Demeter moves to eliminate fake seed

By Ellen Pindani

One of the country’s seed producers, Demeter Agriculture has said the influx of fake seed on the market is hurting farmers through low crop output.

Demeter National Sales Manager Benson Banda was speaking in Lilongwe during an agro-dealers training on Wednesday.

Banda said fake seed poses a threat to Malawi, which is an agrarian economy.

“That is why Demeter has introduced scratch cards as a way of identifying and eliminating fake seeds on the market,” Banda said.

He said each packet of seed on the market will have a scratch card label with a number for farmers to dial and get information through.

Banda then advised farmers to purchase seeds from credible agro-dealers to get original seed.

One of Demeter agro-dealers, Chiko Chikacha, called for more sensitisation among agro-dealers.

“It is very important for agro-dealers to share knowledge on how we can sell our seeds. We are sensitising people to buy original seeds not fake ones. If there are fake seeds on the market we will report to the company,” said Chikacha.

Demeter has 350 agro-dealers country wide.