East-West Seed retains 3rd place in 2021 Access to Seeds Index for Eastern and Southern Africa

East-West Seed maintained this position from the previous ESA Index in 2019, which evaluated 23 companies at the time. This is the second top-five ranking for East-West Seed this year, having been ranked at #2 in the Western and Central Africa Index in September 2021.

ATSI uses six measurement areas to evaluate the seed companies to arrive at the overall ranking. Governance and strategy, and research and development were the two measurement areas in which East-West Seed scored highest out of all 32 seed companies in ESA.

ATSI also said East-West Seed’s strengths in seed production, sales and marketing and capacity building supported the company’s strong performance in this year’s index.

 

‘Having access to seeds helps farmers thrive’

“The Eastern and Southern African region is full of potential for smallholder farmers to thrive,” says Douwe Zijp, CEO of East-West Seed.

“We are proud to be leading the drive to provide them access to quality seeds and the knowledge they need to grow better yields and earn more income.”

“Full credit goes to our teams in the region for their dedication to our mission. This has ensured we maintained our position in the ESA Index despite a much larger pool of seed companies evaluated this time around.”

 

Access to Seeds and the World Benchmarking Alliance

The 2021 ESA index was published on World Food Day (15 October, 2021) by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), an ally of the ATSI Foundation. The WBA is a non-profit organization seeking to generate a movement around increasing the private sector's impact towards a sustainable future for all. The ATSI foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in The Netherlands that evaluates and compares seed companies according to their efforts to improve access to quality seeds of improved varieties for smallholder farmers.

 

East-West Seed’s leading practices

In the 2021 ESA Index scorecard, East-West Seed was ranked highest among the 32 seed companies evaluated in the region in two measurement areas; governance and strategy, and research and development.

In the research and development measurement area, ATSI said East-West Seed’s score was powered by its well-developed breeding programme in Tanzania which focuses on developing varieties that meet the needs of smallholder farmers in the region.

For governance and strategy, ATSI highlighted East-West Seed’s approach to ensuring access to seeds for smallholder farmers is a focus, right from the top of the organization. ATSI also commended East-West Seed’s stakeholder engagement in the region, where the company works with key stakeholders and integrates the outcomes of these engagements into its access to seeds strategy for smallholder farmers.

For seed production, the Index says “[East-West Seed] scores highly in seed production, due to collaboration with smallholders, presence in various countries in the region and an externally certified quality management system.”

 

Reach in remote areas and use of technology to grow access to information

For sales and marketing, ATSI highlighted East-West Seed’s distribution channels, especially in remote areas.

In the capacity building category, ATSI highlighted East-West Seed and its Knowledge Transfer Foundation’s services in Tanzania and Uganda. These included innovative approaches including programmes for next-generation farmers and programmes aimed at advancing the use of web and social media to access farming knowledge among smallholder farmers.

In Uganda, EWS-KT worked with Palm Corps to train 200 youths in improved vegetable production practices, which positioned vegetables as an attractive future business opportunity. The company reports having reached 26,000 next-generation farmers in the region for the period 2018-2020.

 

First place in 4 out of 8 different Indices since 2016, top three in other four

Since 2019, ATSI focuses on four location-based Indices, ranking seed companies in the regions of Western and Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, South and South-east Asia and a Global Index.

East-West Seed has ranked first in 4 out of the last 8 Indices by ATSI, and in the top three places in the rest.

 

The history of East-West Seed’s ATSI rankings since 2016

Year	Rank	Number of seed companies evaluated	Index Region
2021	Not yet released	Not yet released	South and South-east Asia (SSEA)
2021	#3	32	Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)
2021	#2	32	Western and Central Africa (WCA)
2019	#1	13	Global Seed Companies
2019	#1	24	South and South-east Asia (SSEA)
2019	#3	22	Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)
2019	#3	23	Western and Central Africa (WCA)
2016	#1	10	Global Seed Companies (Vegetables)
2016	#1	17	Eastern Africa