Malawi govt to introduce measures against fake seeds, says Agriculture Minister

Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Minister, Dr. George Chaponda says government plans to soon introduce measure to curb the flow of fake seeds on the market.

Chaponsa said government is emphasizing the importance of Agriculture and for it to be meaningful, there is need to have the right type of seeds especially at this time when we are dealing with El-Nino.

Chaponda visited Seed-Co Company in Lilongwe on Friday and stressed the importance to have seeds which can yield more produce per hectare.

“For agriculture to move forward, quality seeds have to be provided to the farmers and that’s why government values its partnership with seeds companies in Malawi like Seed-Co who have that kind of seeds,” he said.

Chaponda said government will soon introduce new agriculture and irrigation policies and is also in the process of deliberating seed policy which is expected to be tabled in Parliament in November.

He said: “The new agriculture policy has new innovations that appreciate Agriculture as key to economic progress by further promoting irrigation and empowering smallholder farmers through gradually moving towards mechanisation.”

Commenting on fake seeds, Seed-Co Managing Director Dellings Phiri said his company know that fake seeds come through packaging.

“We have introduced strict control on packaging material and its quality. If a farmer can identify our seeds, fake seeds won’t be an issue. That can be done through the seed or the packaging,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company has donated 10 metric tonnes to people of the Lower Shire that have been affected locus.

Seed-Co is the major contributor to government’s subsidy program.

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