Do Farmers Need Relief Seed? A Methodology for Assessing Seed Systems

Longley, Catherine; Domínguez, Carlos; Saide, Momade A.; Leonardo, Wilson

doi:10.1111/1467-7717.00211

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…(Images courtesy of Lisa Smith, University of Guelph, can be reused under the Creative Commons BY licence) [23]. To protect precious seeds, inexpensive low-oxygen grain storage bags (also called hermetic storage bags, Fig.…”

Section: Seed Package Of Rapid Maturing Vegetablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In such situations, appropriate and timely distribution of seed can bring very significant improvements to agricultural production and food security [23]. Seeds of a b Fig.…”

Section: Seeds Of Early Maturing Crop Varieties Along With Fertilizersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Rwanda, after the genocide and war of 1994, agricultural rebuilding efforts largely comprised of highquality seeds, crop and variety development and conservation, and rebuilding human resource capacity as well as basic scientific facilities [72]. Unfortunately, poorly designed seed aid can actually undermine local resilience by providing untested new varieties, narrowing crop diversity, and adversely impacting local seed enterprises [2,23]. Therefore, care should be taken while choosing the crop varieties; they should be early maturing, diverse, and compatible with the growing season and location [73][74][75].…”

Section: Seeds Of Early Maturing Crop Varieties Along With Fertilizersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current literature regarding natural disasters has not focused on coping efforts to assist farmers, but rather on the post-disaster impacts on rural livelihoods [12], household economy, food and nutritional security [12,[20][21][22], seed systems security [23,24], soil fertility [25], physical and mental health [26,27], population displacement [28], and long-term human migration [29] from the affected regions. A few studies have discussed government and non-governmental humanitarian systems [30,31] and the efficiency of their distribution channels [32].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Chapagain

Raizada

2017

Agric & Food Secur

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Here, we review the impacts of recent natural disasters in developing countries on rural agriculture and livelihoods with the objective of understanding gaps and providing recommendations. Lessons from these disasters demonstrate that national governments, aid agencies, and international/non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) are effective primarily at distributing short-term products (e.g. food packages and tarpaulin) to cities. Such products are inexpensive, simple to procure, and easily quantifiable for donors. Unfortunately, the literature suggests that many national governments and foreign NGOs are ineffective at assisting rural farmers in the short and long term. Given that the global community is somewhat effective at distributing short-term products, we suggest that a similar strategy should be developed for rural areas, but focusing on products that can assist farm households. There appears to be a gap in knowledge of effective products that can target such households after a disaster. We propose an emergency sustainable agriculture kit (eSAK) framework for disaster relief in rural areas that involves a comprehensive list of products that can be combined into packages to address the needs of shelter, hunger, first aid, seeds, preservation of indigenous crop varieties, and post-disaster labour shortages. We also propose ideas on how to re-purpose relief products provided to urban areas to assist with farm needs. Products highlighted are rolls of agricultural-grade plastics, low-oxygen grain storage bags, waterproof gardening gloves, multi-use shovels, seeds of early maturing crops, fertilizers, inexpensive farming tools, temporary food support, and first-aid kits. These products are needed, inexpensive, labour efficient, compact, lightweight, available/procurable on a large scale, simple, and re-usable. Furthermore, correct use and re-purposing of the products can be explained using accompanying graphical illustrations, which is critical for rural illiterate households. As distribution to rural areas is a challenge, especially after a disaster, we propose the use of pre-existing alcohol/cigarette/snackfood distribution networks as a novel strategy for rural disaster relief. These efforts must be in partnership with local officials and grassroots organizations, with dedicated funding from governments and international aid agencies. It is hoped that global stakeholders will benefit from these recommendations to assist affected farmers after a crisis.

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Section: Seed Package Of Rapid Maturing Vegetablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In such situations, appropriate and timely distribution of seed can bring very significant improvements to agricultural production and food security [23]. Seeds of a b Fig.…”

Section: Seeds Of Early Maturing Crop Varieties Along With Fertilizersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seeds Of Early Maturing Crop Varieties Along With Fertilizersmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Chapagain

Raizada

2017

Agric & Food Secur

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“…Since 2002, the Mozambican Government and its partners such as the FAO have been implementing an agricultural input voucher program primarily in response to disasters such as floods and droughts (Leonardo, 2000;Longley et al, 2002) and more recently as part of a strategy to increase smallholder farm productivity (http://www.fao.org/in-action/faolaunches-the-first-electronic-voucher-scheme-in-mozambique/en/). A similar subsidy programme has been implemented by the Government of Malawi where improved seed and fertilizers were provided at reduced cost resulting in maize yield increase up to 5 t ha -1 in some locations (Denning et al, 2009).…”

Section: Institutional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring opportunities for rural livelihoods and food security in Central Mozambique

Leonardo

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Growing awareness of widespread hunger and poverty in many countries in the SSA is spurring a focus on productivity increase in smallholder farming systems. The rationale is that with current production systems many SSA countries are not keeping pace with population growth and changing of peoples' lifestyles. To respond to this challenge the Government of Mozambique developed its Strategic Plan for Agricultural Development (PEDSA) aiming to improve agricultural productivity of the majority of smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Smallholder farmers are diverse in terms of resources and aspirations. The main objectives of this study are first to understand the diversity among maize-based smallholder farms and their current constraints in improving agricultural productivity in the Manica Plateau, Central Mozambique, and second, building on that understanding to explore options for biomass production either for food, cash or biofuel at farm level and contributions to maize availability in the region. The study was conducted in the Dombe and Zembe Administrative Posts. Farmers in the two posts cultivate both food and cash crops using the same resources, however, distances to the urban market differ, with Zembe close and Dombe far away from the markets. In addition, the agroecological conditions for crop production are more favourable in Dombe compared with Zembe. Using farm surveys, direct observations and on-farm measurements, followed by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) I identified land and labour as the variables that can best explain the variability found among smallholder farms (Chapter 2). Based on these variables I categorised farms into four Farm Types (FT): FT1. Large farms (4.4 ha in Dombe and 2.2 ha in Zembe), hiring in labour; FT2. Intermediate sized farms (1.9-1.2 ha), hiring in and out labour; FT3a. Small farms (1.1-0.9 ha), sharing labour; and FT3b. Small farms (1.0-0.7 ha), hiring out labour. The maize yield and maize labour productivities were higher on large farms (2.3 t ha -1 in Dombe and 2.0 t ha -1 in Zembe; 2.5×10 -3 t h -1 in Dombe and 2.6 ×10 -3 t h -1 in Zembe) compared with small farms (1.5 t ha -1 in Dombe and 1.1 t ha -1 in Zembe;1.4×10 -3 t h -1 in Dombe and 0.9×10 -3 t h -1 in Zembe). The hiring in labour from small farms allowed large farms to timely weed their fields. Small farms were resource constrained and viii hired out labour (mutrakita) for cash or food to the detriment of weeding their own fields, resulting in poor crop yields. Excessive alcohol consumption by small farms also raised concerns on labour quality. Chapter 3 explored options aiming at addressing farmers' objectives of being maize self-sufficient and increased gross margin and the contribution to national objective of producing food. A bio-economic farm model was used to investigate two pathways to increase agricultural production: (i) extensification, expanding the current cultivated area; and (ii) intensification, increasing input use and output per unit of land...

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Integrating Natural Resource Management into Disaster Response and Mitigation

March

2011

Integrating Ecology and Poverty Reduction

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Do Farmers Need Relief Seed? A Methodology for Assessing Seed Systems

Cited by 20 publications

References 4 publications

Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Exploring opportunities for rural livelihoods and food security in Central Mozambique

Integrating Natural Resource Management into Disaster Response and Mitigation

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