Seed Systems Group

Our organization, Seed Systems Group, works in countries that have been left behind in international efforts to increase smallholder farmer productivity.  We intervene by establishing dependable access to improved, climate-resilient seed among smallholder farmers and informing them of its value through private sector-driven outreach activities, including small, sample packs of seed, on-farm demonstrations, and mobile phones.  We will use the Elevate Prize funds to leverage other donor commitments toward this purpose in a broader push to reduce the impact of the COVID pandemic on hunger.

Overall, the field of agriculture development in Africa has seen progress in recent years, largely through efforts focused on seed. However, donors have been highly selective in choosing which countries they work in.  As a result, in Africa today there is a major imbalance between the frequent recipients of international assistance and the less popular countries.  SSG focuses on the countries which few people visit or think about but which actually have more urgent needs than the countries preferred by donors.  Often this is due to historical or geo-political leanings which are no fault of the farmers or even current governments.  We will use the funds to highlight, and reduce, this huge unmet need.

I am a plant breeder with over 30 years of experience living and working in Africa.  Through many years of trial and error my colleagues and I have developed an approach to increasing smallholder farmers' productivity which allows them to sustainably increase their crop yields by getting them the improved, adapted seed they need to do it themselves and using peer-to-peer learning to educate farmers on how to grow the new seed.

This approach has been implemented in approximately 15 African countries, with excellent results.  However, the revolution has stalled, largely because of donor agencies' tendency to congregate in a group of mostly English-speaking countries while ignoring the needs in neighboring, non-English-speaking countries. 

This is unacceptable both to us and to most people we speak with.  So in 2019 a small group of us left comfortable positions elsewhere and formed Seed Systems Group, which is dedicated to extending the game-changing benefits of improved, climate-resilient seed to farmers living in 15 left-behind countries of Africa.  Working with Cornell University and  agriculture ministries, we developed a plan to create seed supply systems in these 15 countries. 

Our goal is simple:  end Hunger in Africa in our lifetime.  It can be done.

Throughout history and around the world rapid increases in agricultural productivity have resulted from the adoption of better seed.  Improved seed works by converting sunlight, water and nutrients into harvestable portions of the plant more efficiently.  They are resistant to pests and diseases and carry special traits such as drought tolerance and quicker growth. 

Some African countries, too, are now experiencing an agricultural transformation as local farmers gain access to higher-yielding, climate-resilient seed. But 38 million farmers in 15 countries home to 325 million people are still locked out of access to this most basic technology.

The biggest hurdle is in linking the latest products from crops research to a functional, affordable delivery system.  We employ a public-private model to develop seed delivery systems that work for poor farmers through a series of parallel, systemic investments in:  1) crop variety testing; 2) establishing local, private seed companies; 3) developing a network of private seed supply shops at village level; and, 4) raising the awareness of the value of improved seed through distribution of small, sample packs, electronic messages, and on-farm demos. 

The approach works by bringing together public science, learning, and local private entrepreneurship for the benefit of poor farmers. 

We directly target a significant proportion of the most vulnerable people on earth.  They are the courageous people who farm in some of the world's least known, least-considered countries. 

They are people frequently cited speeches and proclamations but who rarely figure into the funding or actions taken.  Not only are they poor and isolated, they are rural residents of countries many consider to be beyond hope. 

They are far from beyond hope.  They are expert practitioners of the industry that nourishes the world – agriculture.  We empower local, under-appreciated scientists and entrepreneurs to supply them with new and better seed.  By linking private entrepreneurs to public agricultural scientists developing new, climate-resilient crop varieties we capture the energy and magic of both worlds.  Using the emerging private sector in these countries to solve the age-old problem of access to technology is the new, disruptive approach.

Fifty-five percent are women who shoulder the double burden of farming and raising of children.  We consult with them regarding which seeds to produce, and where and how to market them.  Our model has already solved these problems in the more frequently assisted countries.  Now we are zeroing in on the last frontier of left-behind farmers.

Because our interventions do have impact on a broad scale, we have taken care to ensure we have the support of government and local leaders alike in all our target countries.  That support is there, and has been expressed in writing. 

We are consulting continually with governments, public agricultural leaders, agricultural scientists like ourselves, and farmers to refine our plans for taking the supply of improved seed to scale, nationally. 

We have identified a wide range of diverse, nutritious food crops to ensure we support rural families to produce a more balanced diet for their own needs and the needs of their communities. 

We have engaged with Cornell University, which has a wealth of experience in this field from around the globe, to help us further refine and update our approaches.  We have vetted these plans with the ministries of agriculture to get their input, modifications, and buy-in. 

We have shared these vetted plans with international donor institutions so that they are aware of the challenges in our target countries and are able to gear up to support this work as a practical means of building back better as COVID relinquishes its grip on the world and local populations.