eBusiness Weekly
Golden Sibanda
One of Africa’s leading seed breeders, Seed Co Group, says it has started conducting research in South Africa with a view to develop hybrid varieties which can do well in the predominantly temperate climate region.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed company is involved in the breeding, multiplication and distribution of mainly hybrid seed for maize, wheat, soya beans, sugar beans, cowpeas, sorghum, groundnuts and vegetables.
Although the company already had presence in the South African market, group chief executive Morgan Nzwere told Business Weekly in an interview this week that the hybrid seed breeder was only focusing on producing and supplying the market with in-demand green mealies.
Seed Co not into GMOs
“We are not in that area yet (GMO seed production). We are currently serving a small percentage of the (South African) market with green mealies, which is required by a section of the market that does not like GMOs (genetically modified organisms),” Nzwere said.
However, efforts are already underway on research to develop hybrid maize seed varieties (none GMOs) that suite the climatic conditions of the southern African country, which are temperate compared to the tropics where Seed Co already has wide footprint in hybrid seed production.
“We have started research on seed varieties that suite the market conditions. We have predominantly been in markets in the tropics, but most of South Africa is temperate (climate). Our varieties are for the tropics,” he said.
The Seed Co chief executive also noted that about 90 percent of South African farmers were more into production of genetically modified maize, including the bulk of what is used for feedstock; varieties Seed Co does not produce.
“Most South African farmers also grow GMOs (genetically modified organisms), crops that do well in temperate climate. So we want to come up with varieties that suite the economic environment,’ Nzwere said.
Firm focuses on niche market
Nzwere said that while Seed Co was giving more attention to niche markets where it has developed hybrid varieties to substitute use of seed from harvested crop, the South African market remained part of its long term plans.
“We can’t just go into all markets that do not match our competencies.” Penetrating developed markets was not easy and needed time to develop seed varieties that can enable the group to “steal market share from someone”.
Seed Co has registered operations in the following African countries: Botswana; Ghana; Kenya; Malawi; Nigeria; Rwanda; South Africa; Tanzania; Zambia and Zimbabwe.
New seed varieties in tropical climate
In other markets, Nzwere said when commenting on the group’s operational and financial performance recently, the seed breeding firm had made progress towards registering seed varieties under the COMESA catalogue namely 11 maize varieties and 4 soya varieties on molecular genotyping, lab optimised and operations enhanced.
Consequently, the company said earlier, the breeding programmes had begun deploying molecular markers in breeding projects.
