The Importance of the Farmers' Seed Systems in a Functional National Seed Sector

Abstract The farmers' systems of seed supply and crop development form by far the most important source of seed in most farming systems of the world. Despite the efforts of large seed programmes to replace the farmers' seed systems for a system in which farmers use seed as an external input, the major part of agricultural land in the world is still sown with seed that is informally produced by farmers. Aiming for a formal seed sector that supplies 100% of the seed for planting is only realistic for a small number of crops and in few countries. The importance of farmers' seed systems merits that closer attention be paid to farmers' seed production and seed exchange at the policy level and in technical assistance projects. Linking formal and farmers' seed systems and improving the latter may in many cases be a more effective strategy to improve national and local seed supply than aiming only at improving the infrastructure and investment climate for the formal (private and public) seed sector. In fact, analysis of strengths and weaknesses of both the farmer and formal seed system shows important complementarity in strength and weaknesses between the two systems, which offers multiple opportunities for improving the effectiveness of both. Very few countries have included such an approach in their seed policies yet. This paper presents the importance of the farmers' seed systems from a variety of perspectives. We indicate ways for further integration of the formal and farmers' systems at various points in the seed chain/seed cycles and propose to include such strategies in national seed policies.