Brief

Seeds of change: Enhancing availability and adoption of new sorghum, groundnut, and bean varieties in Tanzania

author(s)

Ochieng, Justus

themes
  • Crops for nutrition and health
regions
  • Tanzania
original file download
full citation

Ochieng, J.; Mwakatwila, A.; Radegunda, K.; Steinke, J.; Kalemera, S.; Theophil, A.; Chima, R.; Mwenda, E.; Daudi, H.; Kadege, E.; Ojiewo, C.; Rubyogo, J.C. (2024) Seeds of change: Enhancing availability and adoption of new sorghum, groundnut, and bean varieties in Tanzania. Project Brief Number 2. Arusha (Tanzania): International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 12 p.

Traders, offtakers or aggregators and institutional buyers are crucial in driving and creating demand pull in the entire commodity value chain, thus ACCELERATE project focus on engaging them with new varietal opportunities and connecting them to reliable seed sources to accelerate varietal adoption and turn over in Tanzania. The objective is to evaluate how effective this demand-pull stimulates bean, groundnut, and sorghum seed sector growth in Tanzania. This brief number 2 provides key activities accomplished so far from January to April 2024. The key messages are:

• NGOs, marketplace traders, off-takers, aggregators, and processors is proving to be an avenue to creating demand pull for seeds of open-pollinated crops.
• So far, the preliminary evidence shows a huge lack of awareness about new and better performing varieties of sorghum, groundnuts, and beans, particularly among the marketplace traders, aggregators, and off-takers who are the main demand-pull creators.
• Lack of awareness about the new varieties and their benefits appears to be much higher among marketplace traders, yet they are the closest to consumers.
• Private-public partnership is being embraced and adopted to meet the huge demand for early-generation seeds.
• Strong partnership is essential for transforming the seed system for open-pollinated varieties, for which most seed actors have low motivation to invest because of recycling of seeds by farmers.
• It seems promising to develop a digital solution that increases transparency and efficiency in grain and seed business transactions and enhances information sharing.
• Off-takers and NGOs are interested in investing and conducting on-farm demonstrations of new varieties to their farming communities.