'We will not spare them': Government takes the fake-seed war to warehouses and open markets as planting begins

The warning has gone out at the exact moment it bites. The Government has told agro-dealers and farmers that those found supplying counterfeit seed on the Zambian market will face the law, as the planting season gets underway under a drought-threatened forecast.

Senior Seed Control Officer Zomba Sikazwe, speaking at the Zamseed promotions media engagement in Lusaka, said the Seed Control and Certification Institute has established a dedicated section to conduct inspections and maintain an updated database against counterfeit products. "So as Government, we are implementing inspection in warehouses, open markets and in agro-dealers, more especially during the planting, with the view to address the increase of counterfeit products," she said. The institute will use Cap 236 of the Laws of Zambia — the seed-control statute — to apprehend offenders, working with line ministries and the Zambia Police Service to prosecute them. Her advice to farmers was blunt: buy seed from well-known sources.

The crackdown has been building all year. The Ministry of Agriculture has previously described counterfeit seed as "economic sabotage" that robs farmers of an entire season — money, labour and the harvest that was meant to follow — and warned of prosecution, licence withdrawal and exclusion from government input programmes. Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri has gone further, promising legislation that would make selling counterfeit seed a non-bailable offence carrying jail terms of up to ten years, treated "just like stock theft, or worse." The dealer network the inspectors are walking into has grown fast: 923 agro-dealers participated in the 2025/2026 FISP seed season, up from 633 the year before.

The timing is the story. Seasonal forecasts point to an El Niño-shaped 2026/27 rainfall season, and extension advice is pushing early-maturing and drought-tolerant varieties — precisely the seed categories where a counterfeit label does the most damage. A fake bag in a normal year costs a yield; in a drought year it can cost a household its food. That is the arithmetic the inspectors are now carrying warehouse to warehouse.

Sources: Times of Zambia, "Govt acts to curb fake seeds" (7 Oct 2026); ZNBC on the counterfeit-seed warning (Oct 2026); Zambia Monitor on prosecution and licence-withdrawal warnings (12 Jun 2026); Seed Co Zambia on the Minister's non-bailable offence pledge (11 Sep 2025).