Private companies licensed for seed inspection

In a move to increase agricultural production, six private companies have been licensed to ensure the quality of seed and its timely provision to producers.

The National Director of Agriculture and Forestry, Pedro Dzucula, said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA) had been developing policies aimed at creating a favourable environment in the sector.

Instruments had been approved to ensure that seed was of high quality and that the registration process was flexible, and to strengthen the sector, the government, private sector and nongovernmental organisations were developing research programmes to boost the emergence of new plant varieties.

“In addition to these programmes, the Agriculture and Forestry Directorate has signed memoranda with various organisations to improve quality control and ensure seed availability,” he said. Dzucula acknowledged that the licensing of private inspectors had contributed to the improvement of seed quality control in the country.

“We have the challenge of transforming subsistence agriculture into agribusiness, hence the responsibility of boosting the production of improved seeds and quality to ensure greater productivity,” he said.

Carlos Mugoma, the director of the Inovagro Project, believes that quality control is important for customer confidence and for achieving food security and increasing producers’ incomes.

“We congratulate partners, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, private institutions, producers and partners, for their contribution to the successful operationalisation of the private inspectors model, now transformed into a regulation,” he said.

Addressing the inspectors, he said the role they will play was crucial to the development of the seed sector, and a task they should carry out with passion, integrity, honesty and transparency, in order to ensure the dignity of industry and earn the trust placed in them.

Source: IPP Media