By the Witness Radio team

In Uganda, civil society organizations are urging lawmakers to revise the proposed East African Community Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2025, with a special focus on ensuring farmers have a clear path to seek justice and redress.

The organizations point out that although the proposed law prioritizes seed certification, regulation, and breeders’ rights, it leaves farmers without a clear way to seek justice when certified or commercial seeds fail and lead to losses.

This concern came to the forefront during public hearings in Uganda, where the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) gathered input from civil society organizations and other stakeholders before the Bill’s second reading.

Mr. Lubega Jonathan, a policy analyst at SEATINI Uganda, said farmers should not only be expected to comply with requirements under the proposed law but should also have clear avenues to challenge decisions and seek redress when they suffer losses.

He said the Bill should provide mechanisms for resolving disputes involving farmers, seed companies and breeders, particularly where farmers suffer losses after purchasing seed through the formal seed system.

“At least in such scenarios, there should be a mechanism for farmers to seek justice when the seeds provided by a breeder fail to germinate,” Lubega said.

He emphasized that the issue goes beyond seed certification; it is about what happens when seeds do not perform as promised. Farmers risk losing money, missing crucial planting seasons, or facing poor harvests. Yet, the Bill remains vague on who is accountable and where farmers can turn for compensation or support.

CSOs are demanding clear guidelines on how farmers’ complaints will be addressed, which bodies will resolve disputes, whether appeals are possible, and what remedies will be available to those who incur losses.

Beyond grievance and redress, the organizations warn that the Bill’s heavy focus on certification could put up barriers for farmer-managed seed systems, especially if the process becomes expensive or bogged down in bureaucracy.

Lubega cautioned that drawn-out certification processes and hidden costs could stifle local seed systems’ ability to operate across borders, threatening the EAC’s goal of eliminating non-tariff trade barriers.

“If we do not house the farmer market seed systems or varieties, there will be a barrier to trade, especially without clarity on certification costs and procedures. The lengthy bureaucratic processes will create a non-tariff barrier, which the community is ideally working to push against. Therefore, we could consider and reduce, or if we do not reduce, we factor in the farmer-managed seed systems,” he said.

The CSOs are urging the regional framework to honor both commercial and farmer-managed seed systems, highlighting that smallholder farmers have always been at the heart of selecting, saving, exchanging, and developing seeds in their communities.

Hakim Baliraine, National Chairman of the Eastern and Southern Africa Smallholder Farmers Forum (ESAFF-Uganda), said farmers should be recognized as important actors in seed development rather than being treated primarily as consumers of commercial seed.

“We want the law to define farm-managed seed systems, land races, community seed banks and farmers’ rights because this bill ties breeders to commercial seed production, forgetting that we, the small-scale farmers, have been the original breeders,” Baliraine said.

He further called for smallholder farmers to have a stronger voice in decisions about seed registration and regulation.

“Seed is tied to very many things, especially in Uganda. Seed is about our culture and inheritance, and therefore we shouldn’t look at it only for profit because, for us, seed is life and it’s part of us. That’s why we need to be at the decision-making table to see who is registering on this seed so we also give our input,” he said.

The organizations stress that acknowledging these systems is vital, as farmers still save, exchange, and share seeds. Community seed banks and indigenous varieties, in turn, are pillars of food security and biodiversity.

Agnes Kirabo, Executive Director of the Food Rights Alliance, said the debate should also address the broader challenges farmers face in accessing quality seed, including counterfeiting and the sale of grain as seed.

“The truth is that in our farming and agri-food systems in Africa and Uganda, farmers and consumers are constrained in accessing quality seeds because there is a lot of counterfeiting and trading in grain as seed. This impacts the productivity and investments of farmers, and this is a problem that is being addressed in the background of this instrument,” Kirabo said.

As a result, CSOs are urging that the final law strike a balance between regulating the seed sector and giving greater weight to farmers’ rights, with accessible ways for them to resolve disputes.

They are calling for the Bill to spell out exactly how complaints involving seed producers, breeders, and traders will be handled, who will have the authority to resolve them, and what options farmers have when they experience losses.

They also insist that farmers deserve a meaningful seat at the table in decisions on seed registration and regulation, instead of being sidelined by rules made solely for the commercial sector.

The EAC Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2025 seeks to establish a harmonized regional framework for the regulation, testing, certification and marketing of seeds, while providing for the protection of plant breeders’ rights across the East African Community.

Public hearings where stakeholders submitted their views and recommendations on the Bill have now been concluded across the EAC partner states.

The submissions are expected to inform the East African Legislative Assembly’s report before the Bill proceeds to its second reading.