The seed trade in the Asia-Pacific region has been strongly affected by COVID-19 related lockdown measures. A survey in early April among seed enterprise members of the Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) showed reduced demand for sowing seed of all crops, problems in seed production, and challenges to the international shipment of seed. The survey was repeated in late May to detect any changes to the situation. While seed companies continue to report the same difficulties, there are clear improvements in nearly all aspects. Pepijn Schreinemachers from the World Vegetable Center, and Kanokwan Chodchoey, Steven Layne and Weeranuch Mhadlhoo from the Asia & Pacific Seed Association (APSA) report on the second survey in this blog.
Quality seed is a fundamental input for farmers to achieve a good and reliable crop harvest. Disruptions to seed supplies may trigger changes in food production and adversely affect global food and nutrition security. It is thus very important to monitor how restrictions on the movements of people and goods, introduced to contain the spread of COVID-19, have disrupted the demand for, production of, and trade in sowing seed.
APSA’s Special Interest Group for Vegetables and Ornamentals and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) probed seed company managers via an online survey among APSA members. The initial survey was conducted 8-14 April 2020 and garnered a total of 68 responses from more than a dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The follow-up survey was done 19-29 May 2020 and collected data from 59 companies in the Asia-Pacific region and 15 companies outside the region. The comparison between April and May uses the sample of companies in the Asia-Pacific region; we also compared the responses inside and outside the region.
Read more at Knowledge4food.
