Unlocking regional seed trade for Africa's bean farmers
At the COMESA Seed Trade Harmonisation workshop, researchers and partners examined how regulatory reforms can speed the movement of improved bean seed across borders, helping farmers access innovations faster and strengthening regional food security.
- Agricultural Innovation
- crops
- Climate Action
Unlocking regional seed trade for Africa's bean farmers
At the COMESA Seed Trade Harmonisation workshop, researchers and partners examined how regulatory reforms can speed the movement of improved bean seed across borders, helping farmers access innovations faster and strengthening regional food security.
Africa holds 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land. The Common Market in Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region, spanning 21 member states across Eastern and Southern Africa, accounts for just 2 to 3% of global seed trade, roughly $1.4 to $1.9 billion of a market worth between $90 and $120 billion. That is not a gap produced by a lack of prerequisite human resources, investment ambition, or infrastructure. Bean breeders across the continent have spent decades developing varieties that triple yields, cut cooking time, resist disease, and expand three times in volume when cooked, varieties that could change the economics of smallholder farming quickly but this seed often does not move freely across the borders whose countries share similar agro-ecologies and consumer bean demands.