February 2, 2023
The 2022 TASAI Malawi Country Report summarizes the findings of the TASAI study conducted in Malawi in 2022 by the TASAI team and a local seed industry expert. The results highlight some positive developments since the last TASAI study in 2020. For maize, bean, groundnut, and soya bean, Malawi’s formal seed system is still in its growth stage of development. The country has registered several years of steady private sector involvement in the production and commercialization of varieties as well as a stable seed policy environment.
Under the research and development category, local seed companies in Malawi source basic seed from the Department of Agricultural Services (DARS), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers, and other seed companies. This approach appears to be working as the companies reported a high level of satisfaction with the availability of basic seed for all four crops. However, DARS needs to lay out a structured procedure for seed companies to access basic seed. Currently, basic seed is accessed in ad-hoc first-come-first-served arrangements without pre-booking. This arrangement does not allow DARS to forecast the basic seed requirements in advance. On the plus side, seed companies are actively engaged in the release of varieties through the variety release system. Forty eight percent of these releases had climate-smart features or industry-demanded features.
Malawi’s seed industry is highly dependent on the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP), the government seed subsidy program. The program focused on maize seed in 2020/21 and accounted for 61% of maize seed sales that year. The program did not include legume seed in its scope, and this led to a reduction in the number of active seed companies for bean, groundnut, and soya bean. Under industry competitiveness, the market shares of the top four companies for the four crops were very high, between 87% and 95%, showing that the seed market was highly concentrated. On the plus side, the TASAI study found that 24% of the seed company management positions were held by women, compared to 14% in 2019. Furthermore, 50% of surveyed companies were women-owned and 23% of companies had women in top management.
The most recent change to Malawi’s seed policy environment was the approval of the Malawi Seed Act in April 2022. Although the Act has yet to be implemented, it puts seed regulations under the mandate of the Malawi Seed Regulatory. The Act also establishes the Crop Variety Released and Registration Committee to replace the Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee (ATCC) as the entity handling variety release and registration. Further, the Act has harmonized several clauses with the provisions in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Seed Agreement and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Seed Trade Harmonized Regulations. Lastly, the Act increases the penalties to be paid by offenders who deliberately violate the law.
Seed inspection services under the Seed Services Unit (SSU) received a satisfaction rating of 67% from seed companies. This “good” rating can be attributed to government efforts to address counterfeit seed and an increase in the number of para seed inspectors from 16 in 2019 to 33 in 2021. These para seed inspectors are deployed to support the SSU seed inspection services. Despite these improvements, SSU requires additional resources to make its service delivery more efficient.
The number of agricultural extension officers has not changed over the last few years. Malawi’s public extension officers are complemented by extension staff from seed companies and NGOs. Further, the government is in the process of training public officers to enhance the provision of services to smallholder farmers. As one of the main pillars of institutional support, STAM registered a total of 552 agro-dealers in 2021, an increase from the 468 that were licensed in 2019. The increase in the number of agro-dealers and shops can be attributed to the AIP, as it increased the volume of seed and opened up seed industry opportunities for new entrants.
In 2021, 86% of bean and 62% of soya bean seed was packaged in small packages of 2 kg or less which is readily accessible to smallholder farmers. However, only 5% of maize seed was packaged in 2 kg bags, while 89% was packaged in 2 to 10 kg bags in response to the requirements of the AIP program.
The report was published following a successful dissemination meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi on December 14, 2022, where findings were validated and discussed by members of Malawi’s public and private seed sectors.
The report was published following a successful dissemination meeting in Abuja, Nigeria on November 28, 2022, where findings were validated and discussed by members of Nigeria’s public and private seed sectors.
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