1. Author
03/09/2009Vegetable Breeding & Seed Systems
for Poverty Reduction in Sub-saharan Africa (vBSS)
Project Profile
Victor Afari-Sefa
Ronia Tanyongana
06 November 2010
ILRI, Nairobi, KENYA

2. Building a Sustainable Seed Sector in Sub-Sahara Africa
For poverty reduction in
Sub-Sahara Africa

3. Background Information
Approved: 17th November, 2006;
Effective Start: 1st August, 2007;
End of Phase 1: 31st May, 2011;

4. Project Purpose
To develop an emerging, vibrant seed industry for
indigenous and exotic vegetables by building the
capacity of the private and public sector to breed
varieties in different agro-ecological zones, test
and multiply promising lines, disseminate these
lines and, promote demand to encourage
widespread adoption by farmers.

5. Ultimate Outcomes
1. Public and Private Sectors’ capacity to breed
indigenous and exotic vegetable varieties developed;
2. Sustainable institutional mechanisms for vegetable
seed supply in four countries representing diverse
agro-ecological zones operationalized;
3. Seed supply and availability of superior, multi-disease
resistant and a-biotic stress-tolerant varieties of
targeted vegetable crops increased;
4. Productivity by vegetable farmers utilizing improved
varieties increased;
5. Demand of improved vegetable varieties by farmers
and consumers in target areas increased.

6. Strategy: Vegetable Value Chain
Seed
Breeding
Seed
testing
Seed
production
Vegetable
production
Post
harvest
Markets Consumption
& nutrition
Breeding, testing
and release
Basic/foundation
seed production
Seed commercialization,
improving production &
consumption systems
RBUs &
Regulator
Private
sector &
Regulator
Public & Private
sector &
Civic Society

8. Regional Breeding Units (RBUs)
Warm arid
and semi-
arid
Warm
humid
warm sub-
humid; cool
tropics
Warm arid and
semi-arid; warm
sub-humid; warm
humid and cool
tropics

9. M&E System & Indictors
• Semi annual progress reports : setting-up of the RBUs
• annual project review meetings.
• monthly management meetings for each RBU.
• Baseline & Impact study data collection.
Some Key Indicators
• Number of improved varieties of vegetables released for
commercialization.
• Number of farmers, NARES and private seed
companies trained in various aspects of the VC.
• Numbers of beneficiary farmers and women reached in
dissemination & outreach programs.

10. Major Achievements:
RBUs helped to Increase Quality Seed Supply
The RBU Team in Alaotra Region
Madagascar
The RBU Team in Samanko Region
Bamako - Mali
Part of the RBU Team in Arusha
AVRDC-RCA
The RBU Team in
Yaoundé, Cameroon

11. Regional Breeding Support – Capacity Building
Understanding plant
Pathology
Building capacity in seed health
and quality
Capacity building in
vegetable breeding

12. Multi-location Variety Testing
PVS: a fast tract approach to variety release
and demand promotion in Tanzania
Farmers in Dodoma and Iringa region
selected African nightshade lines BG16
due to its late flowering habit and broad
dark green leaves which they said makes
it quite appealing as a leafy vegetable.
Seeds of the line BG18, a Solanum
americanum was also demanded.

13. Multi-location Variety Testing: Private Sector

14. Variety Release and Promotion
In Tanzania, late blight-resistant tomato
line LBR 44-2 was released as a new
cultivar in December 2008 and registered
under the trade name ‘Kiboko’ translated
from Swahili as: ‘Best of its Kind’.
African Night shade
released by
Lagrotech – our
private partner in
West Kenya

15. Pending Releases in Tanzania Hub
Crop Lines
Ethiopian mustard ST3, MLEM1
Tomato LBR11, LBR6
African nightshade SS49, BG16, TZSMN55-3
African eggplant DB3, AB2 & Mayire Green
Spider plant GPS and PS
Cowpea CP-ML-5
Sweet Pepper ISPN7-3, 9946-2192
Hot Pepper 9950-5107

16. Seed Commercialization
East Africa Seeds
Kibo Seeds
East Africa
GRN Sarl
Cameroon
SEMANA
Madagascar

17. 1. AVRDC – NARES – Seed Companies – Farmers
(Tanzania)
2. AVRDC – Seed Companies – Farmers (East & Southern
Africa)
3. AVRDC – Seed Companies – Agro- Dealers – Farmers
(South & East Africa)
4. AVRDC – NGOs - Farmers (Across)
5. AVRDC – Farmer Associations – Farmers (West Africa)
6. AVRDC - NARES – Farmers (Across)
Seed Commercialization: Possible Distribution Channels

18. Seed Commercialization: Demand Creation

19. Gender Issues
• Labour division versus asset distribution along VC. Production at
community level is usual a women’s domain, although
traditionally land is owned by men.
• Improved vegetable varieties and seeds for planting required to
improve production by women and increase household incomes.
• 80% of the farmers involved in participatory varietal selection
activities and training on nutritional recipes are women.
• 94% of vendors in vegetable markets are women. Increased
productivity will have a direct effect on sales volumes & income.

20. Region District No. of Participants Overall
Total
Male Female
Kilimanjaro
Rombo 11 13 24
Hai 0 27 27
Mwanga 12 8 20
Same 4 16 20
Moshi Rural 6 14 20
Sub Total 33 78 111
Arusha
Arumeru 20 80 100
Arusha 14 111 125
Sub Total 34 191 225
Grand Total 67 269 336
% of Total 20 80
Production, Processing & Preservation
Training Courses For Farmers

21.  Institutionalization of the RBUs;
 Ensuring adequate foundation seed;
 Defining VC pathways in terms of income enhancement and
nutrition improvement;
 Coordinating stakeholder efforts along the VC;
 Improving business planning and forecasting by public and
private partners;
 Maintaining variety quality through capacity building and
strengthening the regulatory system. Variety release in Tanzania
 Lack of national, regional and local level statistics e.g., area
under vegetable production, requisite data for estimating seed
demand (challenges in downstream impact assessment).
Major Challenges

22. Innovation Platform: the institutional answer
Innovation Platform members of the
vBSS Madagascar Hub planning
vegetable breeding strategies for their
country
Innovation Platform members
of the vBSS Tanzania Hub on
RCA field inspection

23.  Accelerate the process of demand creation through education
and capacity building for both exotic and IVs.
 Uplift, where required, the regulatory environment and
promote quality of operations, avoiding falling into a trap of
over-regulation.
 Instill and maintain an Innovative Systems (Network)
approach & create/strengthen a platform for private–public
dialogue and planning for vegetable VC management.
 Encourage innovate processes of adoption both in producing
improved varieties and in promoting health and prosperity.
Lessons Learnt & Future Perspectives

24. We wish to acknowledge the generous support of the
BMBF and various participating institutions for