SouthAsia Enterprise Develop-ment Facility (SEDF) yesterday signed an agreement with four leading seed companies in order to develop their markets.

The main target of the agreement is to address small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the companies for greater production efficiency and better products for the local and international markets.

The companies are East West Seed Bangladesh Ltd, North South Seed Ltd, Supreme Seed Company Ltd and Chen's Crop Science Ltd.

Together these companies represent almost 50 percent of the total market share of the private sector and work at different levels of the supply and value chain of the sector, said a press release of the SEDF.

It said: “Through working with them SEDF will leverage their extensive network of distributors and farmers and facilitate linkages between service providers and companies.

Speaking at the function, East West Seed Chairman Abdul Awal Mintoo said good quality seeds are essential. "SEDF's co-operation can strengthen the supply chain and it is badly required in our country," he said.

The function was also attended by AHM Humayun Kabir, DMD of Supreme Seed Company Ltd, and P. Adhikary, Zaki Uz Zaman, Syeda Masarrat Quader and Anika Ali of the SEDF.