April 22, 2023
The TASAI team is pleased to announce the publication of the 2022 TASAI Burkina Faso Country Study. Following the previous studies conducted in 2018 and 2020, the 2022 round of data collection highlights important recent developments in the formal seed sector. The findings of the 2022 study were validated with seed industry stakeholders in a dissemination meeting in Ouagadougou on January 25, 2023. The final, published, version of the report incorporates feedback from the meeting. The new data for Burkina Faso has also been released to the online TASAI Dashboard (https://dashboard.tasai.org). Below are the highlights of the 2022 TASAI Burkina Faso Country Report, which focused on maize, rice, sorghum, and cowpea – four important cereal and legume food security crops in Burkina Faso.
The 2022 study sheds light on several positive developments as well as areas for improvement in Burkina Faso’s formal seed system, which remains in the early growth stage of development. The number of active breeders at the Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA) for the four crops increased from 9 breeders in 2017 to 16 breeders in 2021. Seed producers reported a high level of satisfaction with the adequacy of the INERA breeders and the availability of basic seed from INERA for all four crops. Further, 94% of the 18 varieties released between 2019 and 2021 had at least one climate-smart feature. However, the variety release process is not fully functioning, leading to a backlog of applications for varieties that have been developed by INERA but have not yet been released.
The seed market is competitive, with no single seed producer or group of seed producers dominating the seed market for any of the four crops. The main challenge in the area of industry competitiveness is the seed producers’ over-dependence on the government seed subsidy program as the main buyer of seed for all four crops. In 2021, the government subsidy program accounted for between 41% (of cowpea seed) and 66% (of rice seed) of all seed sold by seed producers.
The seed policy instruments in Burkina Faso are relatively complete, as most decrees and ministerial orders have been passed. In addition, Burkina Faso was one of the first countries in the ECOWAS region to adopt the ECOWAS Seed Regulations of 2008. The main implementing entities under the Seed Law, that is, the Comité National de Semences (CNS) and the Service National des Semences (SNS), are both operational, and have manuals of procedures to guide their implementation. However, the CNS is not able to conduct the Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) and Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) tests required for variety release. Instead, these tests are conducted by INERA, which presents a conflict of interest, since INERA is also the developer of the same seed varieties. Another persistent challenge reported by seed producers is the unpredictability of the procurement process and the inefficient payments made for seed that has been supplied under the seed subsidy program.
While seed producers are relatively satisfied with the SNS’ seed inspection services (73% rating in 2021), there is a need to further strengthen the service by hiring additional seed inspectors and improving their funding. This would complement ongoing positive developments including the use of various technology applications to improve their efficiency.
Although the number of public extension officers has declined over the last three years, seed producers’ satisfaction with their adequacy has remained good. Further, in 2021, the number of agro-dealers has remained above 1,000, although only 57 are officially registered by the SNS.
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