Digital Seeds of Change: How a New Platform is Revolutionizing African Agriculture

Nairobi, Kenya – July 22, 2025 – The future of African agriculture took a significant leap forward today with the unveiling of the Africa Digital Crop Variety Catalogue. Launched by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in collaboration with ministries of agriculture, national agricultural research systems (NARS), and national regulatory authorities across six countries, this groundbreaking digital platform promises to transform how farmers, researchers, and policymakers access vital information on crop varieties.

For too long, the backbone of agricultural development – seed systems – has been hampered by fragmented, outdated, and often inaccessible information. Imagine a farmer in rural Ethiopia, seeking the most resilient and nutrient-dense maize variety for their specific climate, only to find the information scattered, incomplete, or simply unavailable. This scenario, unfortunately, has been a common reality across Africa.

“In many African countries, vital data on crop varieties is incomplete, inaccessible, or absent altogether,” explained Alice Ruhweza, President of AGRA, speaking at the launch event in Nairobi. “This has hindered farmers from accessing resilient, climate-smart, and nutrient-dense crop varieties. The Africa Digital Crop Variety Catalogue fills this critical gap by offering a centralized and transparent digital resource.”

The new catalogue, initially covering Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, provides the first comprehensive, interactive, and searchable database of officially released crop varieties. It’s a game-changer for a continent where agriculture is the lifeblood of millions.

AGRA, with two decades of dedicated work in strengthening African seed systems, has been instrumental in this achievement. Their impact is profound: contributing to the release of 688 crop varieties and bolstering 114 African seed companies. This, coupled with the empowerment of 38,000 agro-dealers, has enabled 33 million farmers to access high-yielding seeds, significantly boosting agricultural productivity and food security.

“The digital seed catalogue is an important milestone to strengthen the seed market and therefore further scale high yielding and nutrient dense seed access by smallholder farmers,” said Jonathan Said, Vice President, Centre for Technical Expertise, AGRA.

This landmark innovation is a product of CESSA – the Centre of Excellence for Seed Systems in Africa, AGRA’s integrated platform for advancing seed systems on the continent. CESSA offers a suite of tools, training, data, analysis, and digital solutions aimed at ensuring equitable access to high-quality seeds for farmers.

The need for such a platform was critical. The absence of a centralized database previously hindered compliance with quality standards, complicated certification processes, and limited investments in seed systems, leading to low adoption rates of improved varieties and a significant “seed gap” across the continent. This information gap disproportionately affected women and young people, who often lack the networks and resources to access crucial knowledge and business opportunities within the seed sector.

“This platform is not just a digital catalogue – it is a game-changer for seed sector transparency, equity, and growth,” emphasized Dr. Jane Ininda, Interim Director, CESSA at AGRA. “By consolidating variety data from across the continent, we’re enabling smarter investment, research prioritization, and ultimately, improved livelihoods for farmers.”

The catalogue’s robust foundation lies in AGRA’s data-driven approach, anchored by findings from its Seed Systems Assessment Tool (SeedSAT) and the Seed System Performance Index (SSPI), which has been adopted by the African Union as a continental benchmark. This ensures the platform is not merely a repository of information but a dynamic tool for actionable, data-driven agricultural reform.

The Africa Digital Crop Variety Catalogue, accessible at https://varietycatalogues.com, is designed to be user-friendly, providing detailed data that supports commercialization and better decision-making in variety choices, seed production, selection, and marketing. It fosters inclusivity by engaging both local and national seed stakeholders, strengthening grassroots participation, and promoting gender and youth equity by democratizing access to vital agricultural information for underserved groups.

With this launch, AGRA issues a powerful call to action: urging governments, seed companies, researchers, and development partners to actively adopt and contribute to the Africa Digital Crop Variety Catalogue. The vision is clear – to make this platform a living, evolving tool that underpins Africa’s agricultural resilience and prosperity for generations to come. The digital seeds of change have been sown, and the harvest promises to be abundant.