1. Objective 8.2:
Groundnut, Seed Systems in ESA
ICRISAT
Bamako, Mali

2. Project Partners in Eastern and
Southern Africa - ESA

3. Project Team ESA
ICRISAT MALAWI TANZANIA
E MONYO F MAIDENI O MPONDA
R JONES T KAPEWA F MIZAMBWA
B SHIFERAW G KANANJI E KAFIRITI

4. Project Components
• Improve seed availability and thus
adoption of new varieties
• Build capacity to ensure a sustainable
supply of affordable high-quality seed

5. Highlights of Results
• On Improving
Availability

6. What was the legume seed
system situation when the project
started?
Baseline report.

7. Relative contribution (% share) of different
seed sources to groundnut seed supply
• Tanzania
– 92.9% Farmer saved seed
– 3.4% Farmer to farmer
– Balance: agro dealers, traders, local producers family
gifts
• Malawi
– 53% Farmer saved seed
– 16% purchased from local seed producer
– 9% Farmer clubs
– 8% Farmer to farmer
– 7% inherited from family
– Balance: gift and agro dealers

8. Adoption of groundnuts varieties in
Malawi (%)
(awareness Ever Planted in
% of all Planted 06/07
farmers) (% of all (% of all)
Crop variety h’holds)
Groundnuts 55
CG 7 53 38 21
Chalimbana 84 69 37
Manipintar 11 9 2
Chalimbana 2005 9 8 5
Kalisere 5 5 2
Nsinjiro 3 3 1
Baka 3 2 0
Kakoma 2 1 1

9. Major reasons for never planting some
groundnut varieties in Malawi
(% h’holds never planted)
Lack of Lack of Low
Groundnut varieties
access cash to buy yielding
CG 7 73 8 3
Kakoma 80 0 0
Chalimbana 2005 80 20 20
Chalimbana 51 10 18
Nsinjiro 100 0 0
Baka 67 11 0
Manipitar 64 18 0

10. Summary of bottlenecks
1. Lack of awareness
2. Lack of access to
seed

11. Approaches being tested
• Seed Production and delivery strategies
for breeder and Foundations Seed
– Breeder seed at all Agric Research Stns –
– Foundation seed thro Foundation seed farms
and contract growers vs Revolving Funds
• Initial production thro project funds but
subsequently thro seed revolving fund

12. The ICRISAT Seed Revolving Fund Model
ICRISAT 6
Contr 2 Seed Stock 4 NGOs
act Farm
Grow 3 10 ers
ers Seed Rev 5 Seed Co 7
1 Fund 8 11
Agrodealer
8
13 12 9
Government of Malawi
The bold black arrows indicate the flow of seed.
The red arrows indicate the flow of cash in the system.

13. Scheme details
• ICRISAT selects outgrowers and gives them seed on credit funded by the
Revolving Fund
• At the end of the season the farmer sells the produced seed to ICRISAT
• ICRISAT pays the farmer the contract price per kg of seed using the
money from the Revolving Fund
• ICRISAT sells the seed to Seed companies and NGOs
• The buyers of the seed pay to ICRISAT which replenishes the Revolving
Fund
• NGOs give away seed to farmers in certain areas
• Seed companies sell seed directly to farmers or,
• Seed companies sell seed through agrodealers
• The government provides farmers with vouchers to purchase seed under
the Subsidy Scheme
• Farmers purchase seed from seed companies and pay using cash plus
the voucher (subsidy is partial) or,
• Farmers purchase seed from agrodealers and pay using cash plus the
voucher
• The agrodealer collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to the
government who pays the value of the vouchers to the agrodealer
• The seed company collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to
the government who pays the value of the vouchers to the seed company

14. Production and Delivery
Approaches cont
• Certified Seed through
– Farmer Associations – FA (NASFAM; MW),
Farmer Cooperatives-FC (Tanzania)
• Smallholder farmers linked to FA /FC are trained to
produce certified seed for NGOs with DoA support
• NGOs purchase for relief (10t CARE-MW)
• FA/FC purchase for their membership (40t TZ)
• Govt buys for subsidy programs (300t MW)

15. Production and Delivery
Approaches cont
• Community / informal seed supply
– Community seed banks; Farmers pay back seed loan
on post-harvest return in kind to the community (140t
MVP MW, 12t CARE&NASFAM)
– Rural Community structures: FFS (80 TZ 134 MW),
seed villages/churches(46 TZ, 50 MW),
– Farmer field days (19 MW/TZ ≥1000 farmers), Demos
& PVS in each seed village/FFS and seed fairs
involving 2500 farmers

16. Production and Delivery
Approaches cont
• Seed marketing platforms
– Farmer associations in Malawi under the umbrella of
NASFAM and Pvt Traders
– Farmer Marketing Groups in Tanzania under the
umbrella of District Cooperatives in District Councils
(support NGO efforts)
– Govt of Malawi thro registered dealers (seed co, seed
associations, agro-dealers, private individuals for the
subsidy program)

17. Capacity for sustainable supply of
affordable quality seed
• Training in seed production and delivery strategies
– 547 seed producers (Farmers and their supervising
officers), 57 technicians, 141 extension officers, 46
farmer research group leaders in MW and TZ
• Establish & train farmer marketing groups in Tanzania
and Malawi
– Three groups in TZ under Masasi and Nanyumbu
District Councils-DC (Mpeta, Mnanje B and Likokona)
– 19 groups in Mchinji, 28 groups in Nkhotakhota under
NASFAM and 3 groups in Zomba under MVP in MW.
– 134 FFS under CARE MW, 80 FFS under DC and
KIMAS in TZ trained on seed production & marketing

18. Capacity for affordable quality
seed cont
• Produced groundnut
seed production manual
in Swahili (Tanzania)
• More than 15000 flyers
for released varieties and
their production practices
in Swahili and Chichewa
• TV, Radio broadcasts,
newspapers, live
interviews a norm
• Degree training 1 MSc

19. Challenges
 Weather – Early cessation of rainfall
 Transport problems –Restricted mobility to
supervise/monitor seed production
 Food insecurity –used as food or sold it as
grain to meet other demands
 Low private investment- Small market size
of legume seeds
 Trained Manpower- Limited number of
research & seed technicians
 Seed production during off-season-
Irrigation system installation with most of the
NARS still incomplete

20. Lessons learned
• Areas for seed production should target assured
productive regions to lower seed costs
• Cumbersome seed certification procedures for gnuts is
unnecessary discourages smallholders leading to high
seed costs
• Whereas small seed packs is popular with new vars, for
gnuts they should be at lease 1-2kg to be appreciated.
• New vars are a stimulant for adoption of Good Agron
Practices hence the need for faster testing and release
system
• Informal sector supplies signf proportion of legume seed.
Its improved efficiency will have positive contribution to
enhanced legume seed supply

21. Other Collaborating Projects
• Groundnut Breeding E/S Africa – (The McKnight
Foundation)
• Malawi Food Security Program (CARE/ICRISAT)
- EU
• Malawi Legumes Seed Development Program
(IRISH AID)
• ICRISAT Seed Revolving Fund (USAID)
• Treasure Legumes – IFAD Project (Malawi and
Tanzania)

22. Thank You