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Stay here worldbenchmarkingalliance.orgSociété de Production de Semences Améliorées (SOPROSA) was established in 2012 in Sikasso, Mali. Its main activities are the production, processing, treatment and sale of quality seed of improved varieties in Western Africa. It has 16 employees and specializes in field crops, including legumes. The company reports reaching around 200,000 farmers, primarily in its home market. Its main crops are maize, rice and millets. SOPROSA collaborates with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on farmer training and the World Bank in the framework of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program.
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Access to Seeds Index
Western and Central Africa
SOPROSA ranks 14th in the 2019 Index for Western and Central Africa. It owes this position to its support of smallholder farmers in the region and particularly in its home country of Mali, where it actively develops the local seed sector, resulting in solid scores in Governance & Strategy. In Capacity Building, its efforts to reach youth and women smallholder farmers and its smallholder-focused strategies in Marketing & Sales also result in good scores in these measurement areas. The company works with smallholder farmers and cooperatives to produce seed, explaining its score in Seed Production. However, its public disclosure is limited, and its commitments do not match its performance when it comes to supporting access to seeds, indicating its main areas for improvement.
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| Sales | Seed type | Source | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bfa | mli | sen | Hybrid | OPV | GM | Own breeding program |
Public research institute |
Licensed from other company |
|||||||
| Field crops | |||||||||||||||
| Cowpea | |||||||||||||||
| Groundnut | |||||||||||||||
| Maize | |||||||||||||||
| Millets | |||||||||||||||
| Potato | |||||||||||||||
| Rice, paddy | |||||||||||||||
| Sorghum | |||||||||||||||
| Soybean | |||||||||||||||
SOPROSA is the only company outside of Nigeria and the companies in Novalliance with a breeding program, through which it is developing a variety of cowpea for the regional market. The company aims to collaborate with research institutes such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) on the development of its own hybrid varieties of maize and sorghum.
SOPROSA is encouraged to publicly disclose the full scope of its access to seeds-related activities in Western and Central Africa.
One way SOPROSA works with local farmer organizations with limited financial means is by bartering seed for grains. The company provides seed to farmers, and farmers pay back the costs over time in the form of a portion of their production.
The company is a member of the seed trade association of Mali, Association Semencière du Mali.
The company offers contracts to smallholder farmers who are involved in its seed production activities. The contracts contain clauses on benefits and risks in case of calamities, cultivation areas, technical production details and selling price.
The company’s seed packages contain barcodes for track and trace purposes, allowing customers to verify product origin and quality. Instructions in French and Bambara, the most widely spoken languages in Mali, are both used on the packages.
The company provides seed samples to the leaders of women producer groups for demonstration purposes, promoting improved varieties in their areas. These leaders are also invited to company field days and training sessions.
The company provides extension services directly or through partnerships with other companies or NGOs. These services reach 2,800 smallholder farmers, including 840 women, in Mali.
The company provides farming skills training for young men and women who are excluded from the formal education system, as well as to farmer organizations and cooperatives. These trainings cover techniques for producing quality seed.
Access to Seeds Index
Western and Central Africa
