

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a rapidly developing region of over 800 million people, but its population is projected to reach 1.5 billion people with profound implications for agricultural production and food security. unregulated traditional and informal seed systems because farmer associations find the certification process quite lengthy and they hardly afford the associated certification costs. On average, the certification of one ton of sorghum seeds, for instance, costs almost US$146 for both field inspections and laboratory operations. These costs are too expensive for most farmer cooperatives, and particularly prohibitive for individual farmers. Given this challenge, although farmers still register as seed producers, they often continue to sell their seed via informal networks without any quality control, which affects crop yields and undermines the effort to promote improved varieties and to adapt to the changing agricultural conditions. To help deal with these challenges, private enterprises have recently begun partnering with farmer associations;the private enterprises pay for the seed production and certification costs and buy the resulting seeds from the farmers. The aim of this partnership is to decentralize and increase the number of seed distribution points at the community level, improve the quality of the seed and help professionalize small-scale seed production and distribution.Sustainable agricultural intensification is seen as a serious option in the SSA region for satisfying 2050 global food requirements. At the same time, many challenges still hinder crop intensification in the region.