How to Organize a Seed Fair
Contents
Seed Fairs
Introduction
Seed supply mechanism for communal farmers have increasingly become unreliable and unpredictable. Frequently farmers cannot obtain their seed on time as either the seed is not readily available on the local market or available varieties are not suitable for local conditions. Crop failure is common due to late planting directly linked to late availability of seed and the poor adaptability of the available varieties to local agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. Recurrent droughts have also resulted in local seed stocks being exhausted because seeds are being converted into food and the stocks are not being replenished year on year due to crop failure.
In Tanzania for example commercial producers of certified seed are not available in remote districts and local business people are reluctant to stock seed because demand is uncertain. The varieties developed by the official seed companies are often promoted by national and local extension agencies although they have been developed for higher potential areas.
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The long-term food security for communal farmers has been worsened by ad-hoc welfare interventions by both Governments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Food aid packages have been expanded to include food components to cater for short-term and immediate needs and seed packs for agricultural recovery purposes, which is often sourced from outside the areas they are distributed and at worst from outside the countries of their distribution.
These welfare interventions have managed to avert famines in the short term but have impacted negatively on crop diversity and long-term food security.
Seed fairs
The main purpose of any fair is to provide a specialised market place where not only traders display their products and buyers come to purchase, but it is specialised since it normally deals in one sector, examples are Building Fairs and Agricultural Fairs. A seed fair is as the name suggests, a fair specialising in seed and is normally organised at a local or village level.
The objectives of Seed Fairs include:<<<<<<<<
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Benefits from seed fairs
Some of the benefits of a seed fair are:
- Promoting seed based to local conditions as farmers exchange and sell seed grown and produced locally.
- Help insure farmers against climatic uncertainties by availing different crop types and varieties.
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- Farmers may find out innovations on the market whilst seed producers find out farmer needs, tastes and concerns.
- Market linkages can also be pursued which may promote agro-processing and value addition.
- Creates a discussion forum for farmers on the quality, usefulness and price of the seed.
- Seed companies may gather valuable information to improve the quality of their seed.
Conducting a seed fair
Preparation
The seed fair is organised at a local level either village or ward and all preparations should be coordinated at the local level. The most significant of these preparations are taking stock of the available seed, determining and agreeing on the judging criteria, selecting judges and judges pre-fair meeting, sharing determined judging criteria with exhibitors, food arrangements, selecting a suitable venue and stand preparation.The venue should be easily accessible and preferably centrally located. The date and timing of the fair takes into consideration local beliefs and events. It should also be help appropriately with the cropping calendar, normally after harvesting and before the rains.
Determining the judging criteria
Selecting Judges
Judges are selected from amongst the community itself with representation from all the participating groups. To increase impartiality representatives or extension workers from local farmer support and extension organisations may also support the judging team.
Competition Participants
The community, based on local dynamics, determines who can exhibit -individuals, farmer groups or villages. If the seed fair is being held at village level then individual or group exhibitions are recommended, however if it is a district or ward seed fair, the village exhibitions should suffice due to space constraints and to speed up the judging process.
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Seed Exchanges
The main purpose of a seed fair is promote local seed exchanges, it is however important to keep a track of the exchanges to be able to monitor how much seed is exchanged locally and with externals through either barter or cash purchases. Monitoring will help identify the origin of all the seed exchanged and will help maintain linkages and farmer seed networks.
In addition to the seed that is on display, exhibitors may bring larger quantities of the same varieties to the samples for sale on a cash basis or for exchanges with other farmers from within or without the ward. All sales or exchanges should be recorded for monitoring purposes.
Seed Fair Prizes
Seed fair prizes can either be cash or farm inputs such as seed packs or equipment such as ploughs and wheelbarrows. These can be sourced through community contributions or cash and material donations can come from NGOs and local business people.
Stakeholder Participation
Seed vouchers
In some areas/countries a seed voucher system has been linked to seed fairs and this has been used mainly in emergency or relief situations for agricultural recovery purposes. Instead of giving out free seed, farmers are given vouchers with a specific value, which they exchange for seed at a seed fair. The vouchers are later redeemed for cash at the end of the fair. Vouchers can be distributed in a specialised relief system to the needy or most vulnerable as identified by the community itself or they can be open to everyone where the aid is open.
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Different crop types and seed varieties can be purchased at the fair and individual vendors who may include farmers, small-scale traders, large seed companies may offer either local traditional varieties or modern certified varieties. Instead of providing seed for recovery purposes, farmers are able to choose the variety and quality of seed they want.
The seed voucher system has been introduced by such organisations as the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Save the Children in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Advantages of the seed voucher system
In addition to the advantages of a conventional seed fair mentioned earlier there are other advantages of a seed voucher system:
- In addition to supporting the affected communities with seed, a seed voucher system injects emergency funds directly into the affected communities rather than at the central level or importing seed.
- Emergency funds are invested directly in disaster areas and this will revitalise local businesses and the local economy.
- The system promotes both certified hybrid seed and locally produced seed.
- Farmers purchase seed of their preferred varieties.
- Farmers use their own judgement to judge the seed quality.
- The vouchers are cost effective, simple to implement, monitor and evaluate.
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Seed vouchers and seed multiplication
The seed voucher system can also be used with seed multiplication where seed is provided to a few farmers identified by the community and these will be responsible for multiplying that seed and selling the seed they produce to voucher holders in the community.
The seed produced will be sold or exchanged for vouchers at a seed fair or a seed fair can be organised to link the seed multipliers with farmers who require seed. After the fair the selling will be conducted on an individual basis and the vouchers are later redeemed for cash.
The seed voucher system is used mainly with such crops as sweet potatoes and Open Pollinated Varieties of maize, sorghum and pearl millet. This is necessary to maintain gene quality.
Seed fair experiences
A number of organisations in the sub-Saharan region have been involved with seed fairs and may provide valuable experiences. Some of the organisations include:
-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Information resources
Victor A. Orindi & Andrew Ochieng* IDS Bulletin Vol 36 No 4 October 2005<
Practical Action Southern Africa
Number 4 Ludlow Road
(off Enterprise Road)
Newlands
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel: +263 (4) 776107 or 788157
Tel: +263 (4) 7766313
Fax: +263 (4) 788157
practicalaction@practicalaction.org.zw
[southernafrica.infoserv@practicalaction.org southernafrica.infoserv@practicalaction.org ]
www.PracticalAction.org
Catholic Relief Services (East Africa)
P. O. Box 49675
Nairobi
Kenya
Website: http://www.catholicrelief.org
International Crop Research institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
P. O. Box 39063
Nairobi
Kenya
Website: http://www.icrisat.org
Reference
This article was derived from Practical Action's Technical Brief Seed Fairs See trhe original document here: http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?cPath=24_80&products_id=61&attrib=1 This article was added to our catalogue on Wednesday 06 September, 2006.
