Policy Changes to Improve Vegetable Production and Seed Supply in Hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia

A shift from a cereal-based production system to a cereal-khat [Chata edulis (Vahl) Forsk. ex Endl.]-vegetable based system isoccurring in the Hararghe region in eastern Ethiopia, a food-deficit region. Several reasons contribute to the food-insecurity that includes high population pressure, fragmentation of holdings, recurrent low-moisture stress, use of crop production technologies that are incompatible with the rainfall regime, weak research-extension-farmer linkage, and an unfavorable market structure. The shift by producers to changing farming circumstances was to improve agricultural performance and their livelihoods. The methodology employed was to produce vegetables, but this strategy is constrained by lack of adequate quality seed. This study was conducted to investigate the seed related constraints to vegetable production, and to suggest alternative approaches to overcome problems. Constraints in vegetable marketing as related to seed supply were assessed and mechanisms that could bring about improvements were also suggested. Inclusion of high value vegetable crops into the smallholder production system brought about an increased integration of the system into a market economy. It also enhanced the system's resilience, but producers are still seed insecure. The vegetable market structure better favors middlemen and traders more than producers. Attempts to provide relief food and emergency seed aid and developmental seed initiatives have been made by different government and non-government organizations. Emergency food and seed handouts, although at times indispensable, fostered a dependency mentality, undermined initiatives and innovation among the smallholder producers, and established a dependence on aid as part of the agricultural system. Developmental seed initiatives, with the potential to support farmers' welfare, were not successful or sustainable for various reasons. It is necessary that alternative methods for seed production and distribution be developed. The elements of failure of earlier community-based seed production programs were analyzed, and a different approach to organizing a sustainable community seed production scheme suggested. A Cooperative Community-Based Seed Enterprise (CCBSE) that blends the strengths of the local and formal seed supply systems, and that considers lessons learned from past attempts was suggested and its relevance demonstrated. It is argued that future seed projects should capitalize on developmental seed initiatives, and must be able to discourage the dependency mentality brought about by repeated emergency seed assistance. If not altered, such emergency seed assistance would also have a negative implication on thedevelopment of local CCBSE.