**3.4 Seed access**

After going through national performance and verifications studies to satisfy national variety release and registration requirements [29], the product deployment is carried out by the technology owner, mostly a private company, through technology demonstration and demand-based seed supply. In this process, roles and stakeholder institutions change where the private sector, seed system, extension system, and other regulatory and financial institutions take over and function in subsequent steps. These transitions are not always clearly defined where the public sector is a major supplier of improved seed or where the seed sector is predominantly informal as in most African countries. Therefore, the commercialization of GM crops is overburdened with multiple issues of promoting new and approved products.

Weak seed systems and weak credit systems limit product access by farmers. A recent study on Bt-cotton hybrid seed access by farmers indicates that weak coordination among various stakeholders along the seed value chain is shown to exacerbate the problem of sustainable supply and wider utilization of the approved GM products [38, 39]. Lack of awareness of role players, inadequate demonstration of new technology to farmers as well as poor handling of the new technology by farmers, and poor extension schemes also contribute to the poor commercialization observed. Socio-economic constraints such as the high cost of hybrid seed, weak certification of seed, and inadequate awareness of technology and best practices (seed handling, agronomy, etc) can become important factors that can slow or block progress in some countries [38]. This also requires a stronger public-private partnership to advance the integration of modern biotechnology in the national R&D system.
