Analyzing Pathways of Nurturing Informal Seed Production into Formal Private Ventures for Sustainable Seed Delivery and Crop Productivity: Experiences from Ethiopia

Abstract

Sustaining crop production and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa requires the availability and use of quality seed of improved varieties by smallholder farmers. The private sector has been considered as the best way to sustain seed supply and crop productivity. Unfortunately, the private sector’s share in the seed production and delivery in sub-Saharan Africa countries has not been very substantial for decades. As a consequence, farmer access to quality seed of recently released varieties remains very low. This manuscript analyzes the experiences of informal seed producers who graduated to formal private seed enterprises to understand the effectiveness of the support they receive to become viable seed ventures. We used comparative research methods to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected to understand the underlying mechanisms. The findings showed that the analyzed seed enterprises started with as little as about USD 300 and have already multiplied over tenfold their initial capital. They benefited from a wide variety of supports, e.g., quality seed production, marketing, partnerships, and value chain development trainings and infrastructures, from extension workers, research centers, national and international NGOs, and the other private seed enterprise operators like large public seed enterprises and agro-dealers. The seed enterprises are producing pre-basic, basic, and certified seed of cereals and self-pollinated legume crops delivered directly to farmers, institutional markets, and agro-dealers. The seed production data have been increasing for the past three years with an area expanding from about 30 ha to over 150 ha per year for chickpea. The seed production and delivery practices being employed are smallholder farmer-based practices that are environmentally friendly. For sustainable and reliable seed production and delivery systems in sub-Saharan Africa, a bold step is needed whereby the informal seed production entities are nurtured and upgraded into formal certified seed production ventures that deliver social and economic benefits to the promotors and the communities.

Farmer-Led Seed Production: Community Seed Banks Enter the National Seed Market

“…To make this step requires some form of targeted guidance and support-a nurtured seed development pathway. A similar argument has been made in a review of the evolution of informal seed producers to formal private seed cooperatives in Ethiopia [30]. Successful development also requires ample time for setting up the infrastructure, organization, governance, and market relationships; the latter require the development of an effective communication strategy (by making use of local media, e.g., farmer radio) and clear branding of the products (e.g., Champion Seeds can be seen as an attractive brand name).…”

Tapping the Economic Potential of Chickpea in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…By and large, the Tropical Legumes project (2007-2019) was a well-organized and consolidated project where chickpea R4D was supported in important chickpea-producing countries in SSA such as Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The project invested in strengthening breeding programs, promotion of improved varieties, strengthening seed systems, and training researchers [51,66]. The transformation of chickpea from simple precursor to one of the principal crops [19,67] contributing to the socio-economic development in Ethiopia is an important success story to learn and adapt to the other SSA geography of intervention.…”

“…A sustainable seed system facilitates access to seeds of improved varieties by farmers. The chickpea seed business could be profitable and sustainable [46,66]. However, the chickpea seed system in SSA, as for many other legumes, remains weak and far from sustainable.…”

“…In SSA, the chickpea seed system has been facilitated so far by the initiation and operations of mainly community seed producer associations and cooperatives [46,49,66], which are informal channels. Seed producer cooperatives have a comparative advantage of delivering seed to farming communities at an affordable price [100].…”

“…The authors have proposed an initial framework to examine entry points of support to ensure informal markets can deliver the seed farmers want and need-via the contact point of traders. On the other hand, Akpo et al [66] emphasized that, for sustainable and reliable seed production and delivery systems in SSA, a bold step is needed whereby the informal seed production entities are nurtured and upgraded into the formal certified seed production ventures that deliver social and economic benefits to the producers and the communities. In Ethiopia, seed producer associations, part of the informal seed system, are benefiting from business opportunities with income generation of more than USD$2000 per hectare [19].…”