Brighton Karume
managing Director
Brighton Karume is a seasoned and hands-on seed agronomist who holds a BSc in Agriculture Management from the Open University of Zimbabwe, 2002 – 2006. He also has a first-class certificate in agriculture from Mlezu Institute of Agriculture in Zimbabwe, 1987 – 1989. Brighton has over three decades experience in field crops value chain: agricultural research, crop production, seed processing, seed sales and marketing and has worked in both public and private sectors in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria. He has an international exposure and strong passion in general field agronomy, covering maize, wheat, soya bean, hybrid sunflower and hybrid sorghum seed production, cowpeas, vegetables, maize breeding, variety evaluation, seed processing, seed sales and marketing.
Brighton is initially- a product of CIMMYT Zimbabwe which supported him in his early career training and spent first four years as a research technician in breeding and maize evaluation between 1989 and 1992. Between 1993 and 1999 he worked for Cargill Hybrid Seeds in Zimbabwe: two years each as a Research Officer, Production and Parent Seed Officer and Sales Agronomist. Brighton introduced and expanded yellow hybrid seed maize sales into the commercial livestock farming sector in Zimbabwe during the grey leaf spot pandemic disease. Whilst with Cargill he attended numerous short term developmental training courses.
Before joining ECOBasic Seed Company, a subsidiary of the African Agriculture Technology Fund (AATF), on 1 September 2021 in Nigeria, Brighton has- Have been with Seed Co Group since April 1999. During his 22-year tenure with Seed Co Group he served in various positions as a government gazetted Seed Inspector in Zimbabwe, Head of Mpongwe (Zambia) and Stapleford (Zimbabwe) Research Sites, Country Representative for Seed Co Tanzania, Seed Production and Processing Manager for Tanzania and Nigeria. He was seconded by Seed Co International for its new business development projects in Zambia (2001-2004), Tanzania (2007-2013) and Nigeria (2013-2021). Brighton has contributed immensely within Seed Co Group in research and development, seed production, seed agronomy and business development operations across Southern Africa (Zimbabwe & Zambia), East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda) and West Africa (Benin Republic and Nigeria).
Brighton is the Managing Director of ECOBasic Seed, an EGS start–up with a mission to produce and provide high quality foundation seed solutions to the field crop seed companies in Nigeria and the greater ECOWAS region. He strongly believes that a well-performing seed sector needs a strong production base that requires robust, coordination and governance, revenue generation and reinvestments. Brighton is a national of Zimbabwe.