Category: Sharing knowledge on Seeds

Week 105 – Research Article: Policy and performance in Uganda’s seed sector: Opportunities and challenges

Authors: Fredrick Bagamba, Proscovia R. Ntakyo, Geoffrey Otim, David J. Spielman, Bjorn Van Campenhout
Keywords: Uganda; innovations; reforms

“Motivation: Efforts to increase smallholder access to improved varieties and quality seed is often central to agricultural development, economic growth, and poverty reduction in low-income countries. Yet many governments and development partners grow impatient with slow progress in their seed sectors. Uganda stands out for its recent policy innovations, regulatory reforms, and market experiments for seed, and for the extensive analysis of its experience..” […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dpr.12665

© John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of ODI.

Week 104 – Research Article: Farmer-Led Seed Production: Community Seed Banks Enter the National Seed Market

Authors: Ronnie Vernooy , Jai Rana, Gloria Otieno, Hilton Mbozi and Pitambar Shrestha
Keywords: conservation; seed production; community seed banks

“Smallholder farmers around the world obtain their seed from various sources, which can vary over time. In some countries, smallholder farmers are gaining ground as local seed producers and sellers. This study focuses on the seed production and marketing operations, achievements, and challenges of a particular type of such producers—community seed banks—which are new players in the seed market. Pioneer case studies are presented from countries where grain legumes and dryland cereals are important crops: India, Nepal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. A mixed methodology was used to collect data, including a literature review, focus group discussion, key informant interview, and participatory observation. […]”

Click on the following link to access the content:https://issdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/seeds-01-00015-Community-seed-banks-enter-the-seed-market-2022.pdf

© MDPI

Week 103 – Research Article: Seed value chain development in the Global South: Key issues and new directions for public breeding programs

Authors: Jason Donovan, Pieter Rutsaert, David Spielman, Kelvin Mashisia Shikuku, and Matty Demont
Keywords: integrated development; guidance; value chain

“Where CGIAR breeding programs rely on the private sector for the multiplication and distribution of improved cultivars, persistent challenges have dampened their impact on varietal adoption and turnover rates. Part of the problem is that research and practice in CGIAR and among its national breeding program partners tend to treat the private sector as a vehicle for seed delivery, rather than as commercial businesses facing a range of unique constraints and threats.” […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00307270211059551

© sage

Week 102 – Policy Brief: Designing self-sustaining early generation seed supply systems: the must-dos

Authors: Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation
Keywords: integrated development; guidance; policy

“Shortages in the supply of quality early generation seed (EGS) of new and improved varieties, particularly of dryland cereals and legumes is a major challenge because of the business models. This triggers the following questions: what EGS business models would sustainably avail quality parent seed? To investigate this, we documented 16 EGS interventions. We found that pre-securing seed market ahead of production played important role in the successful seed business. Taking different forms (e.g., pre-orders, demand forecasting, pre-aggregation of demand, joint planning, contractual agreement), it brings confidence to EGS producers to continuously invest in the business and make it profitable. For sustainable EGS production and supply in sub-Saharan Africa, we advocate for market assurance in advance. Two guiding principles are also suggested and four recommendations formulated.” […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://edepot.wur.nl/579985

© Wageningen University & Research

Week 101 – Research report: Inventory of novel approaches to seed quality assurance mechanisms for vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) in seven African countries

Authors: Sulle, E.; Pointer, R.; Kumar, L.; McEwan, M. 2022
Keywords: quality assurance; vegetative propagated material; innovation

This paper provides an inventory of novel approaches to and mechanisms for quality assurance of the seeds of vegetatively produced crops (VPCs). It explores to what extent seven African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) are decentralising and integrating VPC seed systems, in terms of regulations governing the sector, methods of seed production, and methods of seed inspection and certification. It consolidates existing data and presents new data on decentralised seed quality assurance (SQA) approaches for VPCs in these seven selected countries. It makes relevant information readily available for policy dialogue on appropriate and inclusive SQA approaches, by providing an assessment of (i) the extent to which SQA has been decentralised, i.e., the extent to which third-party accredited inspectors have been deployed; (ii) countries’ use of e-certification platforms; (iii) the involvement of seed producer groups and cooperatives in SQA; and (iv) any novel approaches to disease diagnostics or other relevant aspects of SQA.
[…]

© CGIAR / CIP / ISSD Africa

Click on the following links to access the content: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/129631

Week 100 – Research report: Policies, laws, and regulations in support of farmer-managed seed systems: still a long way to go. A review of 14 countries in Africa

Authors: Vernooy, R.; Adokorach, J.; Kimani, D.; Marwa, A.; Mayoyo, A.; Nyadanu, D., 2023
Keywords: enabling environment, legislation, farmer-managed seed systems

The main finding of this review report of seed (related) policies and laws in 14 African countries is that, although in most countries there is some form of acknowledgment that farmer-managed seed systems exist, there are not many positive results related to recognition of and concrete support for farmer-managed seed systems (policy, legal, technical, operational, and financial support).
[…]

© CGIAR

Click on the following links to access the content:
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/128579/ISSD%20report%20full%20lenght_22_March_DEF.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Week 99 – Research paper: Seed Coating of Maize with Trichoderma harzianuma Improves Emergence and Plant Growth in Burkina Faso

Authors: Dabiré Tobdem Gaston, Sanou Amadou, Bonzi Schemaéza, Somda Irénée, 2023
Keywords: seeds; maize; fungi

“Many species of molds infect maize grains produced in Burkina Faso. The presence of these fungi on the grains leads to damping off, retardation of plant growth and the production of mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, the consumption of which is dangerous for human and animal health. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the behavior of maize seeds coated with the conidia of a local strain of Trichoderma harzianum that showed antifungal and growth promoting properties on onion. Six seed lots of six maize varieties were thus collected and analyzed to identify the mold species present. The three main species identified were then confronted in vitro with T. harzianum to assess the antagonism.” […]

© esipreprints

Click on the following links to access the content:
https://esipreprints.org/index.php/esipreprints/article/view/384/368

Week 98 – Manual: Catalogue of Plant Varieties ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS – FAO

Authors: ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS – FAO
Keywords: regional development; references; seeds; Plant Varieties

The ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS Regional Catalogue of Plant Species and Varieties is a major instrument of the harmonized seed regulation. It is expected to be updated annually and edited every two years. The regional catalogue is updated using information from the revised national catalogues of the States in the ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS region. Indeed, the harmonized seed regulation provides in its articles 9 for Regulation C/REG.4/05/2008/ECOWAS and 80 for Regulation N°03/2009/CM/UEMOA, that the Regional Catalogue is “the official document which contains the list of all the plant varieties approved in the Member States”. […]

Click on the following links to access the content:
Catalogue 2008: https://www.fao.org/3/i0062f/i0062f.pdf
Catalogue 2016: http://www.coraf.org/wasp-learningevent/fichiers/catalogue.pdf
Catalogue 2021: https://www.wakatsera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Catalogue-Regional-CEDEAO-UEMOA-CILSS-des-Especes-et-Varietes-Vegetales-2021.pdf

Week 97 – Guidelines: Guiding sector transformation: the case of integrated seed sector development in Ethiopia

Authors: Gareth Borman, Mohammed Hassena, Karèn Verhoosel and Jan Willem Molenaar
Keywords: integrated development; guidance; quality seeds

Embrace systemic change, manage not only adaptively but inclusively, and invest in social capital. These are the lessons learned in guiding sector transformation through the programme Integrated Seed Sector Development in Ethiopia (ISSD Ethiopia) over the past decade. This case study takes as its starting point the pinnacle of the programme’s efforts, a little less than two years ago. Looking specifically at the achievements of a new seed policy, and a stakeholder-owned strategic document, entitled ‘Transforming the Ethiopian seed sector: issues and strategies’, we describe the effectiveness of the methods applied by ISSD Ethiopia, their grounding in theory, and the relevance of these three lessons for practitioners and policy-makers looking to achieve similar results. […]

Click on the following link to access the content: https://aidenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/WCDI2020GuidingSectorTransformationISSDethiopia.pdf
© Wageningen University ; aidenvironment

Week 96 – Guidelines: 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: guidance; quality seeds; early generation seeds; Ghana

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”. […]

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

© Frontiers Media S.A