Kenya risks losing huge chunk of seeds market

Kenya could lose earnings from seed exports after Parliament went on recess without passing amendments that would have retained the autonomy of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis).

The Crops Act 2013 which is due for enforcement on January 14, 2014 places Kephis under the Agriculture Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) and Crops Act 2013 which stakeholders had agreed be amended to give bodies like Kephis independence.

Kephis regulates the seed market, ensuring farmers buy certified seeds at affordable prices.

Industry players have raised concern that the quality of seeds would be compromised in the event Kephis loses its regulatory role.

“Kephis is an institution that is renown internationally, its independence has played a pivotal role in ensuring the seed sector has attained the heights that it has achieved,” says Kenya Seed Company managing director Willy Bett.

Mr Bett said the absence of an independent regulator would see seed merchants compete to cash in on the lucrative sector. Kephis has been licensing seed producers to keep at bay unscrupulous business people. 

“The main reason we can sell our seeds to international markets is because Kephis is recognised globally for its role in ensuring quality seeds in the country,” said Agriculture Industry Network chairman Edward Mudibo. 

In October, Kephis together with the Kenya Forest Service was admitted to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Forest Seed and Plant Schemes.

The France-based organisation develops global standards on certification and trade of forestry seeds, used by the 58 countries that are part of its membership.

The AFFA Act was signed into law by former President Mwai Kibaki this year and is aimed at amalgamating all the parastatals in the government under one body. The Bill had a one-year window for implementation which lapses in January.

The amendments to the Act were introduced after stakeholders raised concern over some of the clauses which they termed detrimental to the industry. The government had asked Parliament to speed up amendments made to the agricultural reform laws to make them operational.

“The Act is already a law and the amendments are meant to make it better. If we delay in passing them, then it will be effected in its original form, a move that will be detrimental to the industry,” Agriculture Secretary Felix Koskei warned.

Parliament is expected to resume in February when the laws will have become operational, meaning the amendments can only be introduced after six months, next August at the earliest. The amendments would also have retained an independent body to regulate the fledgling fish industry.

“The fisheries department is currently developing its own legal framework and it needs time as a single entity to realise its full potential,” said Agriculture principal secretary Sicily Kariuki.

Other amendments included the procedure of appointing the director general and heads of directorates.

The director general, under the proposed changes, will be appointed by the Cabinet Secretary while the heads of directorate will be appointed by the boards.

“This is to bring it in line with the State Corporations Act while making the process more competitive,” she said.