Presentation
Who are we?
Context
Seed and Crop Knowledge Africa (SCKA) is an initiative of the Integrated Breeding Platform - IBP (an offshoot of the Generation Challenge Programme- GCP ), a highly successful initiative that has operated across Africa for more than 20 years in promoting and supporting the use of advanced technologies and knowledge for diversity conservation, plant breeding and seed production. SCKA, headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, recognises that digitising crop value chains is imperative for smallholder farmers (SHFs) who face at least two key challenges in their quest for financial security:
- lack of access to adapted, resilient, profitable new crop varieties; and,
- limited access to information on crop performance, seed supplies and cost, agronomic practices, and market demand
Mission
The mission of SCKA is to deliver crop improvement benefits and improve seed management to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers and, in doing so, help to stimulate agribusiness around agricultural input supplies and technical services. SCKA will focus on digital technologies and integrated knowledge management to generate business opportunities for all actors along crop value chains (CVCs) in order to facilitate access to credit, increase agricultural productivity, enhance food security, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
Guiding principles
The philosophy of SCKA is to empower local ownership, which is so important for the long-term use of our products. SCKA is aware of the imperative for sustainability, it is therefore critical to identify:
- Management and governance- who is going to run our products during and after a project, and how can an inclusive and transparent governance system for the platform be identified?
- Financial model- securing the funds to sustain our products beyond the end of a project.
- Ownership and knowledge dissemination- ‘local’ use and maintenance of the products.
- Data integrity and privacy
Impact
SCKA will engage in charitable, educational, scientific and
commercial activities that enable the translation of research and development outcomes into community benefits:
- Smallholder farmers with improved resilience to climate change and economic vulnerability through the adoption of new and better crop varieties that reflect market demand;
- Increased and more stable crop production supported by reliable and accessible information, strengthening of public/private partnerships along seed value chains, favourable enabling environment for the development of business opportunities especially for women and young people;
- Integrated systems, tools, and applications to digitise the information and data collected along the crop value chain, from market demand to availability (type, quantity) of improved seed management (demand, production, traceability, and quality control) to enable effective seed monitoring/planning for different target institutions including government agencies;
- New crop varieties produced more effectively and efficiently by African plant breeding institutions, following a demand-driven crop variety approach; and
- Support for capacity building programs, both formal and informal, that enhance the functionality and profitability of seed value chains.
Project
The flagship product of SCKA is E-Chain that comprises five modules (Breeding Management System, Seed Management System, Seed Trader Module, Knowledge Module and Farmer Module) and apps that capture and track information and knowledge from a range of sources along CVCs. E-Chain is an unique approach to digitisation that is inclusive and sustainable and readily adapted to different crops and different environments. It provides an interactive forum for public/private sector actors in CVCs to post and access information, knowledge and products for their respective businesses. It also serves as a formalised and transparent mechanism by which financial institutions can manage their lending risks.
Working with us
SCKA is founded on an experienced and highly specialised team that is committed to smallholder agriculture. The team includes local professional staff in 4 countries in Africa (Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda) who- together with global support team- over the past 15 years have developed strong capability in digitising plant breeding and seed production activities with more than 400 plant breeders and technicians in Africa, in both the public and private sectors.
SCKA firmly believes in the power of local ownership of tools and technological change and towards this aim we work with clients to achieve sustainable outcomes, right from capacity building through to CVCs that create job opportunities and add value to crop production.