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UNDERSTANDING AND STRENGTHENING INFORMAL SEED MARKETS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2010

LOUISE SPERLING  and
SHAWN MCGUIRE
LOUISE SPERLING*
Affiliation:
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), c/o ‘Le Ginestre’, Lucio Volumnio 37, 00178 Rome, Italy
SHAWN MCGUIRE
Affiliation:
School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
*
‡Corresponding author. L.Sperling@cgiar.org
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Summary

Informal markets receive little attention from governments and researchers, despite their centrality to farmers' seed security. This paper documents the importance of informal markets for supplying seed and restocking critical plant genetic resources in normal and stress periods. It analyses farmers' rationales for using such markets and their strategic actions in selecting out seed from grain. Conceptual aids for differentiating among market goods – grain, ‘implicit seed’ and seed – are presented, including tracing of agro-ecological seed sources, traders’ seed management behaviour and seed/grain price patterns. Ethiopian case material gives rare insight into how different scales of traders manage the seed/grain divide. Better understanding of informal markets is an important precursor to strengthening them as such markets have unrealized potential to deliver more and higher quality seed, and a greater range of modern and local varieties. Support for informal seed markets could usefully feature in rural livelihood and social protection programmes, but this will require basic shifts in interventions and further refinements in market analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 119 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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