scholarly journals Why interventions in the seed systems of roots, tubers and bananas crops do not reach their full potential: a reflection based on literature and thirteen case studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conny J.M. Almekinders ◽  
Stephen Walsh ◽  
Kim Jacobsen ◽  
Jorge Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
System Development ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
True Seed ◽  
Root Tuber ◽  
Implementation Time ◽  
Seed System ◽  
Seed Crops ◽  
System Paradigm

With RTB seed system initially not given much attention and – in very general way – in a less ‘advanced stage’, the awareness of their importance for food security, nutrition and income of rural households has caught up. In this publication we review the state-of-the art in relation to seed systems of root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops, with particular reference to potato, sweet potato, cassava, yam, banana, the five major vegetatively propagated food crops in developing countries. We reflect on current seed system development paradigms, and how seed systems of RTB crops feature in context, and how they differ from seed systems of “true” seed crops. Literature and 13 case studies of RTB seed system interventions are used to underpin the argument that more systematic and interdisciplinary research is needed to identify gaps in our knowledge on degeneration processes, farmer practices in multiplying in and sourcing seed. The interactions of these elements have important consequences for strategies to improve availability and access of farmers to quality seed. The evaluation of the 13 cases indicated that RTB seed system interventions are highly variable in scale and orientation. Despite the ambitious goals of the project interventions, the project implementation time was in the majority of the cases two to four year. The interventions appeared to have no links to national government policies to seed sector development, did not make specific efforts to build on existing informal seed systems and in general the efforts to learn from the experiences of the interventions seems to be meagre. Understanding farmers’ effective demand for seed and how this affects the economic sustainable supply of quality seed by specialized producer-entrepreneurs is of paramount importance, regardless of the seed system paradigm, in order to be able to prioritize investments in improved use of seed by farmers. Few interventions are designed without rigorous understanding of the bottlenecks in the functioning of the existing seed system, i.e. who are the actors, what does and does not work where and for whom and why.

scholarly journals Politics of Seed in Ethiopia's Agricultural Transformation: Pathways to Seed System Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teshome Hunduma Mulesa
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
System Development ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Agricultural Modernization ◽  
Agricultural Transformation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Barriers ◽  
Seed System ◽  
The Government

Seed system development in the developing world, especially in Africa, has become a political space. This article analyzes current Ethiopian seed politics in light of the historical dynamics of national and international seed system politics and developments. Drawing on multiple power analysis approaches and employing the lens of “international seed regimes,” the article characterizes the historical pattern of seed regimes in Ethiopia. While colonial territories underwent three historical seed regime patterns—the first colonial seed regime, the second post-WWII public seed regime, and the third post-1980s corporate-based neoliberal seed regime, Ethiopia has only experienced one of these. Until the 1950s, when the first US government's development assistance program—the Point 4 Program—enabled the second government-led seed regime to emerge, the farmers' seed systems remained the only seed innovation and supply system. The first colonial seed regime never took hold as the country remained uncolonized, and the government has hitherto resisted the third corporate-based neoliberal seed regime. In the current conjuncture in the contemporary Ethiopian seed regime, four different approaches to pluralistic seed system development are competing: (1) government-led formalization, (2) private-led formalization, (3) farmer-based localization, and (4) community-based integrative seed system developments. The Pluralistic Seed System Development Strategy (PSSDS) from 2013 is a uniquely diverse approach to seed system development internationally; however, it has yet to realize its equity and sustainability potential. This study shows that the agricultural modernization dependency and government-led formal seed systems development have sidelined opportunities to tap into the strength of other alternatives identified in the PSSDS. In conclusion, an integrative and inclusive seed sector is possible if the government takes leadership and removes the current political, organizational, and economic barriers for developing a truly pluralistic seed system.

scholarly journals Pluralistic Seed System Development: A Path to Seed Security?

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 372
Author(s):  
Teshome Hunduma Mulesa ◽  
Sarah Paule Dalle ◽  
Clifton Makate ◽  
Ruth Haug ◽  
Ola Tveitereid Westengen
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Seed Quality ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
System Development ◽  
Formal System ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Seed Security ◽  
Seed System

Seed security is central to crop production for smallholder farmers in developing countries, but it remains understudied in relation to long-term seed sector development. Here, we compare seed systems in two districts of Central Ethiopia characterized by subsistence-oriented teff cultivation and commercially oriented wheat production and relate this to the country’s pluralistic seed system development strategy (PSSDS). Our analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative information from a household survey and focus group discussions with farmers, as well as document review and key informant interviews with actors that make up the seed sector in the study sites. Farmers in both districts used a range of seed sources but primarily obtained their seeds from informal sources. Evidence of seed insecurity was found in both districts, as apparent from discrepancies between what the seed farmers say they prefer and those they actually use, limited availability of improved varieties and especially certified seeds of these, challenges with seed quality from some sources, and differentiated access to preferred seed and information according to sex, age and wealth. We find that the interventions prioritized in the PSSDS address most of the seed security challenges and seed system dysfunctions identified, but implementation lags, particularly for the informal seed system, which is largely neglected by government programs. The intermediate system shows promise, but while some improvements have been made in the formal system, vested political, organizational, and economic interests within key institutions represent major obstacles that must be overcome to achieve truly integrative and inclusive seed sector development.

scholarly journals Gender mainstreaming in local potato seed system in Georgia

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Potato Seed ◽  
Production Environment ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Root Tuber ◽  
Seed System

This report presents the study findings associated with the project “Enhancing Rural Livelihoods in Georgia: Introducing Integrated Seed Health Approaches to Local Potato Seed Systems” in Georgia. It also incorporates information from the results of gender training conducted within the framework of the USAID Potato Program in Georgia. The study had three major aims: 1) to understand the gender-related opportunities and constraints impacting the participation of men and women in potato seed systems in Georgia; 2) to test the multistakeholder framework for intervening in root, tuber, and banana (RTB) seed systems as a means to understand the systems themselves and the possibilities of improving gender-related interventions in the potato seed system; and 3) to develop farmers’ leadership skills to facilitate women’s active involvement in project activities. Results of the project assessment identified certain constraints on gender mainstreaming in the potato seed system: a low level of female participation in decision-making processes, women’s limited access to finances that would enable their greater involvement in larger scale potato farming, and a low awareness of potato seed systems and of possible female involvement in associated activities. Significantly, the perception of gender roles and stereotypes differs from region to region in Georgia; this difference is quite pronounced in the target municipalities of Kazbegi, Marneuli, and Akhalkalaki, with the last two having populations of ethnic minorities (Azeri and Armenian, respectively). For example, in Marneuli, although women are actively involved in potato production, they are not considered farmers but mainly as assistants to farmers, who are men. This type of diversity (or lack thereof) results in a different understanding of gender mainstreaming in the potato seed system as well. Based on the training results obtained in three target regions—Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, and Marneuli—it is evident that women are keen on learning new technologies and on acquiring updated agricultural information, including on potato production. It is also clear that women spend as much time as men do on farming activities such as potato production, particularly in weeding and harvesting. However, women are heavily burdened with domestic work, and they are not major decision-makers with regard to potato variety selection, agricultural investments, and product sales, nor with the inclusion of participants in any training provided. Involving women in project activities will lead to greater efficiency in the potato production environment, as women’s increased knowledge will certainly contribute to an improved production process, and their new ideas will help to improve existing production systems, through which women could also gain confidence and power. As a general recommendation, it is extremely important to develop equitable seed systems that take into consideration, among other factors, social context and the cultural aspects of local communities. Thus, understanding male and female farmers’ knowledge may promote the development of seed systems that are sustainable and responsive to farmers’ needs and capacities.

Editorial introduction: Design issues and practical questions for demand-oriented seed systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-355
Author(s):  
Conny J.M. Almekinders ◽  
Kai Mausch ◽  
Jason Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
System Development ◽  
Editorial Introduction ◽  
Design Issues ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Breeding Programmes ◽  
Seed System ◽  
Farming Households

This special issue is a collection of papers that brings together different views on and experiences with seed systems and reflects the breadth of perspectives within CGIAR and beyond. The contributions relate to the major challenges facing seed systems research and development in different contexts and for different crops. One point of agreement among these articles is the need for the development of varieties and the delivery of seeds to be more demand-orientated. This introduction reflects on the implications for CGIAR and affiliated breeding programmes which aim to accelerate varietal uptake and turnover and rely on more effective seed delivery. Here, we outline how the various contributions in this special issue relate to this agenda. We conclude that realism about which farming households can be served by current approaches to seed system development is needed and argue that a wider range of partnerships will be required to broaden the reach of seed systems.

scholarly journals Social institutions mediating seed access in West African seed systems

FACETS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 998-1014
Author(s):  
Kristal Jones
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
System Development ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Seed System

Contemporary approaches to market-oriented agricultural development focus on increasing production and economic efficiency to improve livelihoods and well-being. For seed system development, this has meant a focus on seed value chains predicated on standardized economic transactions and improved variety seeds. Building formal seed systems requires establishing and strengthening social institutions that reflect the market-oriented values of efficiency and standardization, institutions that often do not currently exist in many local and informal seed systems. This paper describes and analyzes efforts to develop formal seed systems in Sahelian West Africa over the past 10 years, and identifies the impacts for farmers of the social institutions that constitute formal seed systems. Using qualitative and spatial data and analysis, the paper characterizes farmers’ and communities’ experiences with seed access through the newly established formal seed system. The results demonstrate that the social and spatial extents of the formal and informal seed systems are extended and integrated through social institutions that reflect values inherent in both systems. The impacts of current market-oriented agricultural development projects are, therefore, more than in the past, in part because the social institutions associated with them are less singular in their vision for productive and economic efficiency.

scholarly journals Making sense of farmers’ demand for seed of root, tuber and banana crops: a systematic review of methods

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Pircher ◽  
Conny J. M. Almekinders
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Body ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Root Tuber ◽  
Agricultural Research And Development

AbstractA demand-driven approach is becoming increasingly central in the efforts to improve agricultural research and development. However, the question of how exactly demand is studied usually remains unstated and is rarely discussed. We therefore carried out a systematic review in order to better understand how farmers’ demand for seed in root, tuber and banana seed systems is studied. The review is based on data from a consultation with an expert panel and a structured literature search in the SCOPUS database. Screening the gathered articles resulted in 46 studies on a global scale, fitting the scope of our investigation. Through qualitative analysis and categorization of these studies, we developed a classification scheme according to the types of approaches applied in the retained studies. One group of studies explicitly articulates farmers’ preferences and choices through surveys or engagements in trials, auctions, choice experiments and interviews. Other studies implicitly articulate farmers’ demand by characterising their current use of varieties and seed. We discuss opportunities and limitations in the use of each type of study and we reflect on the body of available literature as a whole. Our conclusion is that a framework is necessary that purposefully combines the existing different methods and that it is necessary to involve stakeholders in a process where demand is articulated. Together, these two steps would characterise existing demands in a more effective and precise way, thus providing better guidance to decision-makers in their reactions pertaining to seed systems.

Contextualizing private sector-based seed system development: The case of sorghum in Eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 003072702110563
Author(s):  
Caroline Hambloch ◽  
Jane Kahwai ◽  
John Mugonya
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
System Development ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Improved Varieties ◽  
Seed System ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Farming Households

Private sector-based seed system development remains a key development intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa. Seed system interventions promoting the adoption of improved varieties through the private sector generally follow a linear, market-oriented technological adoption logic. A qualitative case study of the sorghum seed system in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania demonstrates that this model may not be able to drive the broad-scale adoption of improved sorghum varieties and to generate significant benefits for small sorghum-farming households. The findings suggest that the agro-ecological, social, and political-economic contexts critically determine the role improved varieties and the private sector can play in rural development. Improved sorghum varieties promoted by both the public and private sectors may not suit the needs, preferences and contexts of farming households. Seed companies hold sorghum as an add-on in their portfolio, investing less resources and research into sorghum compared to more profitable crops such as vegetable and maize seeds. Significant political-economic obstacles exist that favor the support of cash crops such as maize and rice, limiting the growth and development of the private sector in the sorghum seed system. We conclude that future interventions should build on approaches that aim to develop more diverse channels of seed delivery in both the formal and informal seed systems, adopt a livelihoods perspective to evaluate the costs, benefits, and risks associated with the adoption of new technologies, and acknowledge that seed system interventions are only one out of a portfolio of interventions to generate rural development.

Informatics and Socio-Technical Challenges when Designing Solutions for Integrated eCare

2017 ◽  
pp. 261-289
Author(s):  
Sabine Koch ◽  
Maria Hägglund ◽  
Isabella Scandurra
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Care ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Informatics ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
System Development ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Technical Challenges ◽  
Definition Of

The central role of eHealth to enable the successful implementation of integrated care is commonly acknowledged today. This is easier said than done. To provide correct, understandable, and timely information at the point of need and to facilitate communication and decision support for a network of actors with different prerequisites and needs are some of the big challenges of integrated care. This book chapter focuses on the specific challenges related to informatics and socio-technical issues when designing solutions for integrated eCare. Methods for requirements elicitation, evaluation, and system development using user-centred design in collaborative environments involving a variety of stakeholders are presented. Case studies in homecare of older patients, in the care of stroke patients, and regarding citizen eHealth services in general illustrate the application of these methods. Possible solutions and pitfalls are discussed based on the experiences drawn from the case studies. To address the main informatics and socio-technical challenges in integrated eCare, namely informatics-supported collaborative work and to provide coordinated continuity for the patient, top-down activities such as health informatics standardisation, and bottom-up activities resulting in the definition of concrete patient journey descriptions, interaction points, information needs (that can be transformed into standardised data sets), as well as visualisation and interaction patterns need to go hand in hand.

Employer Shuttles—Concepts and Case Studies

1996 ◽  
Vol 1557 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Minerva ◽  
David Sampson ◽  
Herbert S. Levinson
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
System Performance ◽  
System Development ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Direct Route ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Seamless Transfer

Employer shuttle systems in Connecticut and New Jersey are reviewed. The planning processes underlying system development, the approach used to determine potential markets for employer shuttle services, and service design principles are outlined, and system performance is evaluated. Several case studies are presented, and the requirements for a successful shuttle program are identified as reliable line-haul transit, a direct route to employer concentrations located not more than 20 min from the line-haul transit, a seamless transfer, a reasonable fare structure, employer and public interest and support, and an effective marketing program.

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