, markets, and investment. 

The three country stories are different, but they point in the same direction. In Tanzania, strategy and investment planning are aligning seed reform with climate resilience, water management and agricultural transformation. In Liberia, a roadmap is bringing partners around costed priorities for seed, planting materials and fish seed. In Zimbabwe, a national summit is helping a mature seed sector identify climate-smart, market-oriented and investment-ready priorities. 

Scaling for Impact is supporting further seed summits and roadmaps this year—led through Scaling for Impact’s finance and partnerships team—to build a pipeline of seed summits and roadmaps. 

The work is not only about seed as an input. It is about seed as a system: policy and regulation; quality assurance and certification; research, breeding and climate-smart varieties; agrodealers and extension services; private seed companies and farmer organizations; and the finance needed to turn national priorities into delivery. 

For farmers, the goal is simple: access to quality seed and planting materials that can perform under real conditions — drought, heat, pests, changing markets and rising production costs. 

A seed carries science. A seed system carries that science to scale.