| Popis: |
With RTB seed system initially not given much attention and – in very general way – in a less ‘advanced stage’, the awareness of their importance for food security, nutrition and income of rural households has caught up. In this publication we review the state-of-the art in relation to seed systems of root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops, with particular reference to potato, sweet potato, cassava, yam, banana, the five major vegetatively propagated food crops in developing countries. We reflect on current seed system development paradigms, and how seed systems of RTB crops feature in context, and how they differ from seed systems of “true” seed crops. Literature and 13 case studies of RTB seed system interventions are used to underpin the argument that more systematic and interdisciplinary research is needed to identify gaps in our knowledge on degeneration processes, farmer practices in multiplying in and sourcing seed. The interactions of these elements have important consequences for strategies to improve availability and access of farmers to quality seed. The evaluation of the 13 cases indicated that RTB seed system interventions are highly variable in scale and orientation. Despite the ambitious goals of the project interventions, the project implementation time was in the majority of the cases two to four year. The interventions appeared to have no links to national government policies to seed sector development, did not make specific efforts to build on existing informal seed systems and in general the efforts to learn from the experiences of the interventions seems to be meagre. Understanding farmers’ effective demand for seed and how this affects the economic sustainable supply of quality seed by specialized producer-entrepreneurs is of paramount importance, regardless of the seed system paradigm, in order to be able to prioritize investments in improved use of seed by farmers. Few interventions are designed without rigorous understanding of the bottlenecks in the functioning of the existing seed system, i.e. who are the actors, what does and does not work where and for whom and why. |
