During the first National Seed Congress on Monday, July 31st, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri called on Rwanda’s seed industry to focus on research and resources to address the country’s heavy dependence on imported vegetable seeds.

Rwanda currently imports all of its vegetable seeds despite making tremendous advances in manufacturing seeds for important commodities like maize, wheat, and soybeans. The government is looking for alternatives due to the exorbitant expense of imported seeds, such as the Teja F1 hot pepper type, which costs Rwf3 million per kilogram.

The pricey importation of seeds, the patents owned by businesses that created the existing vegetable seed types, preventing others from expanding them, are one of the main obstacles to local seed production.

As a solution to this problem, Musafiri suggested collaborations with businesses that own patents to permit the country’s seeds to be multiplied. Additionally, he recommended that local seed business participants spend money on research to create new domestic seed kinds.

The diversified climate in Rwanda, in Musafiri’s opinion, presents possibilities for indigenous seed production of vegetables. The National Seed Association of Rwanda’s (NSAR) Chairperson, Innocent Namuhoranye, also emphasized the opportunity for regional vegetable seed production.

Since some species of vegetable seeds need particular climatic conditions for effective development, vegetable seed multiplication is different from maize seed multiplication, he said.

The potential for domestic seed production can be seen in Rwanda’s success in the maize seed subsector, where the nation now produces more seed than it imports.

Musafiri stated Rwanda’s desire to become self-sufficient in the production of seeds for goods in which it has a competitive advantage. To support agricultural development and foster regional cooperation, the nation also hopes to export locally produced seeds.