Work to ensure a reliable seed supply should start at home, but when countries work together to meet their common need for quality seed, much more can be achieved. Imagine new varieties moving freely across borders, and shipments of high quality seed of adapted varieties arriving just in time to help a country recover from drought. Harmonization of national seed sectors has already begun. Through hard work and sustained commitment on the part of national governments, the dream of a borderless regional seed sector should soon turn into reality.

Drought: A threat to food security

Disaster comes in many forms: drought, flood, hurricane, war, civil disturbance, to name a few. Among the natural disasters, drought is common in a large proportion of Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), the regional geographic mandate area of ICARDA.
     Drought affects agricultural production, the human population, and the environment. It can cause a mild drop in agricultural production, or wipe out the productive capacity of whole regions, and cause long-term alterations to ecosystems. Drought is also one of the main causes for seed insecurity, through destabilization of rural populations, and disruption of agricultural production, leading to depletion of seed stocks. In severe cases, drought can lead to the loss of valuable genetic diversity, the building blocks for rehabilitation and restoration of agricultural systems.

Seed: Key to restoration of agriculture

Seed is the key to maintaining on-farm crop diversity, food security, and transferring technology (i.e., increased production potential in the form of improved crop varieties) to farmers. Seed is also central to any emergency intervention to restore food production. For example, the success of agricultural rehabilitation following drought depends mainly on farmers' access to seed of adapted crop varieties. Thus, it is very important that seed-supply strategies be in place, not only to ensure availability under normal conditions, but also to ensure supply during and after emergencies.
     Strategies should be considered at the household, community, national and regional levels. Each level requires a different approach, but they must all be closely linked, integrated and complementary to ensure food production in all circumstances. Often, rehabilitation efforts focus on emergency food supply while neglecting the more strategic issue of seed.
     Regional cooperation in seed production and marketing can help ensure seed security and contribute substantially to agricultural rehabilitation after serious drought. Success depends on the existence of strong national seed systems and farmer-based community seed banks and strategic-area reserves of adapted local crop varieties.

Harmonized seed regulations

Harmonization of seed policies, laws, and regulations should help to quickly restore a sound base for agricultural production in the event of drought.
If policies are the same, then "senior policy makers in different countries have a common understanding of how they wish to see the seed industry develop in their countries," says Dr Salah Abdel Wanis, former Under-Secretary for Seed in Egypt.
     "But similar laws and seed regulations also mean similar procedures and similar seed production standards, which will simplify and speed up the emergency response to make available seed of adapted crop varieties to farming communities in the drought-stricken areas," says Dr Wanis, whose views are shared by representatives of agricultural research development.
     "Variety evaluation and release procedures should be similar, or, even better organized on a regional basis," says Dr William Erskine, ICARDA's Assistant Director General for Research.
     There would be no need for further evaluation of a variety and no concerns of mal-adaptation. This would simplify greatly the movement of a variety from one country to another, which means that rehabilitation could be very fast.
For this vision to become reality, national seed certification programs would need to be standardized, or at least modeled on similar lines. The best strategy might entail establishment of a regional seed certification scheme, such as that of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Seeds certified under such a scheme can easily move from one member country to another, without hindrance.
     "If only standards [for genetic and seed quality] would be uniform across the region, acceptance of seed from other countries would not raise an eyebrow," says Dr Abdul Mohsin Omar Sayed, Director General of the General Organization for Seed Multiplication, Syria.
     While the benefits of free-movement of seed are obvious, so too are the dangers posed by the introduction of diseased seed, pests, or weeds. However, science-based pest risk assessment, based on guidelines set down by the International Plant Protection Convention, would give quarantine regulators a reasonable level of confidence.
     "We must not forget quarantine regulations, but uniform regulations across countries would make the need for seed health testing minimal," says Dr Ahmed El-Ahmed, in charge of ICARDA's Seed Health Laboratory.

ICARDA’s efforts in ensuring seed security

Because ICARDA works in fragile environments where drought is common, the Center recognizes the importance of strong links between national crop improvement programs in the region. To help foster these links, ICARDA's Germplasm Program brings scientists together for annual planning meetings and scientific workshops.
     "These annual planning meetings are not only important to discuss specific country programs and agree on priority research issues," says Dr Tom Blake, Director of the Germplasm Program, "but also to ensure that programs have a regional focus."
     The Center-run international nursery program coordinates region-wide evaluation of breeding lines and promising varieties. It also runs traveling workshops to evaluate performance of new adapted germplasm across the region. This helps identify varieties with wider or specific adaptation, reducing the need for repeated evaluations of promising lines in individual countries.
     At the same time, ICARDA's Seed Unit maintains ties with public and private seed organizations throughout the region.
     "The West Asia and North Africa Seed Network is basically an information network, but our ultimate aim is to initiate the process of harmonization of seed rules and seed laws," says Dr Bahattin Bozkurt, Deputy Director General for Agricultural Development and Production, Ministry of Agriculture, Turkey.

Networking for regional integration

Established 10 years ago, the WANA Seed Network has 19 member-countries and is linked strongly to 11 regional and international organizations dealing with agriculture and/or seed sector development. The Network promotes cooperation, facilitates exchange of information, and provides a forum for sharing experience, expertise, and resources. Exploiting synergy among national programs is a major objective. It is a catalyst to seed-sector harmonization intended to lead to a strong and dynamic seed industry in the region.
The Network realizes that harmonization is not easy. Changing policies, laws and regulations will require a lot of consultation between experts, policy makers, and legislators.

     As a first step, information on different national seed policies was collected, summarized, published, and circulated among member-countries and beyond. The Network is now preparing a draft uniform seed policy for consideration by member-countries. Similarly, national seed certification programs in each member country have been analyzed and a draft regional certification scheme has been developed. Some countries have already taken action. The Egyptian member representatives, for instance, have requested their country's Ministry of Agriculture to endorse the scheme. Variety release must also be harmonized, so the Network will carry out a comprehensive study of similarities and differences of the various mechanisms, including variety evaluation, registration, and release procedures in the member-countries. The study will also cover policy and regulatory, technical and administrative issues affecting commercialization of varieties.
     Among the valuable information compiled is a catalog of all field and seed standards. It covers important cereals, legumes, oilseeds, industrial crops, forages, and selected vegetable crops in member-countries, and should simplify the task of developing common standards. A catalog of all varieties released and commercialized in member-countries has also been produced and is regularly updated.
     To ensure that all laboratories carry-out tests in a similar fashion and that results of tests are comparable between member-countries, a proficiency testing system is implemented among the seed testing stations in the region. The test has been carried out for cereals, legumes, and forage crops.
     A summary of rules and regulations on seed trade and regional data on seed import and export are available, as is a directory of seed producers, importers and exporters, and national organizations dealing with policy and regulatory issues on agricultural research, varieties, and seeds.
     ICARDA also commissioned a study of the seed sector in selected countries. The review covered crop research and seed supply, policy and regulatory framework in variety release and registration, seed quality control and certification, and seed/grain trade and quarantine regulations. The result includes lists of crop varieties (suitable for drought-prone areas), seed producers and available facilities, agencies responsible for seed quality control, seed/grain trade and quarantine, and nongovernmental organizations involved in agricultural development and emergency seed supply.

The Karaj workshop:A first step

Collection of information is just the start. Harmonization process is the goal.
     To this end, in November 2002 ICARDA and its national agricultural research system partners held a workshop on "Review of National Seed Systems and Regulations in Central and West Asia," in Karaj, Iran. At the workshop, senior managers and policy makers from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan explored opportunities for harmonization of seed policies and regulations, and endorsed the harmonization initiative. Stakeholders at the national and regional level will meet again to come up with a final agreement that meets the region's needs.

Looking ahead

Food and seed security are linked, and seed security programs must be in place to cope with man-made and natural disasters, of which drought is probably the most threatening for CWANA. Seed security must be addressed from a broad perspective—household, community, national and regional levels—that goes beyond emergency seed relief. All farmers should have access, at all times, to seed of adapted crop varieties.
     Seed security can be achieved more easily when countries have open-door policies and encourage harmonization of seed policies, laws and regulations that result in the free movement of new varieties and seed across national boundaries.