African Seed Enterprises

Paul Van Mele (PhD, Wageningen University) is an agricultural scientist who has managed agricultural R&D projects dealing with sustainable agriculture across the global South for over three decades. Since 2002, Paul has spearheaded farmer-to-farmer training video, coordinated research on video-mediated learning and taken it to scale. He runs his own company, Agro-Insight, and co-founded the non-profit organisation Access Agriculture to support South-South learning on agroecological transformation. Jeffery W. Bentley (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an agricultural anthropologist with a lifelong interest in farmer creativity, and language. He has worked extensively with farmers and agricultural scientists in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and Portugal. Previously at New Mexico State and Zamorano Universities, he currently works at Agro-Insight. Jeff has consulted for CABI, CIP, CIMMYT, and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), among others. In the early 2000s he played a key role setting up the CABI plant clinics. He lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Robert G. Guéi is a plant breeder and a geneticist (PhD, Kansas State University, 1991). He spent 14 years at AfricaRice (formerly called WARDA), initially as rice breeder, then as coordinator of the international network of genetic evaluation of rice, and finally as Head of the Genetic Resources Unit. Since 2005, he has worked at FAO as an agricultural officer, seed expert. He lives in Rome, and has a global responsibility to help countries develop their seed systems. He is the author of various scientific papers, book chapters and manuals, and technical and policy guides including several on community seed enterprise development. He recently edited the NERICA Rice Compendium.

• 1: Introduction: A full granary 2: How seed works 3: Cameroon: Revolving funds make a difference 4: Nigeria: Clustered seed companies 5: Mali: When government gives entrepreneurs room to grow 6: Guinea: Networks that work 7: The Gambia: Capturing the media 8: Morocco: The visible hand 9: Kenya: A company, a cooperative and a family 10: Uganda: Dreams of starting a company 11: Madagascar: coping with relief aid and politics 12: Conclusions 13: Acronyms and abbreviations 14: Glossary of terms