{"id":1728,"date":"2020-01-15T21:43:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T21:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2020-01-15T21:43:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T21:43:08","slug":"cote-divoire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/2020\/01\/15\/cote-divoire\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With all of\nits natural advantages in the area of agriculture (central location in West\nAfrica, strong research capacity, long history of private sector involvement,\nand very favorable agro-ecologies for the production of a wide range of crops),\none might expect C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire to be well-advanced in the development of its seed\nsystems.  C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is also the country\nwhere World Food Prize Laureate, Dr. Monty Jones, developed the Nerica rice\nvarieties in the 1990\u2019s and early 2000\u2019s. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But shortly\nafter this breakthrough (and just as private sector was gaining some early\nrecognition as a viable seed supplier in Africa), civil war broke out, and all\nfurther agricultural progress was put on hold. \nFortunately, the country is peaceful now, and the progressive\nadministration of President Alasane Ouatara has laid the foundation for a\nvibrant seed sector, provided an effective public-private model can be\npursued.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present,\nthough, very few of the country\u2019s 2.5 million farmers are getting access to\nimproved seed, in spite of the great work being done on both the breeding and\nseed production front by AfricaRice in Bouak\u00e9. \nThe piority simply hasn\u2019t been there, on the part of the government or\nits development partners.  But make no\nmistake:  developing C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s seed sector carries\nhuge potential for benefitting millions of people, but within the country and\nin the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in\nthe country I met with most of the key officials, minus the Minister of\nAgriculture, who was travelling in Korogho region during my visit.  I did, however, meet with his Directeur de\nCabinet, Dr. Yao N\u2019guettia Ren\u00e9, who expressed a lot of enthusiasm for collaborating with SSG.  Together with colleagues from Cornell\nUniversity and Sathguru Consulting, we also met with the under-director for\nseed, Mr. Kouadio Esse, and Emmanuel Coulibaly, who heads seed production at the\nOffice National de D\u00e9veloppement de la Riziculture, likewise met with several representatives\nof multi-national seed companies which are interested in the country\u2019s\nunder-developed seed market.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Meeting with Dr. Soumalia Bredoumy, Technical Advisor , Food Security, Yao N\u2019guettia, Directeur Adjoint, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Patrick Nguetta, SSG consultant for C\u00f3te d\u2019Ivoire.  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As much as\nfood security in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is driven by rice and cassava, the middle belt and northern\nregions of the country have huge potential for the production of maize and\nsoybean which are highly under-exploited. \nThis is also where most of the country\u2019s future private seed companies\nare likely to operate, due to the favorable seed production environment.  Both Corteva and SeedCo are eyeing the\npotential for hybrid maize seed sales in that area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nmeantime, as usual, local entrepreneurs have taken the lead, and we were highly\nimpressed with the work of Mr. Faustin Lohouri, CEO of Bilohf Seed Company,\nnear Yamoussoukro.  He produces several\nhundren tons of seed of maize and rice, annually on his own land, and has great\nplans for future growth.  There are more\nFaustins out there who, with the right kind of support, could become\nlarge-scale producers of a wide range of seed. \nSo C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is an exciting place for seed systems development.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all of its natural advantages in the area of agriculture (central location in West Africa, strong research capacity, long history of private sector involvement, and very favorable agro-ecologies for the production of a wide range of crops), one might expect C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire to be well-advanced in the development of its seed systems.  C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}