Am Kaganga John, a smallholder farmer in Uganda and local indigenous seed collector and preserver especially seeds getting extinct/endagered for more that 10 years,how can i be registed,recogonized and be supported locally and globally  through Agilinks.

Quality Declared Seed. This is an interesting concept addressing a critical need and I am looking forward to the webinar.  Apparently the idea has been around for over 20 years, but I have never heard of it, including 2.5 years in Tanzania, one of your referenced countries and where I was seriously in need of quality rice seed. Unfortunately, I doubt if this will contribute substantially to adoption of improved varieties, particularly if the intention is for annual renewal of Quality Declared Seed from registered seed producers. I seriously doubt if the seed industry in most host countries has the capacity for more than a small percent of the cultivated area. Thus farmers, particularly smallholder farmers in remote communities, will have to continue to rely on “market” seed that is locally available. The development community needs to closely look at alternative to get quality seed into the “market” seed system in remote areas. Thus I continue to promote the concept of the Genetic Pump for NGOs to push small quantities of improved genetic material into remote areas for local multiplication and distribution, mostly through private family enterprise agro-dealers as the most effective link to smallholder producers.

I think it is critical to trust the smallholder farmers even with only limited formal education, that when a variety distinguish is necessary farmers can and will keep track of the important varieties. This should not be too difficult to demonstrate. My primary example actually comes from Madibira, Tanzania. At the time there was no certified seed or even Quality Declared Seed, but we still had about 6 identified varieties in the area, including one called Zambia that I assumed leaked across the border and became well like even though it is not a recognized variety in Zambia. There was enough difference in seed appearance that farmer could easily recognize the different varieties and degree of contamination. Also, we were unable to determine any yield difference between the seed we had available for distribution and the same varieties of seed distributed under “market” seed conditions. Similarly in reviewing seed and planting material in Nigeria, while there had been no serious influx of genetic material in as much as 30 years, the farmers could still recognize different varieties of cassava according to what they were best used for, be that garri, direct consumption etc.

Please note that while we concentrate our program coordination through the government and civil officers, the host country is most likely economically financially suppressed with most income going for direct subsistence need, leaving very little tax base to support government service including certified or declared quality seed. The result is most host governments are financially stalled, but promoting their potential services well in excess of any capacity to accomplish, while condemning the competing private services that are and always have been the most effective means of assisting smallholder producers. For this reason most, perhaps 90%, of the smallholder producers are not, never have been, and never will be in contract with agriculture development officers. Also, remember most civil officers are so poorly paid that out of financial necessity they need to seek supplemental informal income where possible from within their job for which a gratuity for inspecting Quality Declared Seed would be a welcome contribution regardless of the amount off types in the seed. Will this provide more informal income opportunities for the inspection officers than quality seed for the farmers?  

Sorry but I fear that is the state of most host countries. Please review the following webpages from the www.smallholderagriculture.com website:

http://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/The_Crop_Genetic_Pump.pdf

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-suppressed-economy-2/

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-stalled-governments/ 

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/impact-of-financially-stalled-government-limited-variety-improvement-seed-certification/

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/informal-income-opportunities-seed-fertilizer-voucher-program-of-afghanistan/

I hope you have a chance to review this comment, the reference material, and as appropriate incorporate it into the webinar.

Thank you and looking forward to the webinar next week,

Dick Tinsley

The more I think about my previous comments and the 20+ years the idea of Quality Declared Seed has been around with reference to Tnazania where I was looking for good seed for a 3000 ha rice irrigation project as well as I understand the limited financial capacity of most host governments, the more concern I become that this is a phanonom concept and USAID and other donors are be mislead as to how extensive and how available this seed is. I would thus sugges that after the webinar seek an independent confirmation that it exists. This could be by approach other NGOs involved in agricuture development but independent of USAID and see if they have heard of Qualilty Declared Seed and have accessed it for thier projects. Sorry but i do appreciate the extent host officers can take advaantage of donors.