Objective 8.2: Groundnut, Seed Systems in ESA

ICRISAT Bamako, Mali

Project Partners in Eastern and Southern Africa - ESA

Project Team ESA

ICRISAT MALAWI TANZANIA

E MONYO F MAIDENI O MPONDA

R JONES T KAPEWA F MIZAMBWA

B SHIFERAW G KANANJI E KAFIRITI

Project Components

•  Improve seed availability and thus adoption of new varieties

•  Build capacity to ensure a sustainable supply of affordable high-quality seed

Highlights of Results

•  On Improving Availability

What was the legume seed system situation when the project

started?

Baseline report.

Relative contribution (% share) of different seed sources to groundnut seed supply

•  Tanzania – 92.9% Farmer saved seed – 3.4% Farmer to farmer – Balance: agro dealers, traders, local producers family

gifts •  Malawi

– 53% Farmer saved seed – 16% purchased from local seed producer – 9% Farmer clubs – 8% Farmer to farmer – 7% inherited from family – Balance: gift and agro dealers

Adoption of groundnuts varieties in Malawi (%)

 Crop variety

(awareness % of all farmers)

Ever Planted

(% of all h’holds)

Planted in 06/07

(% of all)

Groundnuts 55

CG 7 53 38 21

Chalimbana 84 69 37

Manipintar 11 9 2

Chalimbana 2005 9 8 5

Kalisere 5 5 2

Nsinjiro 3 3 1

Baka 3 2 0

Kakoma 2 1 1

Groundnut varieties Lack of access

Lack of cash to buy

Low yielding

CG 7 73 8 3

Kakoma 80 0 0

Chalimbana 2005 80 20 20

Chalimbana 51 10 18

Nsinjiro 100 0 0

Baka 67 11 0

Manipitar 64 18 0

Major reasons for never planting some groundnut varieties in Malawi

(% h’holds never planted)

Summary of bottlenecks

1.  Lack of awareness 2.  Lack of access to

seed

Approaches being tested

•  Seed Production and delivery strategies for breeder and Foundations Seed

– Breeder seed at all Agric Research Stns – – Foundation seed thro Foundation seed farms

and contract growers vs Revolving Funds

•  Initial production thro project funds but subsequently thro seed revolving fund

The ICRISAT Seed Revolving Fund Model

The bold black arrows indicate the flow of seed.  The red arrows indicate the flow of cash in the system. 

ICRISAT 

Seed Stock 

Seed Rev Fund 

Seed Co 

NGOs 

Agrodealer 

Farmers 

Government of Malawi 

Contract Growers 

1 

2 

3 5 

4 

6 

7 8 

8 9 

10 

11 

13  12

Scheme details •  ICRISAT selects outgrowers and gives them seed on credit funded by the

Revolving Fund •  At the end of the season the farmer sells the produced seed to ICRISAT •  ICRISAT pays the farmer the contract price per kg of seed using the

money from the Revolving Fund •  ICRISAT sells the seed to Seed companies and NGOs •  The buyers of the seed pay to ICRISAT which replenishes the Revolving

Fund •  NGOs give away seed to farmers in certain areas •  Seed companies sell seed directly to farmers or, •  Seed companies sell seed through agrodealers •  The government provides farmers with vouchers to purchase seed under

the Subsidy Scheme •  Farmers purchase seed from seed companies and pay using cash plus

the voucher (subsidy is partial) or, •  Farmers purchase seed from agrodealers and pay using cash plus the

voucher •  The agrodealer collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to the

government who pays the value of the vouchers to the agrodealer •  The seed company collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to

the government who pays the value of the vouchers to the seed company

Production and Delivery Approaches cont

• Certified Seed through – Farmer Associations – FA (NASFAM; MW),

Farmer Cooperatives-FC (Tanzania) • Smallholder farmers linked to FA /FC are trained to

produce certified seed for NGOs with DoA support

•  NGOs purchase for relief (10t CARE-MW)

• FA/FC purchase for their membership (40t TZ)

• Govt buys for subsidy programs (300t MW)

Production and Delivery Approaches cont

•  Community / informal seed supply – Community seed banks; Farmers pay back seed loan

on post-harvest return in kind to the community (140t MVP MW, 12t CARE&NASFAM)

– Rural Community structures: FFS (80 TZ 134 MW), seed villages/churches(46 TZ, 50 MW),

– Farmer field days (19 MW/TZ ≥1000 farmers), Demos & PVS in each seed village/FFS and seed fairs involving 2500 farmers

Production and Delivery Approaches cont

•  Seed marketing platforms – Farmer associations in Malawi under the umbrella of

NASFAM and Pvt Traders

– Farmer Marketing Groups in Tanzania under the umbrella of District Cooperatives in District Councils (support NGO efforts)

– Govt of Malawi thro registered dealers (seed co, seed associations, agro-dealers, private individuals for the subsidy program)

Capacity for sustainable supply of affordable quality seed

•  Training in seed production and delivery strategies – 547 seed producers (Farmers and their supervising

officers), 57 technicians, 141 extension officers, 46 farmer research group leaders in MW and TZ

•  Establish & train farmer marketing groups in Tanzania and Malawi – Three groups in TZ under Masasi and Nanyumbu

District Councils-DC (Mpeta, Mnanje B and Likokona) – 19 groups in Mchinji, 28 groups in Nkhotakhota under

NASFAM and 3 groups in Zomba under MVP in MW. – 134 FFS under CARE MW, 80 FFS under DC and

KIMAS in TZ trained on seed production & marketing

Capacity for affordable quality seed cont

•  Produced groundnut seed production manual in Swahili (Tanzania)

•  More than 15000 flyers for released varieties and their production practices in Swahili and Chichewa

•  TV, Radio broadcasts, newspapers, live interviews a norm

•  Degree training 1 MSc

Challenges  Weather – Early cessation of rainfall  Transport problems –Restricted mobility to

supervise/monitor seed production  Food insecurity –used as food or sold it as

grain to meet other demands  Low private investment- Small market size

of legume seeds  Trained Manpower- Limited number of

research & seed technicians  Seed production during off-season-

Irrigation system installation with most of the NARS still incomplete

Lessons learned

•  Areas for seed production should target assured productive regions to lower seed costs

•  Cumbersome seed certification procedures for gnuts is unnecessary discourages smallholders leading to high seed costs

•  Whereas small seed packs is popular with new vars, for gnuts they should be at lease 1-2kg to be appreciated.

•  New vars are a stimulant for adoption of Good Agron Practices hence the need for faster testing and release system

•  Informal sector supplies signf proportion of legume seed. Its improved efficiency will have positive contribution to enhanced legume seed supply

Other Collaborating Projects

•  Groundnut Breeding E/S Africa – (The McKnight Foundation)

•  Malawi Food Security Program (CARE/ICRISAT) - EU

•  Malawi Legumes Seed Development Program (IRISH AID)

•  ICRISAT Seed Revolving Fund (USAID)

•  Treasure Legumes – IFAD Project (Malawi and Tanzania)

Thank You