Seed Laws and Regulations Affecting the Development of the Private Vegetable Seed Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

Vegetable crops hold increasing promise across the African continent. They are viewed as a low- cost remedy to combat malnutrition,1 as they are rich in micronutrients and have high economic viability, making them important to food and nutrition security. Their cultivation can also provide large-scale economic opportunity and employment.2 However, in many sub-Saharan African countries, both the public and private sectors have focused mainly on the development of a narrower group of agricultural commodities, mostly field crops, with limited priority given to vegetable crops to date.

This study focuses on one important aspect of vegetable crop development, namely the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks (collectively referred to as the enabling environment)4 that impact the vegetable seed sector and affect opportunities for all stakeholders, including smallholder farmers. The study was prepared by the New Markets Lab (NML), a non-profit law and development center, in partnership with the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) and presents a comparative legal and regulatory analysis of factors affecting the development of the private vegetable seed sector in thirteen sub-Saharan African countries: four East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda); three Southern African countries (Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe); and six West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal), which are collectively referred to as the “focus countries”