• TSAONE SEGAETSHOLatest revelation this week are that Seed Co’s earnings per share (EPS) are expected to increase mainly due to the business growth in Sub-Sahara Africa against current droughts and late starts to planting season.
According to a notice to shareholders of Seed Co across the African continent on Thursday, the Group’s final EPS for the year ended 31 March 2024 is expected to be approximately 50 percent to 70 percent (between 1.10 and 1.24 US cents) higher than the EPS of 0.73 US cents for the prior year ended 31 March 2023.
Seed Co is a leading certified seed company, authorised to market seed varieties developed by itself, governments and other associated seed breeders in over fifteen (15) African countries.
Seed Co’s growing African footprint covers Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It also distributes its seed varieties in Angola, DRC, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Uganda and several countries in West Africa.
Despite the vast continental presence, the company has constantly had to contest with effects of climate change; the latest being El Niño conditions synonymous with hot weather and shortage of rainfall, leading to droughts.
Seed Co’s core mandate and goal is to ensure the development of crop varieties that are better suited to new and ever-changing climatic conditions.
While the pangs of climate change has been a topic in the Group’s financial results, like the losses of profitability last year, Seed Co says it has released varieties that have tremendous adaptability.
“The process of breeding, delivery and adoption of new maize varieties in Seed Co is an on-going process. All our seed varieties that end with a ‘9’ are adapters, suited for various climatic conditions,” said Seed Co.
Seed Co aims at seed business in Africa through the development of crop varieties such as maize hybrids, soya beans, wheat, sorghum, sugar beans, and cow peas, with stable performance across environments and seasons.
“However, it is important to note that for Seed Co Limited, the majority of these regional markets are developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to climatic change effects due to limited resources to adapt. As such, there is urgent need to give farmers hybrids that are adapted to climate change and give them the greatest yield. To achieve this, testing of crop varieties is carried out across different agro-ecologies (throughout Africa) to generate extensive genotype by environment interaction data,” said Seed Co in its last financial report.
