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ABSTRACT
Despite efforts made by the Ethiopian research and extension system during the past 40 years to disseminate improved maize (Zea mays L.) variety seeds for increased crop production, the diffusion and use remained low, particularly in moisture-stressed areas. The topic of smallholder farmers’ access to quality seed is an ongoing issue in Ethiopia. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain maize seed sources for smallholder farmers and assess the seed quality status in the drought-prone Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. Data for this study were obtained from farm households and other stakeholders survey in 2011 from East Shewa Zone, Oromia Regional National State. The survey results indicated that informal seed sources contributed 84% of annually planted maize seed. Sixty percent of maize growers obtained improved seed through farmer-to-farmer seed exchange and the informal seed market (ISM). Regarding the socioeconomic characteristics and maize seed acquisition behavior of the farm-household heads, a higher proportion of female-headed households and resource-poor farm households depended on other farmers and ISM than male-headed farm households. A quarter of the better-off maize-grower households also used ISM. Formal seed sources were found to be key in new variety introduction. The quality of the seeds obtained from informal sources was found to be acceptable relative to purity and germination. The effectiveness of the seed-supply system tended to rely on the complementary integration of formal and informal seed systems, as both systems had their own peculiarities in serving the farm community to enhance food security.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge that this paper is part of an unpublished dissertation submitted to Nagoya University in 2013 by the first author. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Funding
We are grateful to the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) FRGII project (Project for Enhancing Development and Dissemination of Agricultural Innovations through Farmer Research Groups) and JSPS (Japan Society of Promotion of Sciences) Research Grant 26304033 for partially supporting this study.
Notes
1 There is no clear categorization of farmers by landholding in Ethiopia. Observation of the distribution of households by holdings shows that 7.6% own less than 0.1 ha, 29.5% own 0.1–0.5 ha, 25.7% own 0.51–1.00 ha, 24.3% own 1.01–2.00 ha, 11.9 % own 2.01–5.00 ha, and only 1% own more than 5 ha (Rahmato Citation2008:139). Land is very scarce in highland areas, a largely high production potential area. This study is conducted in a drought-prone area and the average landholding per household, 2.35 ha, is significantly higher than the national average (about 1.12 ha per household).
2 The TLU is equivalent to a livestock weight of 250 kg, and the conversion factor varies according to the livestock type. Accordingly, ox = 1.12 TLU, cow; heifer = 0.8 TLU; sheep = 0.09 TLU; goat = 0.07 TLU; horse = 1.3 TLU; mule = 0.90 TLU; donkey = 0.35 TLU. In the calculation, the total livestock owned was converted into one unit (the TLU) and then categorized into three categories based on average and standard deviation of the sample. That is, those who owned less than one TLU standard deviation from the mean were categorized as small or none, those owning between one standard deviation from mean were categorized as medium, and those who owned more than one standard deviation from the mean were categorized as large.
3 Farmers and others who were interviewed mentioned the names of well-known traders in their local market. This is particularly common in smaller towns and their markets, such as the Bofa, Melkassa, and Wolinchiti markets. The authors contacted the traders through information obtained during farmers’ questionnaire interviews. On the other hand, traders mentioned that more farmers come to them for seed as they become more “popular.”
4 A special subset of grain sold for seed by grain traders (Sperling and McGuire Citation2010).
5 Most of the farmers (94%) indicated that they intended to change the seed lot of their OPV variety maize on average every 3 years (in the range of 1–10 years).