Review of Community Seed Production Practices in Africa Part 1: Implementation Strategies and Models

Abstract

This review is limited in scale and scope and covers five case studies in Africa. Two of the studies are classic emergency interventions: one post-conflict and one post drought. Three of the case studies are developmental in nature; one focused on different approaches to increase farmer access to recently released drought-tolerant cereal varieties, another looking at smallholder participation in legume seed supply, and one looking at three women’s groups as seed enterprises. This review is based on an analysis of published and unpublished policy reviews, briefing and discussion papers, journal articles, meta-reviews, training material, strategy documents, evaluations, and case studies on seed production and seed delivery with a focus on the diverse but not well understood area between farmer seed management and commercial seed. This review has also been informed by discussion with seed system practitioners, particularly those involved in the case studies examined. This space between farmer seed management and commercial seed has been referred to as community seed production, smallholder seed enterprises, informal seed supply, and local seed system development programs. The objective of this review is to examine the status and trends in community seed production in order to identify key criteria for success and possible areas of improvement, including the role of community seed production in linking formal (public and private) seed sectors with the farmer seed system. The first section of the review (Part 1) details the five case studies in terms of major activities and implementation strategies.