Module 11 - Afghanistan: Supporting Food Security by Establishing Village-Based Seed Enterprises

Benefits and Impacts

The VBSE program has proved to be the cornerstone for providing seed of improved and adapted varieties to a large number of farming communities at a reasonable cost, boosting production and food security. This participatory approach is technically feasible and economically sustainable because it builds on farmers’ participation, partnership, and empowerment.

A recent assessment indicated that seed production at the community level was profitable in 2004/05. VBSE members received prices ranging from US$285 to US$420 per ton, generating profit margins of US$111-246 per ton, depending on the crop. The most progressive VBSEs are diversifying into other crops: one-third of the VBSEs are also producing onions and tomatoes.

Scaling up the VBSE program has laid the foundation for a number of sustainable seed businesses that provide farmers in Afghanistan with quality seed of a wide range of improved varieties. Annually more than 40,000 farmers benefit directly from higher productivity and production in their fields. The introduction of improved seed has a multiplying effect as well, because other farmers benefit through farmer-to-farmer diffusion and wider adoption of the technology.

Lessons Learned and Issues of Wider Applicability

• In many developing countries, the majority of farmers still depend on informal seed supply mechanisms. They have no access to the fruits of national and international crop improvement programs.
  
  
• A village- or community-based seed supply system can fill this gap by assisting in the provision of new technolgies (varieties) to a large number of communities in a relatively short period.
  
  
• The VBSE approach is technically feasible and economically viable; it provides high quality seed at a reasonable cost to farmers. Overhead costs are relatively low and transport costs are minimal.
  
  
• The VBSEs are client-oriented and demand-driven. They focus on the immediate needs of farming communities.
  
  
• The VBSEs empower farming communities to play a leading role in addressing local constraints, in institutionalizing local seed production, and in ensuring long-term sustainability without external support.
  
  
• The approach serves as a model that can be mainstreamed, scaled up, and scaled out to address seed provision problems of poor farmers in situations where both the public and the private sectors fail to deliver agricultural research products to rural communities.