Seed Info 33, July 2007

S E E D I N F O

Official Newsletter of the WANA Seed Network

No. 33, July 2007

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RESEARCH NOTES__________________________________________________________

Short communications on practical research or relevant information on agriculture or seed technology are presented in this section.

Bean seed flow and exchange networks in Southern Ethiopia
Asrat Asfaw 1, Conny Almekinders 2, Getahun Degu 1 & Fistum Alemayehu 1

[¹Awassa Agricultural Research Center, South Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 6, Awassa, Ethiopia]
[2 Technology and Agrarian Development Group, Dept. of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands]

Introduction
Under the influence of commercialization of bean production, the seed system in Southern Ethiopia is changing rapidly. This can offer opportunities as well as present new constraints. In order to anticipate the future direction, it is important to understand what sources of seeds and varieties farmers use, and for what reasons. It is also relevant to know new and old seed actors in the system. This text provides a short overview of current sources and actors and raises concerns on the basis of recent experiences.

Background
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L) is one of the principal grain legumes in Ethiopia. The crop is grown under diverse farming systems and agro-climatic conditions; either as mono-crop or inter-cropped with maize, sorghum and coffee. The Southern Regional State (SRS) and the central Rift Valley are major belts of bean production in the country. The crop is not indigenous in Ethiopia, and as a result does not show high genetic diversity in comparison with other 'centers of diversity' like Central America, Andean Region and some African countries (CIAT, 2002). Bean is principally cultivated for home consumption but is rapidly evolving into a cash crop in recent years. Bean is an important source of proteins for lower income households and cash crop for small-scale farmers. This makes the crop strategic in alleviating malnutrition and ensuring food security.

Farmers in Ethiopia obtain bean seeds for planting from different sources. About 1.73% of bean farmers at national and 1.43% of bean farmers in Southern Regional State used improved seeds in the 2003/04 meher crop season (CSA, 2004), presumably obtained or purchased from formal seed sector institutions. The remaining farmers plant seed they obtained from other sources. This implies that both formal and informal seed systems are operating for bean production in the region even though their degree of dominance differs greatly.

Many authors broadly divide the seed system into formal and informal sectors (Almekinders and Louwaars, 1999; Sperling and Cooper, 2003; McGuire, 2005). The latter also called the informal, traditional or farmer seed system (Sperling and Cooper, 2003). The farmer seed system is complex, dynamic and is a part of farming system and farmer knowledge. It encompasses plant/seed selection, production, storage and exchange as part of crop production process.

Seed sources
The importance of different sources from which farmers acquire seeds appears to change with time. A survey conducted in 1996 indicated that own saved seed, other farmers and purchase from local traders (market) were the major sources of white and colored bean seed for farmers in the region (Table 1). White beans are for export whereas the colored ones are for local household consumption. In 2004, a similar survey showed that farmers' seed sources broadened and included seed projects and seed aid as important new seed sources (Table 1). In both years, own saved and local market remained the main bean seed sources.

Table 1. Farmer bean seed sources in Southern region in 1996 and 2004
Seed sources	Farmers (%)
	1996		2004
	White beans	Colored beans	All bean types
Own saved	23.3	26.6	28.3
Friends/relatives/other farmers	37.9	27.9	14.2
Local market	24.6	19.5	33.3
Seed project/seed producers	-	-	14.1
NGOs	10.7	19.5	3
BoA/Extension	3.5	6.5	1.0
Seed aid	-	-	9.1
Source: SARC socio-economic division survey data

In 1996, survey results indicated that NGOs and other farmers within the community were the main initial seed sources for white bean varieties under production whereas local market and other farmers within the community were the sources for colored bean varieties (Table 2). In 2004, a similar question showed another picture of original sources of the varieties grown by farmers: friends, relatives and other farmers had become much less important sources for new seed lots of the varieties (old or new) than the seed projects and markets (Table 2). The possible reason might be the low yields as a consequence of drought and poverty, forcing farmers to source seeds from outside their communities. This could lead to introduction of new bean varieties. This is reflected in the appearance of seed aid as a new source of seed. Seed projects are known to principally have distributed new varieties to farmers who were engaged in different forms of farmer-based seed production, cooperative or individual farmers. It is a kind of semi-formal system in which the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise involved individual farmers as well as farmer cooperatives in contract seed production where the farmers are allowed and encouraged to retain 10% of the seed for local exchange or sale. This presumably contributes to introduction of seeds of new varieties, especially improved varieties.

Table 2. Initial seed sources for bean varieties used by farmers in 1996 and 2004 cropping season in Southern region
Initial sources of a seed lot for	Farmers (%)
	1996		2004
	White beans	Colored beans	Both seed class
Friends/relatives/other farmers	56.3	52.3	13.4
Local market	12.5	40.0	38.5
Seed project	-	-	39.4
Seed aid	-	-	8.7
NGO	25.0	2.3	-
Research	6.2	0	-
others	0	5.4	-
Source: SARC socio-economic division survey data

Beans in local market used as source of grain or seed

Bean seed flow and grain market channels
Farmers in the region obtain bean seeds from different sources and presumably use different channels and exchange mechanisms. The informal seed system is traditionally the dominant seed source for beans in the region. Based on information from other crops and regions it can be assumed that bean seed flows within and between the communities through established social networks.

Beans are evolving as cash crops in the region. Farmers sell their produce in local markets (see picture), to grain collectors or farmers' cooperative unions in the form of grain or seed.

The grain collectors and farmers' cooperative unions sort 'good' grain and sell it back to farmers as seed at time of planting. The grain collectors/traders were important bean seed suppliers in the region at time of relief seed aid. The grain traders/collectors participate in seed fairs organized by NGOs and transport seeds from long distances to sell in the seed fairs.

There are two major market routes for beans from the Southern region: Shashemene-Dilla-Moyale and Shashemane/Zeway-Mojo/ Nazareth-Djibouti routes. The Shashemane-Dilla-Moyale (Ethiopia-Kenya border) grain market route is operated by traveling traders and has the highest share of the market for small red and red mottled beans. The Shashemane/Zeway-Mojo/Nazereth-Dijibouti route is mainly operated by bean exporters and is dominated by white pea beans. The bean seed and grain flow involves four key players: farmers, collectors, bulking agents, and traveling traders/exporters.

In recent years, government is supporting strong intensification of bean production including areas not previously reached by research and improved technologies via specialization and diversification programs. The intensification program aims at linking bean production with export markets for which seeds of preferred varieties, white seeded varieties in this case, require large-scale multiplication and distribution. Nevertheless, the program was constrained by huge seed shortages. To mitigate this shortage, exporters from Nazareth were involved in supplying seeds to farmers. The exporters sorted and cleaned the bulked grain which they then sold as seed to farmers. The exporters supply seed to farmers and get back grain produced by farmers. This route has introduced new varieties in the South but the issue of seed quality and availability needs attention. The involvement of exporters in creating market access to bean seed is a recent phenomenon that shows potential for scaling out of bean technology.

Farmers' cooperative unions played a pivotal role in seed and grain marketing in the region. The unions buy seed from exporters, other cooperative unions, farmer seed producers, formal sector seed enterprises or research centers and distribute the seed to farmers engaged in grain production. Similarly, the cooperative unions collect grain from farmers and sell it to exporters. The cooperatives were backed by NGOs, Bureaus of Agriculture and Rural Development (BoARD) and research at different levels. In this regard, an NGO named Self-help international southern capacity building program, can be mentioned as key actor supporting the strengthening of seed system in the region.

Figure 1 describes the bean seed flow. There is close interaction in varietal and seed exchange between the formal and informal sectors. The formal sector implements participatory varietal selection, and provides seed for farmer-based seed production programs or directly distributes seeds to farmers. The formal sector is also involved in collecting seed from farmer-based seed schemes, cleaning and redistributing the seed to farmers. In general there are different bean-seed flow networks that evolved through time in the region (Figure 1).

Conclusion
In general, bean seed and grain flow involves several social networks and actors. Farmers access and use bean seed from different sources and channels, i.e. farmer-based seed sources and other formal and semi-formal seed sources like Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, agricultural research centers, BoARD, farmer cooperatives and NGOs. The farmer-based seed sources are represented by own saving, friends relatives, other farmers within and outside the community and local market. The own-saved seed and local market remain the dominant seed sources, but are decreasing in importance, possibly because of increasing drought and poverty. Related with this may be the decrease of importance of other farmers in the community as a source of new seed or new varieties. It is however not clear how demand and supply mechanisms interact and can explain the changes being observed.

Commercialization of bean production in the country brings different actors together to work more closely. New actors and new seed sources have emerged. The newly evolving multi-institutional partnership in seed delivery could give farmers quick and wider access to new varieties (Rubyogo et al., 2007). Nevertheless, in the context of the Southern region the focus of the cooperative and other seed actors (research, NGOs, BoARD) is to quickly making available large volumes of seed for distribution to farmers, to respond to market opportunities for bean grains. However, the issue of seed quality has been overlooked. It was observed in the recent seed distribution in the Southern region, that seeds from particular sources were not germinated in many farmers' fields. Moreover, the actors are promoting white beans in red bean dominated area. Of course, it can be argued that if there is a market, farmers can produce for sale improving their livelihoods. However, without understanding seed provision (which actors providing what kind of seed) this can result in disappointing conclusions. Since ensuring seed security has a wider impact it seems wise to understand what seed sources and new varieties farmers use and for what reasons.

References

1-	Almekinders, C. and N. Louwaars. 1999. Farmers' seed production: new approaches and practices. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, Ltd.
2-	CIAT, 2002. Participatory plant breeding with women and small farmers in Africa and Latin America: Final report to Department for International Development (DFID), Cali, Colmbia, CIAT.
3-	CSA. 2004. Agricultural sample survey 2003/2004. Report on farm management practices. Private peasant holding, Meher season. Statistical Bulletin no 305, Addis Ababa.
4-	Rubyogo, J.C., L. Sperling & T. Assefa. 2007. New approach for facilitating farmers' access to bean seed. LEISA Magazine 23.2
5-	McGuire, S. 2005. Getting genes. Rethinking seed systems analysis and reform for sorghum in Ethiopia. PhD thesis, Wageningen University.
6-	Sperling, L. and Cooper, D. 2003. Understanding seed systems and strengthening seed security. A back ground paper on effective and sustainable seed relief: a stakeholder workshop, 26 - 28 may 2003, FAO, Rome, Italy.