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New guide supports policy makers, researchers and practitioners in making seed sector choices
What is required to strengthen a seed sector resulting in an increase in the use of quality seed of improved varieties for the crops that smallholder farmers grow? What does it take for policy makers, seed sector stakeholders and practitioners to answer the questions: Where are we now? Where do we want to go, and how will we get there?
Based on experiences in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali and Niger, a team from Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI) of Wageningen University & Research, in cooperation with SeedNL and the Netherlands Food Partnership, developed a guide for designing a national seed road map (NSRM). The guide captures experiences from WCDI’s work in collaboration with partners in various seed sector programmes financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Pathways for transforming a seed sector into a desired direction
The guide supports policy makers, researchers and practitioners in conducting a seed sector assessment and designing a national seed road map. It provides guiding concepts, explains the process, and offers tools for conducting the assessment and designing the road map. Each tool comes with an example from one of the mentioned countries.
The guide brings together concepts developed by WCDI, such as integrated seed sector development (ISSD) and the integrated framework for seed sector and food system transformation. It presents these concepts in a practical manner, ensuring that they can support policy makers, researchers and practitioners during the process of developing a national seed road map. The road map includes multiple pathways for transforming a seed sector into a desired direction.
Partnership
This guide is a result of co-creation by WUR and its partners in various multi-annual seed programmes. It can be used to educate professionals, and can be used in research, strategy development, and the design of seed programmes and interventions; all aiming to support the transformation of the seed sector.