By Wallace Mawire
Seed Co Zimbabwe Ltd has over the years developed wheat varieties in response to new disease strains and climate variability, according to Felistas Ndawi-Gurajena, Managing Director(pictured).
Addressing farmers, farmer organisations, development partners, financial institutions, government officials and other stakeholders, Gurajena welcomed stakeholders to the inaugural wheat field day held at Rattray Arnold Research Station on Tuesday, 22 September 2026.
“On behalf of Seed Co Limited, our board, management and entire staff, I warmly welcome our guests of honour, our farmers, our partners, researchers and all members of the wheat value chain. Today is more than a field day. It is a meeting point between science and farming, between research and enterprise, and between the achievements of yesterday and the possibilities of tomorrow,” Gurajena said.
She said the field day was an opportunity for stakeholders to see, touch, question, benchmark and discuss technologies that can help Zimbabwe “rise and even stronger” with storage.
Gurajena said Seed Co’s vision is to dominate the agro-industry in Africa, while its mission is to “breed, seed, feed and live in Africa.”
She added that the company believes the farmer must remain at the centre of every breeding decision, product innovation and agronomic recommendation.
“Our responsibility is not simply to sell seed, but to develop solutions that help farmers turn land, water, labour and capital into solutions that are more sustainable, including sustainable productivity and profits,” she said.
Gurajena told key stakeholders that the company’s wheat breeding programme has been running since 1981, making it 45 years old.
She said the programme has contributed to Zimbabwe’s wheat self-sufficiency through successive generations of wheat varieties.
Some of the varieties she mentioned include SC Scullet, SC Scholar, SC Skepta and SC Shine. She added that the company later advanced to SC Stallion, SC Sekuru, SC Sky and SC Skar, followed by the more recent portfolio of SC Nduna, SC Select and SC Serena.
Gurajena said the journey has now advanced to the newly launched white-flowered variety, SC W9104, which was launched at the inaugural field day.
She added that the new wheat variety has been developed in response to new disease strains, climate variability and, importantly, evolving customer preferences.
She said the company’s customer-centric approach means listening carefully to farmers, understanding their production realities and responding with solutions that are practical, resilient and commercially relevant.
Gurajena described Seed Co’s varieties as specially bred for African conditions, with a focus on performance, resilience and yield potential.
She said the company has continued to consistently increase investment in research and development, even at a time when other players might see Zimbabwe as a market where they simply bring in imported products.
“But at Seed Co, we believe that home-bred solutions are what our country needs, and that is why we continue to breed varieties in our country which are uniquely suitable for Zimbabwe, for the Zimbabwe environment and market,” she said.
Gurajena said Zimbabwe has demonstrated what is possible when government policy, farmer commitment, irrigation, finance, research, inputs and private-sector investment work together.
She said the 2025 wheat season produced a record harvest of more than 640,000 tonnes, well above the country’s annual requirement of about 360,000 tonnes.
She said Seed Co was proud to be part of the national journey.