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From:
"Okidi, Joseph (FAOKE)" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for the Horn of Africa <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 09:35:14 +0300
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Dear Ismail,



Thanks for bringing the concern about GMO and Pesticide treated seed. You may want to correct me here, I am not sure whether World Food Program (WFP) is distributing GMO food in Somalia. To my understanding, it's normally FAO Emergency Unit that is involved in Distributing Seed and not WFP.  To my understanding, use of GMO in a country is controlled by government, and FAO normally support government policy.  



Just know a little bit about death associated with eating treated seed in Somalia. It is unfortunate that some farmers could have died as a result of this.  Do you have statistics on how many people died  as a result of eating pesticide treated seed? Was this information shared with FAO office in Somalia? I will up this for internal discussion with FAO. Thanks for bringing out this. 



Regards,



Joseph



-----Original Message-----

From: Abdirahman Osman [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 

Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 1:36 AM

To: The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for the Horn of Africa

Subject: Re: Unsuitable crop parieties being provided to affected population in the form of seed aid in the horn of Africa region - POOR QUALITY SEED



Dear Joseph,



Push seeds of undeclared origin, genetics and quality into the fledgling agricultural sector of Somalia and make some money for and together with the corporate seed-cabal, which practically never can be held legally responsible. Even when straight death occurred, because uninformed Somali farmers ate pesticide-laced seeds due to hunger and were killed, no responsibility was ever accepted by the WFP, the UN or their suppliers and the families were never compensated.



Since 1994, when the World Food Programme (WFP) was requested for the first time officially to declare that they would never push GMO/GE-seeds into Somalia and to the uninformed farmers, neither the WFP nor its parent organization – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations – has ever responded and they never have been willing to give such assurance or any such declaration of full transparency.



Will Somalia now be the next country clandestinely being taken over by the corporate GMO-pushers under disguise of UN-help or can the Somali governments (central and regional as well as Somaliland) stand up to protect their people and organic agriculture? Could Somalia even gain back it’s earlier position? Somalia stood before the war as one of the best providers of seeds for e.g. drought resistant maize and sorghum varieties, derived from natural selective breeding programmes. Much of this has been destroyed already, but the death-knell will be delivered by these “new deals” – coming without checks and balances.





Best Regards



Abdirahman Ismail

SHADO





On 8/6/14, Okidi, Joseph (FAOKE) <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Issa,

>

> I totally agree with you. We need this kind of open discussion for us 

> to forge a way forward

>

> Regards,

>

> Joseph

> ________________________________________

> From: Issa John [[log in to unmask]]

> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 9:44 PM

> To: The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for the 

> Horn of Africa

> Subject: Re: Unsuitable crop parieties being provided to affected 

> population in the form of seed aid in the horn of Africa region - POOR 

> QUALITY SEED

>

> Dear Joseph,

>

> It is so developmental for having brought in such topic for discussion 

> as seeds are back borne for agricultural adventure. The little 

> experience I have with some seed companies is non of them is ready to 

> lose either a gram or kilo of seeds after the seeds have expired and 

> they usually do the following to their clients/customers:

> 1-they change the packaging materials and re-brand as if they have 

> been newly parked.

> 2-they avail their clients with viable seeds for any technical 

> analysis such as germination test etc yet they supply 75% fake seeds 

> and only 25% is viable since they know germination test is already done.

> 3-they usually use synthetic fertilizers to boost the crops 

> performance in order to attract farmers/humanitarian agencies 

> attentions, however, the same crops will not give the same results 

> when procured and distributed to the affected population.

>

> Opinions:

>

> 1-It will be good if farmers' home saved seeds can be improved, 

> bulked, procured and distributed to affected population by 

> humanitarian agencies, expired seeds distribution to affected 

> population would be reduced and finally eliminated.

> 2- Promotion of farmers unions in each region for easy seeds bulking 

> can be another step to reduce annually financial loose incurred by the 

> agencies as they can buy directly from the farmers themselves, hence 

> encouraging farmers to produce more since their financial status are 

> improved through procurement of their bulked seeds by the agencies.

> 3-Promotion of progress farmers to test any new varieties of seeds 

> before any distribution is done in any geographical location to avoid farmers'

> doubt on humanitarian agencies technocrats since farmers are experts 

> as far as agriculture is concerned.

> 4-It would be good if bottom-top approach is always applied rather 

> than top-bottom approach to maximally involved farmers in any plans to 

> address agricultural related problems.

>

> Kind regards

> Issa.

>

>

>

> On Friday, August 1, 2014 1:32 AM, Patricia Philip 

> <[log in to unmask]>

> wrote:

>

>

> Hello Joseph Okidi

>

> greetings from Juba , hoping that you are very fine.

>

> I feel interesting to be a part of discussion, and I agreed with some 

> of the colleagues and friends, and that is why some of humanitarian 

> project like agriculture dose not succeed. there are three major 

> things to be involve 1. every body/farmer  need to learn a new variety 

> most of humanitarian distribute seeds / variety with out giving 

> farmers knowledge about its timing weather it is a quick variety of long term.

> 2. they don,t care about the type of soil, weather , climate and rainfall.

> 3.they don,t sit with the farmers to identify the best variety for the 

> farmers compare to the market , and they don,t assess weather, there 

> is a seeds / crops  locally with in the area or not.

>

> so my advise to humanitarian actors is like this .

> assessment is the main important instrument to identify the real needs 

> of the main affected population to help you get a way forwards even in 

> term of emergency.

>

> any way thank you very much

>

> Patricia Philip

> PSO

> Trocaire . south

>  Sudan Juba

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> From:        "Okidi, Joseph (FAOKE)" <[log in to unmask]>

> To:        [log in to unmask]

> Date:        01/08/2014 09:42

> Subject:        Re: Unsuitable crop parieties being provided to affected

> population in the form of seed aid in the horn of Africa region - POOR 

> QUALITY SEED

> Sent by:        The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for

> the Horn of Africa <[log in to unmask]>

> ________________________________

>

>

>

> Dear Michel,

>

> I totally Agree with you that many humanitarian actors think famer’s 

> seed are of poor quality. Much as I agree the we need to follow 

> certain critical procedure in checking quality (germination, purity, 

> MC etc), many times the guys from the seed companies tend to be smart 

> enough in duping us  on quality. I have had some bad experience while working with FAO South Sudan.

> FAO Uses an international quality control agent, but I realized that 

> if you totally rely on the paper work only you may easily be duped. 

> Quality check done be done along supply chains – Kneeing where this 

> seed have been produced, checking with the relevant government 

> authority if the supplier actually has the capacity or quantity you 

> need, sampling and testing seed before loadin, and final checking by the technical staff at field level.

> Most importantly, how do we punish those supplying BAD SEED?  

> Otherwise, as you have already mention, we shall do more harm than 

> good to the affected population.

>

> Regards,

>

> Joseph

>

> From: Micheal Yemane [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 1:57 PM

> To: The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for the 

> Horn of Africa

> Subject: RE: Unsuitable crop parieties being provided to affected 

> population in the form of seed aid in the horn of Africa region

>

> Thanks Joseph for raising an important issue.

> You are right most of the agencies think farmer's seeds are of poor 

> quality, which is not correct. One thing that we have to realize is 

> the farmers are the best experts for their farm. They have been living 

> for generations on the land and have wealth of accumulated knowledge. 

> The great solution is not to start from scratch but it is to consult 

> the farmers/target people. I have seen a cotton seed distributed, 

> which can't germinate, wasting lots of money. I expect real 

> professional to follow certain critical procedures. We have to know 

> the variety, germination percentage, purity and its disease/drought 

> tolerance. Without this basics, doing seed distribution will do more harm than good.

> In most cases affected people are not consulted before implementation 

> of the program. It is understandable....time can be constraint in 

> rapid onset emergencies. We may rush to secure the budget/funding but 

> during implementation we have to sit with the farmers to know the 

> specifics of the support. The interest of farmers can be rice seed but 

> attention has to be paid to the variety equally. By giving rice seed, 

> we cannot address their problem.

> As expert, there are certain areas that need improvement in farmer's 

> routine exercise. Recent innovations and research ideas has to be 

> tested in the field and disseminated in a proper way. By talking to 

> the direct beneficiaries, we can be more efficient!

>

> Regards!

>

> ­­­­­­----------------------------------------------------------------

> ------------

> Micheal Yemane

> Advisor, Food Security and Livelihoods International Medical Corps,  

> From Relief to Self-Reliance Cell Phone (in Eth): +251-913-283266 

> www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org<http://www.internationalmedicalcorps

> .org/>

> Skype: micheal.yemane1

>

> From: The Community of Practice of Seed Security Assessments for the 

> Horn of Africa [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf 

> Of Okidi, Joseph (FAOKE)

> Sent: 31 July 2014 10:44

> To:

> [log in to unmask]<mailto:CoP-SeedSecurity-L@LISTSERV

> .FAO.ORG>

> Subject: Unsuitable crop parieties being provided to affected 

> population in the form of seed aid in the horn of Africa region

>

> Dear All,

>

>

>

> A lot of humanitarian and recovery work in food security in the Horn 

> of Africa region involves provision of seed aid with significant 

> direct seed distribution of seed sourced from the formal sector (seed 

> companies). There have been concerns from some of the assisted famers 

> in the recent past that some of the varieties are unsuitable 

> (un-adapted and un-preferred). Many times famer’s seed are considered 

> of poor quality by humanitarian actors, and therefore, the need to 

> provide them with quality seeds of varieties which are improved – high 

> yielding, disease resistant, drought tolerant etc.

>

> 1.      Do you agree that at times unsuitable varieties are being provided

> in the form of seed aid? What is your experience with this? And do you 

> think this can be improved?

>

> 2.      Do you think seed security of the crisis/disaster affected

> population is well assessed and analyzed before any intervention – If 

> not how do you want this improved?

>

> 3.      Are the views of the affected populations normally well taken into

> consideration when planning seed related interventions by humanitarian 

> actors?

>

> Note: This e-discussion will run until 15th of August.

>

> Regards,

>

> Joseph Okidi

>

> Seed System Specialist

> FAO REOA

>

>

>

>

>

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