1. The role of the private sector, PPPs and intellectual
property management in technology transfer
Ian Barker
Head Agricultural Partnerships

2. Sygnenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
● The Foundation is a non-profit organization established by
Syngenta under Swiss law.
● The Foundation can access company expertise, but is
legally independent and has its own Board.
● We focus on “pre-commercial farmers”; Syngenta works
primarily with commercial growers. The Foundation is free
to choose the most suitable products and methods for its
projects. Syngenta is one of many potential partners.
2

3. Our mission
● Increasing productivity of pre-commercial farmers
● Enabling sustainable resource management
● Linking farmers to input and output markets
3

4. Global Presence
4

5. Kilimo Salama: index linked micro-insurance

6. Growth 2009 – 2012 LR
6
2009 2010 2011 2012
Sum Insured 900,000 54,400,00 195,500,0 473,000,0
Premium 90,000 5,120,000 18,810,00 36,504,00
0
5,000,000
10,000,000
15,000,000
20,000,000
25,000,000
30,000,000
35,000,000
40,000,000
0
100,000,000
200,000,000
300,000,000
400,000,000
500,000,000
Premiums(ksh)
SumInsured(ksh)
Sum Insured, Premiums
Sum Insured
Premium
2009 2010 2011 2012
Farmers Insured 200 11,500 23,500 66,800
Farmers Retained - 40 8,500 20,000
Retail 200 3,500 4,500 7,000
Group - 8,000 19,000 59,800
-
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
Farmers Insured, Retained
Farmers Insured
Farmers Retained
Retail
Group

7. Mobile technology
to support
“farming as a business”
“FarmForce”

8. Savings-linked
extension and
seed supply:
Mali

9. Access to Seed of new varieties for many crops in Africa is still a
problem: “Technology left on the shelf”
● Access to quality seed of improved varieties is the key in
modernization of small-holder agriculture: tackling the
yield gap, improving nutrition and livelihoods
● Availability of quality seed of many crops is very limited in
SSA, with exception of hybrid maize in some East and
Southern African countries.
● Public Private Partnerships hold key to progress, but
require, trust, risk sharing and common goals.
9

10. 10
Is the India small seed company model part of the way
forward in Africa?
100%
Market
1960 2000199019801970
NARS
Rockefeller
Foundation
New Seed
Policy 1986
Small Indian
seed companies
Seeds Act
1964
Large Indian Cos
MNCs
Private sector
research
ICRISAT
1972
(CIMMYT)
India
SSA key staple
crops
IRRI
1971
SSA hybrid
maize Kenya

11. 11
Area share of maize seed types
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
South Africa
Kenya
Egypt
Zambia
Malawi
Tanzania
Uganda
Ghana
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Côte d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Guinea
Benin
Mozambique
Togo
Proprietary Public Saved
Source: Global Seed Market Database, 2010
In Africa, most seed systems are informal
(farmer-based) and low-yielding
Our 4 core crops
occupy 29 Mio ha in
Africa and support
100 million
smallholders with
little or no access to
seed

12. The 71 members of the International Union for the Protection of New
Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
12

13. 13
Accelerated seed and variety development platform
Accelerated variety release
Proprietary access to public/ private bred germplasm-IPR
Harmonization- East and West Africa
CommercialSeedSystem1.
• Potato
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Mali
• (Indonesia)
CommercialSeedSystem2. • Beans
• Kenya
• Rwanda
Commercialseedsystem3.
• Sorghum
• Rice
• Mali
• Senegal
• Cote
D’Ivoire
Crop and country focus for SFSA Seed project
1
2 3 4

14. 14
Seeds2B: model and current partners- added value in Africa
Private
Seed
Company
Finance
Working capital
Investment
Business training
Germplasm
Foundation seed
proprietary varieties
(licensing)
Risk
Advanced market
committments
Input insurance (KS)
Technology
Seed production
Seed care
Seed company needs to have:
•Enabling policy environment
•Access to and confidence in markets
•Access to proprietary germplasm

15. Seeds2B: strategic facilitating partner
Aspen Institute based staff (Washington DC):
Project facilitatition, advocacy, enabling policy
environment (Breaking the Barriers)
Based in Brussels and Geneva: developing
licensing tools and strategy
Merchant Bank based in London: developing
business models
AATF based in nairobi: potential scaling
partner for Seeds2B

16. Potato production in Africa including Kenya
16
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1993 1998 2003 2009
Area Yield Production
• Second crop after maize in Kenya
• Important short-cycle cash and subsistence
crop in highlands of East Africa
• Demand growing at 3.1% p.a.
• Average yields of 7.8 t/ ha (FAOSTAT 2005)
but many progressive farmers achieve
25t/ha
• Less than 1% of seed planted is quality
seed, compared with 20% in India and
China and 30% in Brazil

17. Large commercial farms can be successfully linked to smallholder
enterprises: in this case as seed suppliers and offering training (Kenya).
17

18. Minituber production

19. Field multiplication

20. Kisima Foundation: Smallholder field days

21. First commercial certified potato seed in Iringa, Tanzania: Mtanga Farm
21
● Private sector investment and support from private foundations has seen
investment in the production and dissemination of publically bred (CGIAR- CIP)
improved potato varieties carrying pro-poor traits (disease resistance)
● Field multiplication from this pilot investment (AECF) will supply seed for 7000
small-holder farmers. Further private investment will scale this.
● Registration (with Trans Farm Africa) of new varieties by the Tanzanian
authorities in 2012, using Kenyan and ugandan data (EAC harmonized
protocol), and continued training of TOSCI by KEPHIS in field certification and
seed testing).

22. Opportunities to promote variety technology transfer
● To develop cross-center partnerships and platforms to
evaluate promising germplasm and promote accelerated
variety development (progress in EAC) and diffusion
models with NARS and regulatory partners.
● Evaluate fair and transparent models (leveraging private
sector investment, expertise and equitable benefit
sharing) for offering commercial licences to varieties
derived from IARC/NARS germplasm to private sector
seed companies (and private to private).
● Jointly exploring and promoting IPR mechanisms and
strategies for disseminating “ PGRFA material under
development” (International Treaty) through PVP
systems.
22

23. A possible strategy for accelerated technology transfer of
improved pubic bred germplasm
● Re-evaluate thinking on appropriateness of IPG concept
in relation to variety development and dissemination
amongst public sector breeders (IARCS and NARS) and
the development of more impact and market-oriented
programs (through development of innovative
partnership PPPs, and utilizing IPR tools for the benefit
of the poor).
● Development of benefit sharing models, linked to PPPs,
that incentivize private sector engagement and provide
either long term sustainable income streams for public
breeding and in-situ conservation or evidence of
adoption depending on institutional mandates.
Building the “evidence base”23

24. Martin Dyer
Jonathan Moss
Derek Roulston
Elmar Schulte-Gelderman
Dinah Borus
Eugene Terry
Jung-ui Sul
Clemens Calice
George Osure