Facilitating access by poor farmers to seeds of ICRISAT’s improved varieties in sub-Saharan Africa

Seed Systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Aug 2012

OverviewCommercial agriculture is growing in importance, requiring that seed systems deliver high-quality seed of food crops and meet market demands of agro-processors.

Numerous constraints limit the performance of seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa including limited access to seed of new varieties; limited supplies of seed; and the lack of enabling policies and institutional environments.

ICRISAT works with partners to support development of open seed markets and local seed companies for supply of quality seed at affordable prices.

Seed CategoriesBreeder seed is directly controlled by the originating plant breeder, sponsoring institution or firm that supplies the initial source of seed. There are no certification standards for breeder seed.

Foundation seed is pure seed produced from breeder seed (or foundation seed) under the control of the originator or sponsoring institution or licensee, and maintained by companies or state agencies.

Registered seed is produced from foundation or other approved seed stocks. The seed must be of a quality suitable for the production of certified seed.

Certified seed is produced from foundation, registered, certified, or other approved seed stocks. It must be verified to be pure with a high germination rate, and cannot be used to produce certified seed again without the approval of the state certification agency. Seed lots must meet specified standards and pass field inspection before being sold as certified seed.

Quality declared seed is from a system of seed quality control developed by FAO that is less expensive than regular certification procedures.

The innovationv To guarantee sustained production, ICRISAT has arranged contract

farming for seed production through a seed revolving fund (SRF) in eastern and southern Africa (ESA) and community-based seed systems in West and Central Africa (WCA).

v Long-term training in seed production has been linked to SRF activities, through the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM), the Agricultural Seed Agency in Tanzania, local seed companies under the West Africa Seed Alliance, NGOs such as the Citizen’s Network for Foreign Affairs, and an agro-dealer network for input supply and output marketing.

The impactv Currently, the combined efforts of ICRISAT and national systems

provide 27 tons breeder seed of the five popular released groundnut varieties annually.

v Seed production has been going on for 12 years. So far, the SRF has contributed 707 tons of foundation seed and 1,380 tons of certified seed of improved groundnut varieties, and 12.21 tons breeder and 197.40 tons foundation seed of improved pigeonpea varieties for Malawi.

v Over 450 farmers organized as farmer clubs, farmer field schools and farmer marketing groups linked to the non-governmental organization, CARE; 233 farmers linked to NASFAM, and 73 farmers linked to the Millennium Villages Project have produced more than 2,808 tons of certified groundnut seed during the past 4 years under the Tropical Legumes 2 project partnerships.

v In Tanzania, certified seed is produced by over 100 farmer groups under similar contracting arrangement. They produced a total of 376 tons of certified groundnut seed for the Agricultural Seed Agency during the past 4 years.

v In West and Central Africa, ICRISAT supported the development of local seed companies under the West Africa Seed Alliance.

v Community-based organizations produced more than 130 tons of certified seed and over 1,000 tons of quality declared seed

v In Niger and Mali, 124 farmer associations and 98 smallholder farmers were trained in seed production technologies and business skills.

v Adoption rates of improved varieties is estimated at 57% of the total area in Malawi, 35% in Tanzania, 59% in selected districts of Uganda and 57% in Zambia for ESA, 27% in Mali and 22% in Nigeria for WCA.

v The reductions in unit costs of improved varieties range from 21% in Malawi to 44% in Uganda, compared to local varieties.

PartnersCARE; Irish Aid; NASFAM, USAID; Millennium Villages Project; Common Fund for Commodities; NARS and NGOs.

Sale of seed in small packets makes it easy for poor farmers to buy improved varieties.

Clockwise from top left: Farmers at a seed fair show interest in new varieties; grading groundnut; bags of seed ready for transportation to market; a seed processing factory.

Meeting of local seed company representatives.

A groundnut seed production plot.