African Seed Enterprises: Sowing the Seeds of Food Security

Paul Van Mele is an agricultural scientist from Ghent University, Belgium who obtained his PhD studying Vietnamese fruit farmers' knowledge of pests, natural enemies and pesticides (Wageningen University, 2000). He wrote Ants as Friends (2003) and edited Way out of the Woods (2003) and Innovations in Rural Extension (2005). In 2004, his video project with rural women in Bangladesh won an international award for effective communication. From 2005 to 2010, Paul Van Mele lived in Benin, working as program leader, Learning and Innovation Systems at AfricaRice. His work with farmers, video and rural radio earned him the 2009 CGIAR Science Award for outstanding communications. He currently runs his own enterprise Agro-Insight, based in Belgium and works for AfricaRice Jeffery W. Bentley is an agricultural anthropologist (PhD, University of Arizona, 1986). He lived in Portugal for a year, doing participant observation with smallholder farmers (1983-84). He spent seven years in Honduras (1987-94) at Zamorano, an agricultural college, helping researchers and smallholders create appropriate integrated pest management technology. He is the author of various articles, books and manuals, including Today There Is No Misery (1992) and Manual for Collaborative Research with Smallholder Farmers (with Peter Baker, 2002). Jeff Bentley has lived in Bolivia since 1994 and is an international consultant. Robert G. Guei is a plant breeder and a geneticist (PhD, Kansas State University, 1991). He spent 14 years at AfricaRice (formerly called WARDA), initially as rice breeder, then as coordinator of the international network of genetic evaluation of rice, and finally as Head of the Genetic Resources Unit. Since 2005, he has worked at FAO as an agricultural officer, seed expert. He lives in Rome, and has a global responsibility to help countries develop their seed systems. He is the author of various scientific papers, book chapters and manuals, and technical and policy guides including several on community seed enterprise development. He recently edited the NERICA Rice Compendium.