Assembly/AU/Dec.86 (V) DECISION ON THE DANGER OF IMPORTED SEEDS ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT (Doc. Assembly/AU/7 (V)) Add.6 The Assembly, 1. RECOGNISES the importance of improved seeds as a major input in increasing agricultural productivity quantitatively and qualitatively for the attainment of food security in the Continent; 2. REALISES that the seed industry, in its modern integrated sense, is still considered one of the industries dominated by the developed countries when developing countries are so much in need of it for food production and for optimal investment of their natural and human resources; 3. ACKNOWLEDGES the recent developments in the seed industry and its monopoly through various legal and technical rights protection that allows for the use of seeds only once; 4. FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGES that the African farmer is prevented from multiple use of these seeds thus resulting in diminished plant bio-diversity which African countries enjoy; 5. CALLS for dealing with the challenges imposed by agricultural development and food production conditions in the Continent for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the number of people suffering from hunger and poverty. This can only be achieved by tackling the challenge of adequate supply of improved seeds at affordable prices to all farmers; 6. RECOGNISES that national governments cannot alone confront these challenges and provide the necessary potential for this strategic industry; 7. STRESSES Africa's potential for creating its own seed producing industry given its vast potential and climatic diversity; 8. CALLS for the exploitation of Africa's material and human potentials for the establishment of a sophisticated seed industry to break its monopoly and to secure it for the achievement of sustainable agricultural development and food security for the peoples of the Continent; 9. URGES Member States for the establishment of genetic resource banks for identification and preservation of indigenous plant genetic resources that can be used for the production of improved seeds that are adaptable to local environmental conditions and to prevent the deterioration of plant bio-diversity that the African Continent enjoys;