Author Archives: seedethiopia

Staff from the ENSP project and a Plantum representative visited two cutting-edge seed producing companies: Nunhems, which is situated in the Amhara region close to Arerti town, and Solagrow PLC, a potato seed producer company situated around Bishoftu city. Ben Depraetere, Managing Director of Nunhems Ethiopia PLC and Country Head of BASF’s vegetable seed businessContinue reading “A state-of-the-art seed producing companies in Ethiopia visited”

The problem of fake, counterfeit, or substandard seed in Ethiopia has received little attention, yet there are substantial indications of the problem as an emerging challenge facing the seed sector. Cognizant of this fact, ENSP has organized stakeholder workshops at Adama and Bahir Dar to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss the status ofContinue reading “Counterfeit Seed: a growing challenge that is threatening the sector in Ethiopia”

Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is one of the areas of debate among professionals in the sector. Beyond protecting the right of the breeder, it is also linked to international trade and different countries follow different system of protection. Although proclamation 481/2006 was enacted as early as 2006 and it was revised without being implemented inContinue reading “Dysfunctional Plant Variety Protection in Ethiopia: Professionals’ Perspective”

The use of quality seed is essential for production and marketing of vegetables in Ethiopia. So far, large proportion of the vegetable seed is imported while the remaining proportion is produced domestically. Locally produced seeds include low yielding local varieties of some vegetables and relatively high yielding improved ones which have been released by publicContinue reading “Vegetable seed import: A growing trend in both import volume and government spending “

The conducive environment for vegetable production and the high quality of imported vegetable seeds has increased the demand for imported vegetable seeds in Ethiopia. The varieties that companies import must be registered. However, the registration process is very challenging for vegetable seed companies. In order to assess the import trend of vegetable seed, map currentContinue reading “Vegetable Seed Import in Ethiopia: A Scoping Study Highlights”

The phytosanitary service has been given little focus in Ethiopia for long. Due to various reasons the service provided is not to the level expected in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and quality of service. Often there are complaints from the service users. One of the reasons for the gap is believed to be the levelContinue reading “Bringing Phytosanitary Services in to Focus “

Ethiopian seed proclamation and seed regulation specify that variety testing, both  Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability(DUS) test and Value for Cultivation and Use/National Performance (VCU/NPT) Trials, must be carried out by an impartial authority. In reality, the MoA has not taken up variety testing as impartial organization, rather research institutes that also generate the varieties doContinue reading “Transition in Progress:  Reclaiming responsibility for crop variety testing”