The harvest is in the seed

There are numerous quality information materials about seed sector sustainable development available out there. This wealth of knowledge addresses the entire array of the seed value chain. It can be used to strengthen the capacity along all steps of the seed value chain, for a more coordinated and effective seed sector development.

Every week, we highlight a specific initiative that is working towards strengthening knowledge about the seed sector in Africa via the publication of training material, guidelines, policy briefs, frameworks, datasets, videos, etc. The improved visibility of these initiatives will contribute to increase seed security, thus boosting the foundation of food security and livelihoods of Africa.

Support capacity development in the seed sector by sharing these resources!

11 Jan 2024
© CGIAR, MSU

Week 117 – Data set: Making Seed Systems and Markets for Vegetatively Propagated Crops (VPCs) Work for the Poor: A Cross-Country Study of Kenya, Nigeria, and Vietnam

Authors: IFPRI, CIAT, CIP, IITA, MSU
Keywords: vegetative propagation; Kenya; Nigeria; markets

“Many developing-country farmers cultivating vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs)—crops such as cassava, potato, sweetpotato, and yam—face constrained access to quality planting material. This challenge is distinct from the challenges facing cereal crops, and is associated with both the unique biological and economic nature of vegetative propagation. Although technological solutions exist, there are other limiting factors relating to policies, institutions, and markets that shape VPC seed systems, e.g., quality assurance mechanisms, certification regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and plant variety protection.” […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.ifpri.org/publication/making-seed-systems-and-markets-vegetatively-propagated-crops-vpcs-work-poor-cross
© CGIAR, MSU

04 Jan 2024
© CGIAR

Week 116 – Conference Paper: Summing the parts: How does “bundling” affect willingness-to-pay for seeds and insurance in a sample of Kenyan farmers?

Authors: IFPRI, Berber Kramer, Carol Waweru and Jonathan G. Malacarne
Keywords: market; seed policies; institutional building; Kenya

“Agricultural households, particularly those operating in rainfed systems in low income countries, are vulnerable to a variety of climate and market risks that pose serious threats to their well-being. While more resourced households are able to pass much of this risk on to financial markets, less resourced households often have few options to do the same.” […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.ifpri.org/publication/summing-parts-how-does-%E2%80%9Cbundling%E2%80%9D-affect-willingness-pay-seeds-and-insurance-sample

© CGIAR

28 Dec 2023
© 2024 Springer Nature

Week 115 – Litterature Review: Gender dynamics in seed systems: an integrative review of seed promotion interventions in Africa

Authors: Berber Kramer & Carly Trachtman, Springer Nature
Keywords: gender; seed policies; quality seeds

“Gender gaps in adoption of high-quality seeds of improved varieties persist in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the implementation of various seed promotion interventions aimed at increasing adoption among all farmers. This paper reviews existing literature on common seed promotion interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa (including subsidies, financial services, quality certification schemes, and agricultural extension) and asks to what extent these interventions serve women farmers as much as men farmers.[…]”

Click on the following link to access the content: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-023-01403-2#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20overall%20findings,and%20can%20improve%20women’s%20livelihoods.

© 2024 Springer Nature

21 Dec 2023
©IFPRI

Week 114 – Discussion Paper: Mapping the design and implementation of seed sector regulation: The case of Uganda

Authors: IFPRI, Katrin Kuhlmann, Adron Naggayi Nalinya, Tara Francis and David J. Spielman, 2023
Keywords: Seed policy, regulation, enabling environment

An enabling environment with clear, inclusive, and transparent seed laws, policies, regulations, and guidelines is the foundation for an efficient and effective seed sector. If well designed and implemented, the legal and regulatory framework can facilitate market diversification, supervision and quality control of seed and other forms of planting material, promotion of private sector participation, farmer access to improved seed varieties, reduced barriers for the movement of seeds across borders, and food security.

Click on the following link to access the content: https://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/136948/filename/137158.pdf
©IFPRI

14 Dec 2023
© 2013 FAO

Week 113 – Guidelines: Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Authors: FAO
Keywords: Quality assurance; seed policies; Conservation

Well-managed genebanks both safeguard genetic diversity and make it available to breeders. The Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture lay down the procedures for conserving plant genetic resources. These voluntary Standards set the benchmark for current scientific and technical best practices, and support the key international policy instruments for the conservation and use of plant genetic resources.

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/7b79ee93-0f3c-5f58-9adc-5d4ef063f9c7/

© 2013 FAO

07 Dec 2023

Week 112 – Case study: Promoting the growth and Development of smallholder seed enterprises for food and security crops – Case studies from Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire and India

Authors: FAO
Keywords: small enterprises; seed policies; smallholders

Farmers everywhere depend on access to good quality seed, which is fundamental to their crop production systems. Most governments have made significant investments in strengthening national agricultural production capacities, yet farmers in developing countries still face difficulties in accessing the quality seed of the varieties that they require. Guaranteeing farmers’ access to quality seed can only be achieved through a viable seed supply system that can multiply and distribute seeds which have been produced or preserved. This is better achieved by the private sector, but medium- to large-scale international seed companies concentrate on high-value crops and avoid dealing in the self-pollinating, open-pollinating and vegetatively-propagated varieties on which most smallholder farmers depend for their food security as the biology of these crops makes it easy for farmers to keep their seeds for several seasons.[…]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/documents/PGR/PubSeeds/seedSynthesis_book7.pdf

©FAO

30 Nov 2023

Week 111 – Technical Manual: Quality Declared Seeds: Addressing the challenges in access to quality seed for smallholder farmers

Authors: FARM AFRICA
Keywords: quality assurance; seed policies; smallholders

Crop productivity in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa remains low. Many crops produce yields below the global
average. This is brought about by many factors, including smallscale farmers’ low access to good quality seed. Less than 20% of farmed land in Africa is cultivated with improved seed due to its lack of accessibility and affordability. This results in farmers continuing to rely on traditional recycled seed and strengthens the need for Quality Declared Seed (QDS) systems.[…]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.farmafrica.org/downloads/2022/Quality-Declared-Seed.pdf

© farmafrica

23 Nov 2023
© 2023 Frontiers Media S.A.

Week 110 – Research Article: Africa’s “Seed” Revolution and Value Chain Constraints to Early Generation Seeds Commercialization and Adoption in Ghana

Authors: Philip Tetteh Quarshie, Abdul-Rahim Abdulai and Evan D. G. Fraser

Keywords: vegetables; seed policies; Africa

“The study aims to deepen understanding of how Early Generation Seeds value chain constraints impede commercialization and adoption of High Yielding Varieties (HYV) or improved Maize seeds by smallholders in Ghana within the broader strategies of a “Green Revolution for Africa”. Using qualitative and quantitative information obtained through one-on-one interviews with 15 key informants, a household survey from 110 smallholder farmers and document reviews, we discuss constraints and bottlenecks engendered by value chain structures, processes and mechanisms in Ghana’s formal seed distribution system. Seven main challenges were identified that undermine trust and hinder the expansion of HYVs: (1) the limited capacity of public institutions, (2) constrained capacity of the emerging private sector, (3) a lack of well-defined, fair and enforceable contracts between stakeholders in the delivery system, (4) land-tenure limitations, (5) poor forecasting of farmers’ demands for seeds by research institutions and seed producers, (6) sparse marketing arrangements for improved maize seeds, and (7) concentration of power to control seed supply in the hands of few institutions. […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.665297/full

© 2023 Frontiers Media S.A.

21 Jul 2023

Week 109 – Research Article: Navigating toward resilient and inclusive seed systems

Authors:  Ola T. Westengen, Sarah Paule Dalle and Teshome Hunduma Mulesa 

Keywords: inclusiveness; seed governance; resilience

Food systems face new climatic and socioecological challenges and farmers need a diversity of new plant varieties to respond to these. While plant breeding is important, institutional innovations in seed systems are critical to ensure that new traits and varieties make their way into farmers’ fields. This Perspective reviews the state of knowledge on seed system development, outlining insights emerging from the literature that can help navigate the way forward. We synthesize evidence on the contributions and limitations of the different actors, activities, and institutions pertaining to all seed systems smallholder farmers use, formal and informal. To do so, we structure our analysis on three functions—variety development and management, seed production, and seed dissemination—and two contextual factors—seed governance and food system drivers—that can be used to describe any seed system. Our review reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the activities of different actors along the entire chain of functions and demonstrates the multifaceted efforts to strengthen seed systems. We document that a new agenda for seed system development is taking root, based on the view that formal and farmers’ seed systems are complementary. Because needs differ from crop to crop, farmer to farmer, and between agroecological and food system contexts, a variety of pathways are needed to ensure farmers’ seed security. While the complexity of seed systems eludes a simple roadmap, we conclude by planting a “signpost” with principles to guide efforts to develop resilient and inclusive seed systems. […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2023.2210005

© 2023 PNAS

14 Jul 2023
© 2023 Informa UK Limited

Week 108 – Research Article: Laws and regulations enabling and restricting Africa’s vegetable seed sector

Authors: Katrin A. Kuhlmanna, Tara Francis, Indulekha Thomas & Pepijn Schreinemachers
Keywords: vegetables; seed legislation; Africa

“Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa do not have much choice of quality seed of vegetable cultivars adapted to local growing conditions and consumer demand. Only a handful of vegetable seed companies invest in local breeding research, while nearly all rely on seed imports. Our objective was to analyse to what extent existing seed laws and regulations enable or restrict the development of a research-based vegetable seed sector in Africa. Using a regulatory value chain approach, we analysed written laws and regulations for 13 countries and interviewed private and public sector stakeholders. We generally find that countries have taken a government-centred approach to seed quality control without recognizing that government agencies have little capacity to do this properly for vegetable crops. […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2023.2210005
© 2023 Informa UK Limited