IN

VIII. INFORMAL SEED SECTOR

VIII.1. THE INFORMAL SECTOR

The informal seed sector category includes seed or planting material produced by farmers for their own planting needs, seed exchanged between a farmer and one or more of his neighbors, or exchanged among farmers in a local area.

The informal seed sector in Afghanistan broadly refers to individual-farmer and community-based seed production practices that are carried out by smallholder farmers, who produce most of the food needs of the country. The informal seed sector includes farmer seed production under contract with NGOs and other agencies such as FAO, ICARDA, and ICRC to produce seed for delivery to these agencies. It also can be considered to include the food-for-seed swaps that the World Food Program undertakes in Afghanistan. Fitzherbert describes the informal seed sector in Afghanistan as "really nothing more than farmers selling, trading, or giving seed to other farmers" (conversation with J. Dennis, 21 May 2002). He added that farmer-to-farmer seed exchange has traditionally been robust with the caveat that "it never moves much out of one set of valleys or beyond one set of clans."

As these farmers are not trained in the technology of pure seed production, the seed thus produced is often not pure enough to carry the genetic benefits of a high-yielding variety, and does not have the beneficial seed characteristics of high germination, purity, freedom from diseases and pests, and/or seed treatment. While farmers usually recognize the differences between varieties, they reportedly do little in the way of ensuring the varietal purity of their seed; the most reportedly done is to select the "best looking" part of a field for saving as seed and/or cutting off the heads of rye growing in the area selected for seed. In most cases, informal sector seed of wheat and similar crops is simply grain used for planting. In other crops, it has sometimes been noted that farmers consume/sell the best fruits/materials, and save the poorer for use as seed.

VIII.2. INFORMAL SECTOR NORMALLY SERVES LOW-INCOME FARMERS

Experienced professionals see the informal seed sector, particularly in topographically diverse landscapes with a long history of agro-ecosystem biodiversity, as playing these inter-related roles:

In Afghanistan in recent decades, there has only been an informal seed sector, aside from the emergency intervention efforts described herein.

VIII.3. AMOUNT OF SEED FROM THE INFORMAL SECTOR

Although the FAO-supported wheat seed system is actually an emergency intervention program, it has used as much as possible of the improved seed technologies, and has referred to itself as the "formal seed sector". This program has provided a small percentage of the needs for wheat seed, reportedly only about 8% in recent years, when production was doubled over that of the previous years. This includes most (but not all) of the seed supplied by NGO's and other emergency assistance programs. Some seed has been imported, but it has mostly been included in the amount reported by FAO. Some NGO's have operated seed production programs which produce seed of better seed and varietal quality, but their limitations and operations still mean that they are producing only better-quality informal seed. It is safe to say that all "formal sector seed" does not exceed 10% of the wheat seed used, if this much.

All remaining seed, as described elsewhere in this Seed and Crop Assessment Report, is provided by the "informal seed sector".

Due consideration to this informal sector is essential, as it will provide a means by which current seed relief efforts undertaken at the formal sector-informal sector interface can be better linked to longer-term development of Afghanistan's seed systems.

VIII.4. SOURCES OF STOCK SEED

"Stock seed" refers to the seed planted to produce a crop which itself produces seed. Most informal-sector Afghan wheat seed is grown from whatever seed is available to the farmer who produces it. This is usually seed grain available in the local market, available from the stock of the farmer and/or his neighbors, or from an NGO (which may be produced by the FAO-supported program or by the NGO's own program or obtained from other sources). Often, the seed used by local farmers was said to come from seed obtained from an NGO, several years or generations back.

VIII.5. ORGANIZATION AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

As in other agricultural development support activities, during the recent period of conflict there has been no organized approach to informal-sector seed supply, at least reported during this assessment. There is also no government agency providing technical assistance and/or guidance to farmers in improving their informal seed supply and seed quality.

Several NGO's have operated informal-sector seed multiplication programs, which have improved the quality of seed available through the local informal seed sector. These programs actually provide a model for providing organized technical assistance and guidance to the informal sector, and for expanding the amount of improved seed supplied by the informal sector.

VIII.6. ICARDA APPROACH TO THE INFORMAL SECTOR

ICARDA's approach to the informal seed sector, in the WANA region and in other areas of the world, has become increasingly participatory with more emphasis on on-farm trials and participatory breeding. In the past few years, breeding lines have been planted in farmers' fields, and farmers have then participated in selecting which lines for eventual release as new varieties. Barley breeding has involved research on land race barley varieties in Syria and elsewhere (Ceccarelli et al. 1999). In variety development, ICARDA is involved in both classical breeding approaches and in the possibilities of improving popular land race crop varieties by incorporating a useful gene and then releasing the improved land race back to the farm system from which it originated.

VIII.7. IMPACT ON WHEAT DIVERSITY

Very little technical and varietal information exists about the informal seed sector in Afghanistan. The diagram below depicts a theoretical and tentative model of how it may affect level of wheat variety diversity, as wheat is the most important crop. However, it must be emphasized that this is theoretical and there are no data or surveys to confirm any part of this diagram. In fact, farmer discussions have indicated that farmers have very little actual knowledge of most factors listed as "farmers' knowledge and perceptions".

Informal Seed Sector in Afghanistan for Wheat: (PDF File 80Kb)
how system components may possibly interact to determine wheat variety diversity and rate of variety turnover