First document of innovation sites local seed business project

Region: South Nations and Nationalities Region (SNNPR)

Location: Guragie Zone, Meskan wereda, Beresa kebele
Institutional Data

Lead organization in the site
Name	Hawassa University,
Address	P.o.box 5
City	Hawassa
State	SNNPR
Country	Ethiopia
Responsible Person for the variety/seed related activities
Name
Position
E-mail
Mobile
Contact person for the Innovation site(if different from project responsible)
Name	Mr. Nardose
Position	Plan officer
E-mail	-
Mobile	0913500267

PROJECT ASPECTS (seed related projects within the innovation sites)

Project name	Operational Research and Capacity Building for Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods
Duration and Phase	2003 to 2005 was the first phase of the project and its second phase has started in 2006 and expected to be concluded in 2010.
Objectives	Undertake relevant and appropriate research “in-situ”with active participation of farmers, disseminated to all relevant stakeholders and which informs future program orientation Conducting training needs assessment for farmers, development agents, subject mater specialists, and key policy makers in the region, design/modify training materials as appropriate training and related capacity building activities.
Main activities	Carry out timely research need assessments Carrying out participatory variety selection & seed multiplication Carrying out researches to improve input and output markets, soil & water management, livestock production and livelihood Works to build capacity of stakeholders through short & long period trainings(B.Sc, M.Sc,PhD) Works to improve women’s participation Identifies models and provides for the needy
Role of the leading Organization	Coordinates different partner organizations (BoARD, SARI, Self Help Africa-SNNPR branch) that are working as members of project consortium. Participate in research activities,
Donor(s)	Name	Country	Type of funding/resources
	Irish aid	Airland	Provision of Budget
Partners	BoARD/wereda & site level	Mr, Nardos 0913500267	Identification of indigenous Knowledge, Research need assessment, farmers selection for participatory research, on FTC & field farmers training, follow up of activities, credit facilitation, input provision, studying farmers feed back to new technologies, organizing farmer’s seed group, arranging field days
	SARI/Awassa Research Center	Mr. Genene	Research need assessment, searching new released varieties, PVS ,PPB, value chain analysis, participatory researches in soil & water management & livestock production, monitoring and evaluation
	Self Help Africa-SNNPR branch	Mr. Shimekit Maru	Scaling up of research results (facilitation of organizing seed production cooperatives ),
	Farmers	Awel Ejabo 0221190626	Identification of best performed varieties, key data sources in evaluation of research activities and need assessment, members in seed producer cooperatives

INNOVATION SITES-CHARACTERIZATION

GENERAL CONTEXT

Background of the site ( Including relevant Farming system)

Beresa water shed is found in Meskan wereda of Guragie zone, 170 km away from Hawassa. It is organized from two kebeles namely Beresa & Dubotutu. The watershed is characterized by food insecurity, land degradation and poor soil fertility. The altitude, temperature and rainfall of the watershed are estimated to be within the range of 1964-1990 m asl, 19-29 oC and 900-1700 mm respectively. Agro-ecologically the watershed is classified under mid-altitude and intermediate agro-climatic category. The total population of the watershed is 9937. Out of which women constitute about 49% of the total population. The total HH is 840. Subsistence mixed crop-livestock production system is the major type of agriculture in Beresa watershed. Maize, teff, wheat, Haricot bean, sorghum, barley, pepper and field pea are the major crops grown in the watershed in their order of importance. Out of the total land size of the water shed (815 ha) about 75.4% is allocated for crop production. Only 18.4 and 3.0% of the area are covered by forest and pasture respectively.

FARMERS AND THEIR ORGANIZATION

There was no any organized farmer’s cooperative in the watershed and it has been a key constraint issue in the heart of the farmers since the intervention of the operational research project in the area. However, the farmers were organized in groups with intention of seed exchange among them selves. Especially the project was working with those farmers in order to avail seed of verities that are preferably selected during the PVS. The innovator farmers were provided with the seed of the preferred variety in kind loan terms and are expected to repay it in equal amount to the site development agents. This repaid seed will be given to a new farmer who is in need of it and similarly expected to repay it back in kind and the process continues in similar fashion. This could not bring a fast change in the livelihood of the community of target area. Hence, a seed producer cooperative namely “Zerfeyan seed producers cooperative” was established and started its work on July 2009. Though it has not got a certificate from the registry office of Guragie zone Cooperative Agency, the necessary organizing activity, seed field selection, land preparation and planting was completed. The total members of the cooperative are about 85 farmers, out of which 7 are women.

CROPS AND VARIETIES ON WORK BY FARMERS

1. Maize varities Pioneer hybrids, Gibe(composite), Melkassa-1&2(Composite for water stressed area), BH-540 & BH-542(hybrids) Gibe is one of the composite varieties highly preferred by the farmers during the time hybrid seed shortage Farmers need Melkasa 1&2 during water stressed months or seasons 2. Teff varieties Local varieties(karaqore, kerdbe, Buninge) and improved variety(Dz-cr-37) Farmers are highly interested on local teff varieties 3. Wheat varieties Udie (paste variety) now it is on its way to become out of production due to its poor thresh ability and poor for bread making. HAR-1685(qubsa): early released variety but recently introduced in the water shed and farmers inquire it strongly for its ease of threshing, seed setting (No of seed per spike), good for bread. Paven-76 4. Haricot bean varities Evado (local large seeded and mixed seed color), Michinga(white seeded, climbing type) Awash melka , Awash-1(both are whit seeded for market),Roba ( roasting, yellow seeded), Nassir (red seeded) 5. Sorghum varieties Local varieties( long or short in plant height but both are red seeded) 6. others : barley(local variety black & white seeded).field bean(local), pepper(marqo fana)

SEED PRODUCTION AND MARKETING AT THE INNOVATION SITE

In this Innovation site there is a good experience in variety selection due to the intervention of operational research project with its special emphasis on multidisciplinary participatory research methods. Primarily, situation analysis is carried out to identify research gaps using PRA tools. Based on the results searching of research materials (non introduced varieties) will be carried out. After acquiring the necessary varieties, research will be conducted using the “mother- baby trial” method and farmers are allowed to evaluate the varieties in terms bases individually, in groups and on mass bases. Field days are arranged for farmers, stakeholders and related professionals in order to get constructing comments. Finally, the variety taken as number one by majority of the kebbel farmers is imposed to scaling up in the water shed. Seed production was conducted on farmer group bases in farmer- to- farmer seed exchange terms until the previous production year. In this production period (2009) it has been reached to consensus in opening a new scenario of seed production i.e cooperative based seed production. The marketing aspect of the previous group seed multiplication scheme was based on circulating seed among farmers by providing seed for multiplication in kind terms without any payment of interest for loans in kind. The main intention was not to enable the farmer to engage him in to seed business but only to allow him to have seed for the next cropping season. However, the farmers organized in cooperative for production of crop seeds are profit oriented. They have shared 29 hectares of land for seed production, Out of which 21 hectare is allotted for wheat variety Qubsa, 5 hectare for Teff variety Cr-37 and 3 hectare for composite maize variety (Gibe) production.

OPPORTUNITIES TO INVOLVE TO LOCAL SEED BUSINESS

The multidisciplinary oriented research principles of operational research project Good PVS experience Committed and interested farmers:- in terms of adopting technology and utilizing improved seeds &fertilizers , in repaying input credits, in working in cooperative sprite Strong awareness and market oriented attitude of member farmers Access of getting consistent fields that allow favorable condition for field inspection activities. Good grain price Good seed price Accessibility to market and road