ISSD -ETHIOPIA PROGRAMME 2012 ANNUAL REPORT · Ethiopian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Provision of quality and sufficient amount of ... Ethiopian agriculture requires

Prepared by ISSD Amhara

Ahmed Yimam, Minilek Kefale, Alemnew Abay, Mesfin Astatkie, Aderaw Genetu, Legesse Gelaw

Bahir Dar, February, 2013

ISSD-ETHIOPIA PROGRAMME

2012 ANNUAL REPORT

AMHARA

The programme on Integrated Seed Sector Development in Ethiopia (ISSD-Ethiopia) is a joint effort of Bahir Dar University, Haramaya University, Hawassa University, Mekelle University, Oromia Seed Enterprise, Ethiopian Seed Producers and Growers Association, and Centre for Development Innovation of Wageningen University and Research centre. Partners include organizations within federal, regional and local governments, universities, NGOs, private seed companies, and seed producer cooperatives. The project is funded by the Directorate General for International Cooperation through the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Addis Ababa.

ISSD Amhara, based at Bahir Dar University, implements ISSD Ethiopia program components in the region in collaboration with government, non-government and private partners working in the seed sector. Phase II of ISSD program started in 2012 and extends until the end of 2015. Through facilitating innovation, brokering knowledge and supporting capacity development, our group of 13 full and part time staff help to link ISSD Amhara with regional and local partners for the development of vibrant and pluralistic seed sector in the region.

More information: http://www.issdethiopia.org/

Cover Photo:

Bread wheat- seed production by Debre Berhan University, scaling up partner

Preface

This annual report of ISSD II program in Amhara region presents physical achievements for the year 2012. The report includes introduction to ISSD Amhra program, consolidation of SPMCs, LSB scaling up, support for small and medium seed producers, partnerships, knowledge sharing and capacity development activities, and research and studies. The annual report is the basic monitoring and evaluation tool to compare the annual plan of the regional program with the desired objectives and to measure the outputs of interventions of ISSD II Amhara program in the region. The report also provides information that could be used as a benchmark for the regional future plan in the seed sector. Ethiopian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Provision of quality and sufficient amount of seed at the right time and with affordable price to farmers is very crucial to increase production and productivity. Poverty reduction is the focus area of the Ethiopian government which could be made into effect through agricultural transformation and increase production. Agricultural growth requires effective support to the millions of smallholder farmers. In the current five year plan of Ethiopia, popularly known as the Growth and Transformation Plan(GTP), overhauling the national seed system is considered as one of the key interventions in the transformation of the agricultural sector to ensure the target of doubling agricultural production by 2015 (MoFED, 20111). Seed production in Ethiopia is mainly carried out by public seed enterprises, cooperatives sand private seed companies. The government pools the seed produced by all these producers and distributes it through cooperative unions and primary cooperatives to users. As to the production, distribution of seed could not be effective enough by government channels only. Hence, involvement of private seed enterprises and cooperatives had a paramount importance. ISSD II program has a vision to improve the seed system through the establishment of a vibrant and pluralistic seed sector and provision of quality seed of superior varieties that are available and affordable to a larger number of farmers. The contribution of ISSD II program in filling the skill gap of the seed value chain actors, creating linkage and networking with major stakeholders, and providing financial support to improve the seed system of the region has been immense in the previous year.

1 MoFED (2011). “Seed development programs in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of experiences of Finance and Economic Development”. In Growth and Transformation Plan: 2011 – 2015. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 135

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme iii |

Table of contents

Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 6

List of abbreviations and acronyms .............................................................................................................. 8

1. Introduction to the ISSD programme .................................................................................................... 9

1.1 Background to the ISSD programme ............................................................................................. 9

1.2 Components of the ISSD programme ......................................................................................... 10

1.3 Programme partners ................................................................................................................... 10

2. Local seed business development – Consolidation ............................................................................ 12

2.1 LSB development in Amhara Region ........................................................................................... 12

2.2 Process in supporting LSBs in consolidation ............................................................................... 13

2.3 Assessment of LSB development ................................................................................................ 14

2.4 Activities and achievements in LSB development ...................................................................... 16

3. Local seed business development – Scaling up .................................................................................. 18

3.1 Scaling up LSB development in Amhara ..................................................................................... 18

3.2 LSB scaling up partners ............................................................................................................... 18

3.3 LSB Scaling up process ................................................................................................................ 20

3.4 Activities and achievements in LSB scaling up ............................................................................ 21

5. Supporting private small and medium-scale seed producers............................................................. 26

5.1 Supporting small and medium-scale seed producers in Amhara region .................................... 26

5.2 Process of supporting seed producers ........................................................................................ 26

5.3 Activities and achievements in supporting private seed producers ........................................... 28

6. Partnerships and innovation ............................................................................................................... 29

6.1 Partnerships and innovation in Amhara ..................................................................................... 29

6.2 Partnerships and innovation process .......................................................................................... 30

6.3 Regional core group .................................................................................................................... 31

6.4 Activities and achievements in partnerships and innovation ..................................................... 31

7. Enabling and evolving seed policies .................................................................................................... 33

7.1 Seed policy related activities in Amhara ..................................................................................... 33

8. Knowledge sharing and capacity development .................................................................................. 34

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme iv |

8.1 Introduction to knowledge sharing and capacity development ................................................. 34

8.2 Process of developing a framework for knowledge sharing ....................................................... 34

8.3 Activities and achievements in knowledge sharing .................................................................... 34

9. Research and studies .......................................................................................................................... 35

9.1 Introduction to research and studies .......................................................................................... 35

9.2 BSc studies of Development Agents in Amhara .......................................................................... 36

9.3 Introduction ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Annex 1. LSB consolidation – key activities and achievements in the innovation sites Annex 2. Basic information on LSB scaling up partners Annex 3. Supporting private seed producers – key activities and achievements Annex 4. Partnerships and innovation – key activities and achievements Annex 5. Knowledge sharing Annex 6. BSc studies of Development Agents in Amhara

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme v |

Executive summary

Ethiopian agriculture requires over 700,000 tons of seed each year to grow cereals and pulses. Farmers in Ethiopia acquire seeds from “formal” or “informal” seed sources. Commercial sector, on average, contributes 10 % of the annual seed demand. Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) program has been working for the last four years (2009-2012) in assisting farmer seed producer and marketing cooperatives (SPMCs), small and medium private seed producers and actors in the seed value chain in capacity building, system development and financial support to promote the production of quality and affordable seed to the small holder farmers.

To consolidate the first generation of seed producer and marketing cooperatives (SPMCs), ISSD II Amhara program facilitated basic seed supply, strengthen local level partnerships, conducted trainings and experience sharings inter and intra regions were main activities in 2012. As a result, 732 quintals of different kinds of basic seed were delivered to SPMCs and planted on 542.5 hectares of land. 6,645 quintals of different types of crops and varieties of seed were produced. Eight seed core groups have been established to strength the backstopping services of local level partners. Training was provided to 56 SPMCs management committee members on financial management, cooperative organization and management, entrepreneurship, leadership and business plan preparation. Executive committee members, Development Agents (DA) and Woreda seed experts from innovation sites have visited Goshiye SPMC to acquire best lessons in relation to marking and cooperative organization. In addition, the cooperative executive committee chairpersons shared experiences in SNNPs and Oromia regions. The performance of each SPMC was assessed and the strength and weakness of the SPMCs were identified for further interventions. The strengths were in internal seed quality control mechanisms, decision making capabilities, quality seed production, organizational management and access to inputs across all sites. The major challenges were limited local seed marketing, unavailability of specific customers and limited financial management capacity.

Quality seed produced by public and private seed producers has been supplied to small holder farmers in the region through the formal seed system. However, for the last five years, private and public seed producers were unable to meet the demand of seed in the region. Community based seed production approach has been identified as an option to narrow down the demand-supply gap. Hence, LSBs became important actors to supply pure seed to local and contractual markets. As a result scaling up of LSBs in the region becomes important to supply quality seed in affordable price to small holder farmers. To scale up the existing eight LSBs by factor of 5-10, the major activities undertaken were: preparation of scaling up modality, sensitization workshop, preparation of MoU, facilitating proposal development, grant provision, coaching, monitoring, clustering workshops, and field visits. The main achievements were: dissemination and adoption of LSB approaches in the region, linking regional universities and research centers, production of new crops types (faba bean, lentil, sesame and chickpea), assisting partnership development platforms, and facilitating timely seed inspection. As a result 21 LSBs have produced an estimated 28,821qt. different crop varieties of certified seed.

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme vi |

Regional and national public seed enterprises are the dominant suppliers of seed in the formal seed sector in Ethiopia. The private seed producers in Amhara region are out-growers for BoA and their contribution is limited. Private seed sector is at its infant stage of development. There are 14 licensed private seed producers in the region of which 11 are actively participating in the seed business. In the production year 6 private seed producers have produced 5,861 quintal improved seed in 406.5 hectare land. In 2012, the ISSD II program support for private small and medium seed producers in the region were; assessment of seed producers in the region to identify problems, consultation workshop with private seed producers, major partners and decision makers; marketing and business plan development training, experience sharing visit in SNNPS and Oromiya regions, field day to introduce new maize varieties in collaboration with Pioneer private seed producing company, provision of co-grant for four selected seed producers and promotion in potential grain producers. From the feedback of partners and private seed producers it is understood that the supports provided by ISSD Amhara program in the region had created a good institutional linkage with implementing partners and their contribution to improve the seed system of the region and the private seed sector had been immense.

Partnerships in ISSD programme aims to develop a mechanism with institutionalized regional coordinating bodies for facilitating innovation and learning in the seed sector. The regional platform had identified six partnership innovation projects to be implemented by concerned partners. Four of the identified projects were implemented in 2012. The seed quality assessment project main activities were assessing the storage structures and conditions of multipurpose cooperatives, collect seed samples of hybrid maize, wheat and teff at distribution center, conduct laboratory test and assess the field status at growth stage. As the result, population reduction on hybrid maize seed found to be on average about 50%. Regarding seed regulatory body project, the main activities conducted were seed system assessment and communicating the results for approval. As the result draft seed system assessment and concept note for establishment were submitted and a consultative workshop was organized. Moreover, early generation seed multiplication project was implemented to multiply quality early generation seed on 41.5ha of on farmers’ field and in research centers. The fourth project, amendment of specific guide lines and bylaws of SPMC, resulted in a reduction of start-up member size from 120 to 40 members to register as seed producer and marketing cooperative.

ISSD Ethiopia program pays due attention to the documentation and sharing of key advances and outputs so that it is known by partners and stakeholders at kebele, woreda, regional, national and international levels. The ISSD Amhara program, as one of the implementing partners of ISSD, has been carrying out the ideals of ISSD through documenting and sharing activities, best achievements, outputs and challenges so that key stakeholders learn out of these and also contribute their share in the process. As part of the ISSD II program, a number of activities and achievements have been accomplished in 2012. Outputs, achievements, progresses, objectives and methodologies and lessons learnt through the processes have been published and shared using a biannual magazine, newsletter, flyer, brochure, calendar, on the ISSD website and social media (facebook and wordpress blog). .

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme vii |

List of abbreviations and acronyms

ARARI Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute ASE Amhara Seed Enterprise ATA Agricultural Transformation Agency BDU Bahir Dar University BDU-CAES Bahir Dar University College of Agriculture and Environmental Science BoA Bureau of Agriculture CDI Centre for Development Innovation CGN Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands CPA Cooperative Promotion Agency CSF Critical Success Factor DA Development Agents DBARC Debre Berhan Agricultural Research Center

DGIS Directorate General for International Cooperation EIAR Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research EKN Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands ESE Ethiopian Seed Enterprise ESPGA Ethiopian Seed Producers and Growers Association ETB Ethiopian Birr FHE Food for Hanger Ethiopia GARC Gondar Agricultural Research center ISSD Integrated Seed Sector Development KPI Key Performance Indicator LSB Local Seed Business MoA Ministry of Agriculture MoFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

MoU Memorandum of Understanding MSc Master of Science NGO Non-Government Organization ORDA Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara PBR Plant Breeder’s Rights PQDPM Potato Quality Declared Planting material RARI Regional Agricultural Research Institute RSE Regional Seed Enterprise SARC Sirinka Agricultural Research Center SNNPR Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region SPC Seed Producers’ Cooperative SPMC Seed Producer and Marketing Cooperatives Wageningen UR Wageningen University & Research centre WoA Woreda office of Agriculture

Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme 8

1. Introduction to the ISSD programme

This document serves as the 2012 annual report of the programme on Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) in Ethiopia in Amhara. The ISSD programme started in 2009; in 2012 it commenced its second phase. The report summarizes the activities and progress in the different programme components over the last year. More detailed descriptions of key activities and progress within the different components are given in the annexes to the report. The financial report and auditing report are provided as separate annex. This chapter provides the general background to the programme, introduces its different components and the ISSD programme partners at national and regional level.

1.1 Background to the ISSD programme

In February 2009, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development together with other key public, private and civil society seed sector stakeholders, endorsed the concept note on Integrated Seed Sector Development in Ethiopia, recognizing the ISSD approach for strengthening the Ethiopian seed sector through interventions in different seed systems. The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Addis Ababa supported the development of an ISSD programme. Besides projects on agro-biodiversity conservation, policy development and private sector development, the ISSD programme included the projects on Local Seed Business (LSB) development and on Partnerships and innovation in the seed sector. ISSD Amhara has been involved in the LSB project and the Partnerships project of the ISSD programme.

Through the LSB project farmer groups have been supported in 2010 and 2011 to become technically better equipped and more commercial in their seed production and marketing efforts, and become more autonomous in their operations in the seed sector. In five regions of Ethiopia, teams of an agribusiness expert, a farmer organization expert and a seed expert have supported 34 farmer groups in their development towards LSBs, through targeted actions to improve on topics like cooperative management and entrepreneurship, access to basic seed and other inputs, seed quality assurance, strengthening stakeholder relations, and the development and implementation of business plans.

The Partnerships project focused on seed systems innovation and institutional change. Through four regional seed sector platforms, stakeholders jointly identified, discussed and prioritized bottlenecks in the sector and designed appropriate coping strategies to address these. The project supported the development and implementation of action learning projects, to be implemented by consortia of regional seed sector stakeholders, using innovative approaches to solve sector-wide bottlenecks and find sustainable ways to scale up success in the future. Topics addressed included access to early generation seed, seed chain coordination, seed quality assurance and direct seed marketing.

Based on the results of ISSD phase I, EKN in Addis has asked the programme partners to elaborate a proposal for an ISSD phase II programme, i.e. one umbrella programme giving a follow-up and building upon the results of the of the LSB and Partnerships project, as well as the Policy project as coordinated by CGN under ISSD phase I, and the Private seed sector development component, as coordinated by the Ethiopian Seed Producers and Growers Association (ESPGA) in ISSD phase I. Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme 9

1.2 Components of the ISSD programme

The development objective of the ISSD programme phase II is to strengthen the development of a vibrant, commercial and pluralistic seed sector in Ethiopia. The programme follows the ISSD development principles in targeting its activities at specific sectors, including LSBs, private seed producers (operating at a regional scale) and seed companies (operating at a national scale), but also promoting institutional innovation in the sector through the partnerships component. In addition the programme supports services addressing different sectors, including research and studies, sharing experiences and lessons learnt, and capacity development. Furthermore the implementation of enabling policy frameworks is supported. See in Figure 1 the programme components. The different chapters of the report elaborate the activities and achievements in the components.

Figure 1. Components of the ISSD Ethiopia phase II

1.3 Programme partners

The ISSD programme is coordinated by Bahir Dar University, Haramaya University, Hawassa University, Mekelle University, Oromia Seed Enterprise, Ethiopian Seed Producers and Growers Association, and


Centre for Development Innovation (CDI) of Wageningen University and Research centre. Each organization hosts an ISSD team; Haramaya University hosts a Programme Management Unit at Addis Ababa.

Within ISSD Amhara the programme is supported by a coordinator, a team of seed sector experts and support staff. See for details on the Amhara ISSD team Table 1 below. The scientific coordinator and institutional coordinator are only part time involved in the project.

Table 1 ISSD staff in Amhara

Name Position Email

1 Dawit Tsegaye Seed innovator [email protected] 2 Minilek Kefale Farmer organization innovator [email protected] 3 Ahmed Yimam Agri-Business innovator [email protected] 4 Alemnew Abay Private sector innovator [email protected] 5 Mesfin Astatkie Partnership facilitatory [email protected]

6 Aderaw Geentu Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Development innovator [email protected]

7 Tadesse Dessalegn (Dr.) Scientific Coordinator [email protected] 8 Tesfaye Shiferaw (Dr.) Inistitutional Coordinator [email protected] 9 Legesse Gelaw Program facilitator [email protected]

10 Biresaw Kassa Finance Officer [email protected] 11 Simegn Eshetu Casher Secretary [email protected] 12 Chalachew Fantahun Driver [email protected] 13 Mengistu Tafere Driver -

In Amhara region ISSDII strongly collaborates with the following partners:

• Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) • Cooperative Promotion Agency (ACP) • Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI) • Amhara Seed Enterprise (ASE) • Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE) • Universities (Gondar, Debre Berhan, Debre Markos, Dessie, and Bahir Dar).


mailto:[email protected]












2. Local seed business development – Consolidation

2.1 LSB development in Amhara Region

BDU ISSD program in collaboration with local level partners has been supporting eight seed producer and marketing cooperatives (SPMCs) namely Marwold, Zabatsiyone, Gusha, Goshiye, Kudime, Chankie, Woken and Beteyohanse which are found Womberima, Jabitahinan, Guagisashukudad, Yilimanadenisa, Mecha, Takusa, Dabat and Tachgayint Woredas respectively since 2009. These SPMCs are also located in four Zones such as West Gojam, Awi, South Gondar and North Gondar. All SPMCs have been organized in seed producer and marketing cooperative and have also legal license on seed production and marketing. The SPMCs have been producing seed mainly hybrid maize, tef, bread wheat and potato. The aim of LSB consolidation is to further consolidate the farmer groups in becoming autonomous and professional seed entrepreneurs. They are the examples for the scaling up of the LSB model with other project partners in the region. All SPMCs have not been producing the same crops such as Betehaonse has been specializing in potato seed productionand marketing and also Goshiye, Cahnkie and Zabatsoyene have been specializing in tef seed production and moreover Marwold and Kudme have been specializing in wheat seed production. The SPMCs have a total of 1,573 members and of which 160 are female headed. This indicates that the majority of the cooperative members are male headed but in exception, at Zabatsiyone SPMC more than 45 % of the total members are female headed. Most of the SPMCs have been producing seed using rain fed, but Kudme has been producing seed using irrigation sine Koga irrigation dam has been constructed around this cooperative. The SPMCs have two market opportunities to sell their seed by now. These are selling the produce at local market and through contractual agreement with Amhara and Ethiopia seed enterprises. Therefore, Zabatsiyone, Gusha, Goshiye and Woken SPMCs have made a contractual agreement to sell their produce to Ethiopia seed enterprise in 2012 production year and on the other hand, Kudime and Marwold SPMCs have made a contractual agreement to Amhara seed enterprise to sell their seed for this production year. Both seed enterprise will procure seed from the SPMCs by adding 15% from the average price of the local market. Beteyohanse and Chankie SPMCs are expected to sell their seed at local market. At all the SPMCs, the seed quality control has been carried out by cooperatives themselves with formal supervision by the government institutions when there is a need. SPMCs are practicing their own internal seed quality control mechanisms which vary according to their socio-cultural conditions. Each SPMC has its own responsible body, selected by its members, for quality control. The responsible body for seed quality control would be either quality control committee or group representatives. The SPMC members have selected the committee members based on their technical capabilities on pre and post harvest seed production and management, commitment on seed production, and high social acceptance. The quality control committee inspects the seed quality both in pre and post harvest conditions against the rules and regulations and makes a decision on the seed lots without interventions of others. .


Table2. Basic data on SPMCs in Amhara region

S/N Name of SPMCs

Zone Woreda Year of establishme

nt

Year of ISSD

intervention

Members in 2012 Irrigation use

Male Female No

1 Woken North Gondar Dabat 2005 2009 375 53 No

2 Goshiye West Gojam Yilimanadensia 2006 2009 323 19 No

3 Bete-yohannes South Gondar T/Gayint 2008 2009 130 15 No

4 Marwoled West Gojam Womberima 1998 2009 264 2 No

5 Gusha Awi Guagsashikuda 2006 2009 152 2 No

6 Zaba-tsiyon West Gojam Jabitahinan 2010 2010 74 63 No

7 Kudme West Gojam Mecha 2010 2010 132 2 Yes

8 Chanke North Gondar Takusa 2009 2009 123 4 No

Total 4 8 1,573 160

2.2 Process in supporting LSBs in consolidation

One of the major components of ISSD phase II program is consolidating the first generation of local seed business innovation sites. So, BDU ISSD program was conducting regional workshop at Bahirdar and the local level workshop at the respective innovation site. During the regional workshop, the strength and weakness of each SPMC were presented and evaluated by stockholders in order to forward the possible solutions of 2012 action plan preparation. During discussions in the regional workshop working groups were organized in order to grasp ideas for LSB consolidation and LSB scaling-up. At the same time, the local level workshop were conducted at each innovation site and most of the major stockholders such as the SPMCs executive committee members, Woreda office of agriculture and Woreda cooperative promotion office and also the respective none government organizations (NGOs) were participating. During the local level workshop session, a numbers of challenges were raised as the gaps of the SPMCs and these gaps were listed and classified based on their priorities and also divided these challenges to the major stockholders to solve it in 2012 production year. After that, the challenges were provided to the cooperative itself, Woreda office of agriculture, cooperative promotion office and BDU-ISSD program based on their nature. Accordingly among major problems, BDU-ISSD program was taking responsibility on the following activities to solve the gaps of the SPMCs in collaboration of Woreda partners. These are:

• Facilitation of basic seed supply to the SPMCs.


• Strengthening backstopping services of local level partners in order to provide appropriate technical and managerial supports to the SPMCs.

• Facilitating trainings to SPMCs on financial management, cooperative organization management, entrepreneurship and leadership and planning to enhance the knowledge and skills of the SPMCs.

Based on these challenges, BDU-ISSD program in collaboration with the respective Woreda partners prepared the action plan of 2012. The planned activities were: facilitate basic seeds, strengthening of the backstopping services of local level partners and enhancing the implementation capacity of the SPMCs through training.

2.3 Assessment of LSB development

Baseline assessment was undertaken each innovation site to have bench for performance evaluation. In order to assess the proper implementation of the project in its implementation period, the program developed a model for local business and associated CSFs in its implementation. Accordingly, principles for robust seed systems and CSFs for new products have been adopted to assess the performance of farmers’ groups engaged in commercial local seed production in the ISSD program implementation. The framework introduced by Wageningen UR CDI researchers and further discussions and critiques made with local experts to reformulate set of CSFs that better fit the Ethiopian context. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were also identified which are relevant to the corresponding CSFs. The progress of the existing LSBs was assessed with the framework. Relevant questions were formulated to measure the performance of LSB on the basis of KPIs. Various tools used to collect appropriate information from seed growers, SPMC leaders and partner organizations. The data collected were analyzed with appropriate analytical tool.

The CSFs are very important to assess the positive achievements and the failure of each SPMC. There are sixteen CSFs (business boundary, self-reliance, access to financial resources, access to inputs and services ,voice of customers, differentiated superior product, sharp stable and early product definition, plan and resource the market launch, selecting the right project-new farmer skills, organize true cross functional teams and build beyond local orientation) were used to evaluate of the performance of LSBs. Each CSF has corresponding KPI to monitor the CSF. Some of the key indicators in the framework include number of SPMC members, degree of clustering, seed sold in kebeles and districts, decision making capabilities of the cooperatives, service charges of pre-harvesting and post harvesting techniques. Each CSF has also a number of research questions to properly extract the relevant information. Under the CSF of access to financial sources, for instance, questions such as what are the financial sources, associated mechanisms, and their division for financing seed production and marketing were described. In order to attain the objectives of the assessment, primary data were collected from farmers and experts from district line offices. A structured questionnaire for the purpose of collecting data from sampled farmers was developed to encompass a range of issues that could provide an insight into the general LSB development in the innovation site. Data were collected from common members of the Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme 14

cooperative and executive committee members using direct interviews questionnaires by external enumerators. FGDs were conducted by LSB innovators with executive committee, seed quality control committee and the respective district partners using participatory tools of such as historic graph, Venn diagram and stakeholders’ identifications. The summary of the regional LSB assessment result showed that in all innovation sites, except Gosheye, members of the SPMC are from a single kebele2 which actually assist them easily to communicate and discuss on various seed business issues. Across all sites SPMCs showed positive progress in pre-harvest seed production techniques, financial capabilities to purchase/access inputs (eg seed, fertilizers, pesticides etc), quality seed production, internal seed quality control mechanisms, and division of responsibilities and associated organizational skills; however, they are not good in addressing specific farmer customers and in early product definition. In most of the SPMCs, the major proportion of the seed they produced sold outside the district indicating the limited local marketing spectrum in the innovation sites. This is mainly due to the fact that most SPMCs are engaging in contractual seed production arrangement with government seed enterprises. The topics of success where LSBs made significant achievements are discussed below:

• Better internal seed quality control mechanisms- SPMCs have their own informal seed quality control mechanisms considering their specific social aspects, crops/varieties they are producing and other cultural factors.

• Better decision making capabilities- through successive and regular supports from ISSD program and other partners, the decision making capabilities of SPMCs is becoming improve.

• Well performance in quality seed production-It is observed from assessment result that most innovation sites had showed better performance in quality seed production.

• Better organizational management-the assessment result shows that all SPMCs legally organized, have executive committee, controlling committee and seed quality controlling committee.

• Access to inputs (purchasing power for inputs & services)-across all sites, it is observed that SPMCs and their members had showed good financial capabilities to access all the required inputs for better seed production activities.

The assessment report also shows that the major challenges of the SPMCs. These are:

• Limited local seed marketing-satisfied the seed demand of the local community is one of the main target intervention areas of the SPMCs. The majority of the seed produced by SPMCs sold outside the district. One of the key factors for this is that the contractual seed production arrangement of SPMCs with government seed enterprises.

• Voice of customers-across all sites, it is observed that SPMCs do not have specific farmer customers.

• Limited financial management capacity-financial management is one of the key components for the success of a given SPMCs in its seed business. The assessment result revealed that most


SPMCs (with the exception of Gosheye, Woken and Zaba Tsiyon innovation sites) are not good in their financial management capacity.

2.4 Activities and achievements in LSB development

The major activities that had been planned to implement in the budget year of 2012 are: facilitate and secured basic seed, strength the integration and backstopping supports of Woreda partners, enhancing the implementation capacity of the SPMCs through training and finally facilitate experience sharing even if it was not planned. Based on this, BDU-ISSD program has exerted maximum efforts to access basic seed to the SPMCs in 2012 production year. BDU-ISSD program together with Woreda partners and the SPMCs itself had discussed on what kinds of crops and varieties had been needed and also how much amount of basic seed have been secured to cover the planned land by the SPMCs. After the assessment has been finalized and the amounts of seed and kinds of crops and varieties have been identified and then BDU-ISSD program had discussed with the basic seed source organizations such as Amhara and Ethiopia seed enterprise. Finally, All SPMCs had been secured basic seed in 2012 production year from Amhara and Ethiopia seed enterprises except Beteyohanse SPMC since this cooperative planted potato seed from own source. Therefore as result of this, in 2012 production year, these eight SPMCs had been accessed 732 quintals of different kind crops and varieties of basic seed and also had planted these basic seeds on 542.5 hectares of land. From this amount of land, the cooperatives have produced 6,645 quintals of different types of crops and varieties seed in this year and till now, the SPMCs are not selling their produce, so at this time the price/quintal and the total sold seed are not known. The second activity which was facilitated by BDU-ISSD program was strengthening the integration of local level partners in order to provide appropriate backstopping survives to the SPMCs in 2012. Then, BDU-ISSD program has facilitated a discussion forum to all the respective local level partners and the SPMCs itself to discuss about the support of Woreda partners and at the same time to hand over the SPMCs by the respective Woreda partners. As a result, all the respective Woreda partners and the SPMCs itself has agreed to establish Woreda level seed core group committee in order to hand over all activities regarding to the development of the respective seed sector. So, now most of the seed core groups are functional and they have started to support the SPMCs and these Woreda seed core group committee members were withdrawn from Woreda administration office, Woreda office of agriculture, Woreda cooperative promotion office and SPMCs itself. The chairperson and secretary of the core group committee are from Woreda administration office and Woreda cooperative promotion office respectively. BDU-ISSD program has been seriously coaching and monitoring the function of these seed core group committee in order to insure the sustainability. Regarding to capacity building, BDU-ISSD program has provided some co-funding grant budget to all SPMCs in order to reduce the problems of capital shortage so as to carry out some activities regarding to seed production and marketing such as store and office construction, conduct field days and training. Therefore, ISSD program allocated and transferred Birr 22,000.00 to each SPMC. As a result, all SPMCs have completed the ongoing store and office construction and conducted field days and also at the


same time trainings were arranged and provided to cooperative members and executive committee members in collaboration of Woreda partners on quality seed production, cooperative organization management and seed marketing. The other support of BDU-ISSD program is enhancing the knowledge and skills of the SPMCs and then BDU-ISSD program offered training to the 56 SPMCs management committee members that is 7 from each SPMC (5 executive committee members, one from controlling committee member and one seed quality control team) from 22-25 December, 2012 on financial management, cooperative organization management, entrepreneurship, leadership and business plan preparation. The training was provided by external experts and training manuals have been prepared and submitted to the ISSD program in soft copy and it was proved a hard copy for each SPMC.

The Most of the SPMCs members and committee members have not enough knowledge and skills on how other SPMCs within the region and out of the region working in seed production and marketing. Therefore, to mitigate these challenges, BDU-ISSD program arranged experience sharing programs within the region and out of the region even if this activity were not planned. Accordingly, in the first round from all SPMCs (7 per each SPMC) that is a total of 66 executive committee members and in the second round Marwold and Gusha SPMCs 30 cooperative committee members, DAs and Woreda seed experts has shared experiences from Goshiye SPMC. In addition, the cooperative executive committee chair person one per SPMC (total 8) shared experiences in South region at Alaba Woreda SPMC and Butagira seed production and marketing union. During experiences sharing, most of the participants were happy and identified their gaps and strengths and then they promised to apply the experiences that they shared to their respective SPMCs members. Moreover, Mekele University –ISSD program also arranged an experience sharing program on Goshiye SPMC to share experiences of Goshiye SPMC and Tigray region SPMCs (from 6 SPMCs three participants from each SPMC). During the experience sharing program, Goshiye SPMC has shared its best practice and weakness to Tigray region SPMCs and also Tigray region to Goshiye SPMC.

Table 3. Basic data on SPC seed production and marketing in Amhara region

Name of the SPMCs

Crop Variety Amount of basic

Seed used (qt)

Seed production area

(ha)

Amount of seed

produced (qts)

Amount of seed sold

(qts)

Average price (ETB)/qts

Market client

Woken Bread wheat

Danfe 53 30 800 Not yet sold Not yet known

Local market

Potato Jalene 50 3 300 Not yet sold Not yet known

Local market

Goshiye Tef Kuncho 87 290 2,000 Not yet sold Not yet known

ESE

Malt Barely

Halker 50 40 100 Not yet sold Not yet known

ESE

Bete-yohannes

Potato Jalene/ Gudene

260 13 1,000 Not yet sold Not yet known

Local market

Marwoled Wheat Pica four

78 52.5 750 Not yet sold Not yet known

ASE


Gusha Bread wheat

Danfe 56 32 480 Not yet sold Not yet known

ESE

Zaba-tsion Tef Kuncho 5 15 300 Not yet sold Not yet known

ESE

Kudme Bread wheat

Pica flour

88 50 575 Not yet sold Not yet known

ASE

Chanke Tef Kuncho 5 17 340 Not yet sold Not yet known

Local market

Total 732 542.5 6,645

3. Local seed business development – Scaling up

3.1 Scaling up LSB development in Amhara

Through strategic partnerships with universities, public research and seed entities, NGOs and seed programmes the ISSD programme aims to scale up the number of LSBs with a factor of 10 since the existing LSBs cannot satisfy the demand of seed in the region. Not only LSBs but also the private and the public sector are unable to meet the demand of seed in the region. Due to this, scaling of LBs in the region becomes an important intervention. This means promoting and supporting a total of 80 LSBs in Amhara region at the end of 2013 in such a manner that they get a significant share of local seed markets, for both food and semi-commercial crops. In this production season from the 24 sites 21 sites have produced different types of crop varieties. The team of LSB experts has been supporting the partners at field and office on the gaps existed.

3.2 LSB scaling up partners

The scaling up partners in Amhara region are all governmental organizations that are directly linked in the support of the small holder farmers in the region. Based on this Gondar University, Gondar Agricultural Research Center (GARC), Sirinka Agricultural Research Center (SARC), Wollo University, Debre Berhan University, Debre Berhan Agricultural Research Center (DBARC), Debre Markos University, Jabi Wereda Cooperative Office, Burie Agricultural Office and Bahir Dar University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES )are the partners participating in the scaling up of LSBs. ISSD Amhara selected these institutions because of sustainability since they are governmental organizations. All partners have a mission to serve the rural people in the region directly and indirectly, so that all partners have the same interest to participate in this process. Universities have a mandate to participate in community service activities and they took this project as breakthrough to join the rural society since most universities used deliver community service mainly to the urban people. Research centers have an experience to produce seed with FRG approach for long time and this project helped them to maximize their effort to address large number of farmers and to produce more certified seed. Partners are also highly satisfied by the LSB modality concerning division of rols and responsibilities. Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme 18

In the region there are 10 zones including Bahir Dar. In the first year of operation ISSD Amhara has addressed all zones except waghamira. So our coverage is near to 100%. The intervention areas are North Gondar, South Gongar, West Gojjam, East Gojjam, North Wollo, South Wollo and North Showa. The partners have different strengths and achievements. Similarities include that all are very motivated to participate in this project while some are even provided financial support to the team. For instance, Gondar University has allocated 40,000.00 birr in addition to support in kind such as staff, office, communication and vehicles. In relation to production all have similarity since all can assist farmers to produce seed in this production year.

Table 4. Basic data on farmer seed producer cooperatives/groups involved through the LSB scaling up process in Amhara Region

Partner Name SPC

Kebele(s), Woreda, Zone

Area for seed production (hectares)

Number of members (% of female members)

Gondar University

Abay Adese Mila Gibsa, Dabark, North Gondar 491 538 (24.53%)

Daber Nigat Daber, Wegera, North Gondar 25.34 140 (15%)

Gondar Agricultural Research center

Takusa Takusa, North Gondar 5 41 (12.19)

Metema metema, North Gondar 1.07 31 (16.12)

Sirinka Agricultural research center

warkaye warkaya, Meket, North Wollo 16 48(7)

sirinka sirinka, Habru and North wollo 28 183(12)

Aradom Aradom, Kobo and North Wollo 67 352(4.5)

Wollo University

Gerado Gerado, South Wollo 3 5(1)

Beke Beke, south wollo 2 4(0)

Debre Berhan Uniersity

weyra amba weyra amba, Moretna Jiru, North Showa 41.8 152(7.2)

wele wele denebe, siyadeberna wayu, North Showa 31.25 76 (6.57)

Debre Berhan Agricultural research center

wele deneba wele deneba, siyadebrena wayu, North showa 75.69 170(13)

mangudo mangudo, moretna jiru, north showa 27.42 80(2.5)

mush mush, basona werana, North Showa 46.52 211(26)

Debre Markos University

guay guay, debre eliyas, E/Gojjam 52.5 42(1)

yetnora yetnora, dejen, E/Gojjam not produced

Jabi cooperative office

Genet Tshay Mankusa Abgdoma, Jabi, W/Gojjam 11 123(45.5)

Adis Birhan Mana, Jabi, W/Gojjam 6 151(39.7)

Ediget Fana Abesam, Jabi, W/Gojjam 12 124(49.19)


Partner Name SPC

Kebele(s), Woreda, Zone

Area for seed production (hectares)

Number of members (% of female members)

BDU-college of agriculture

Adis Alem Adis Alem, Farta, North Gondar not produced

Adet Hana Adet Hana, Yilmana densa, W/Gojjam not produced

bure agricultural office

metadel wedefit Zalma, Burie, W/Gojjam 104.4 208(4.32)

enalma Z/shiwun, burie, W/Gojjam 128.9 226(3.5)

endeg F/sentom, burie, W/Gojjam 220.7 432(7.63)

3.3 LSB Scaling up process

At the beginning LSB innovators discussed the methodology and approach on how to scale up LSBs in the region. The following were key steps and processes followed:

1. Scale up modality

This modality was prepared based on the experience and achievement gained from the existing innovation sites. This modality comprises baseline study, seed production, marketing, cooperative management and partnership development.

2. Identification of potential partners

For sustainability of the seed business partner selection was mainly dependent on governmental institutions such as universities, research centers, agriculture offices and cooperative offices. Based on these 5 universities, 3 research centers, two government offices (Wereda office of agriculture and cooperative office) were selected and have participated in the scaling up activities in 2012.

3. Letter of interest

From the above selected institutions a total of 20 participants have invited to discuss the modality, proposal development, cost sharing and other issues. Participants had resisted the 75% contribution because of budget constraint and they needed top up payment in some research centers like Adet Agricultural Research center. After serious discussion in groups, agreement was reached to go back to their respective office and to discuss it with heads about the modality. All institutions participated in the first meeting wrote letter of interest to scale up LSBs based on the framework of the modality presented.


4. Assisting in the preparation of proposals and memorandum of understanding

Field visit programs were arranged with the objectives of:

1. Creating awareness about the modality of LSBs for partners who do not have enough information

2. Collecting of the final proposal, MoU and letters notifying the bank account of the respective offices.

5. Clustering workshops

ISSD Amhara followed clustering of partners based on agro-ecology, crop types, effectiveness and cost. Based on this Gondar Research Center, Gondar University, SARC and Woll University are clustered in the first cluster, Debre Berhan Agricultural Research and Debre Berhan University in the second cluster, Debre Markos University, Jabi Cooperative, BDU CAES and Burie Agricultural office the third cluster. All partners presented the achievements and challenges including budget utilization. Finally sites that are considered as teaching model for others were selected and visited at SARC, DBARC and Jabi cooperative.

During clustering workshops participants from partners and zonal agriculture and cooperative office have made great contribution to better understand the project and the future interventions expected from them. The workshop helps to sense about the marketing issues, methods of product collection and how to secure finance to purchase the produce. All partners were competing to each other for 2013 planning. New lessons were disseminated across partners on clustering, cooperative organization, marketing and partnership. In general it was a good approach to learn and disseminate lessons learnt among scale up partners. In 2012/2013 production year Amhara National Regional State has planned to collect all seeds up to C5, hence the region has 40% seed supply gap which is an opportunity to absorb all seeds produced by small holder farmers.

3.4 Activities and achievements in LSB scaling up

In the LSBs, ISSD Amhara identified problems related to marketing specially dependency on marketing activities by the scaling up partners and lack of warehouses to collect the produce. During the first consultation workshops the modality was presented in detail and group discussions were made. But during our coaching session some partners were not clear about the modality and they were expecting all activities to be done by ISSD Amhara team. The other problems observed were on seed inspection activities, marketing and lack of establishing local level partnership platforms. The ISSD team has coached and monitored three times in person and with continuous phone and email conversations. The solutions gained by the coaching and monitoring of ISSD team are:


• They able to share roles and responsibilities to the local partners • Seed inspection was done timely by regional laboratories • The produced seed were secured to be sold for agriculture bureau • All partners established local level partnership platforms • Experience was shared in a clustering approach to learn from each other on three places • Around 900,000 ETB is allocated for partners • they able to plan for 2013 production season

The formal seed system has contribution for the supply of pure seed to small holder farmers, but the contribution of LSBs weigh more than this, since the LSBs can deliver the seed to the surrounding farmers with least cost as compared to the formal system. In 2012 new LSBs in Amhara region contributed good amount of seed to the region and will help reduce the gap of 90% by some amount. 21 Lsbs in 2012 have produced 28821 qt of different crops and varieties. LSBs can produce new crops and varieties like lentil, faba beam, sesame and chickpea in which the first generation LSBs cannot produce.

The achievements in scaling up activity are:

• Able to disseminate LSB approaches in the region • Partners adapt the approach to other activities of the institutions • Able to link regional universities and research centeres • New types of crops were produced (faba bean, lentil, sesame and chickpea) • Assist to produce • Assist to adapt division of roles and responsibilities • Insisted to work tremendous activities with some amount of money • Can plan to scale up 56 sites in 2014

4. Table 5. Basic data on SPC seed production and marketing in Amhara region

Name SPC Crop and variety

Amount of basic seed used (quintals)

Seed production area (hectares)

Amount of seed produced (quintals)

Amount of seed sold (quintals)

Average price (ETB/ quintal)

Market client

Abay

Malt Barley (Holker) and Bread wheat (HAR604) 724

466Ha of Malt Barley and 25 Ha of bread wheat 7,365 Not met

Dashen Brewery

Daber Nigat

Malt Barley (Holker), bread wheat (Degalo and ET13) and Jalene) 31,6

11.67Ha of malt barley, 1ha of potato and 12.67ha of bread wheat 900

Not met

Dashen Brewery and local market








Market client

Takusa tef (estub and dukem) 1.25 5 150

Not met

WoA

Metema Abasene, Setit-1, Humera-1

1.07

Not met

GARC

Warkaye

Wheat (dinknesh) and Barley (Agegnehu) 20.8

10ha of wheat and 6ha of barley 320

Not met

WoA

Sirinka

tef(zobil), chickpea (habru)and blackcumin (aden) 35.75

27.5ha of tef, 27.5ha of chickpea and 0.5 ha of blackcumin 1100

Not met

WoA

Abouare sorghum(girana) 35 40 1200 Not met

woA and union

Gerado

bread wheat(digalo) chickpea 75

3Ha of bread wheat 75

Not met

Local market

Beke bread wheat(digalo) 30


Not met

Local market

Weyra amba bread wheat (meneze) 62.7

41.8Ha of bread wheat 299

Not met

WoA

wele Lentil (Alamaya) 25 31.25 ha of lentil 750

Not met

WoA Wole deneba

bread wheat (meneze), faba bean (dagem) and tef (dega) 75.68

17.5Ha of bread wheat, 27.3 Ha of tef, 14.2Ha of chickpea and 16.75Ha of faba bean 1316.2

Not met

WoA

Mangudo

bread wheat (menz), faba bean (lalo) and tef (dega) 29.39

7.11Ha bread wheat, 9.68Ha of faba bean and 10.6Ha of tef 486.11

Not met

WoA

Mush

food barley(HB1307), malt barley(holker, miscal and sabini) and bread wheat(digalo and bolo) 65.99

11.73Ha food barley, 20.34Ha malt barley and 14.45Ha bread wheat 1716.3

Not met

WoA








Market client

Guay bread wheat 50 52.5Ha of bread wheat 2915

Not met

WoA

Yetnora not entered in to production

Genet Tshay Tef (kuncho) 2.75 11Ha of tef 108 Not met WoA

Adis Birhan Tef (kuncho) 1.5 6Ha of tef 198

Not met

WoA

Ediget Fana Tef (kuncho) 3 12Ha of tef 214

Not met

WoA

Adis Alem not entered in to production

Not met

Adet Hana not entered in to production

Not met

Metadel Wedefit wheat 114.84 104.4Ha of wheat 5220

Not met SE

Enalma wheat 141.79 128.9Ha of wheat 6187.2

Not met

ASE

Endeg wheat 242.77 220.7Ha of wheat 9931.5 Not met ASE

Name SPC crop and variety

Amount of basic seed used(Quintals)




Avarage price (ETB/quintal)

Market client

Abay

Malt Barley (Holker) and Bread wheat (HAR604) 724

466Ha of Malt Barley and 25 Ha of bread wheat 7,365 Not met

Dashen Brewery

Daber Nigat

Malt Barley (Holker), bread wheat (Degalo and ET13) and Jalene) 31,6

11.67Ha of malt barley, 1ha of potato and 12.67ha of bread wheat 900

Not met

Dashen Brewery and local market

Takusa tef (estub and dukem) 1.25 5 150

Not met

WoA

Metema Abasene, Setit-1, Humera-1 1.07

Not met

GARC

Warkaye

Wheat (dinknesh) and Barley (Agegnehu) 20.8

10ha of wheat and 6ha of barley 320

Not met

WoA


Sirinka

tef(zobil), chickpea (habru)and blackcumin (aden) 35.75

27.5ha of tef, 27.5ha of chickpea and 0.5 ha of blackcumin 1100

Not met

WoA

Abouare sorghum(girana) 35 40 1200 Not met

woA and union

Gerado bread wheat(digalo) chickpea ( 75


Not met

Local market

Beke bread wheat(digalo) 30 2Ha of bread wheat 30

Not met

Local market

Weyra amba bread wheat (meneze) 62.7

41.8Ha of bread wheat 299

Not met

WoA

wele Lentil (Alamaya) 25 31.25 ha of lentil 750

Not met

WoA Wole deneba

bread wheat (meneze), faba bean (dagem) and tef (dega) 75.68

17.5Ha of bread wheat, 27.3 Ha of tef, 14.2Ha of chickpea and 16.75Ha of faba bean 1316.2

Not met

WoA

Mangudo

bread wheat (menz), faba bean (lalo) and tef (dega) 29.39

7.11Ha bread wheat, 9.68Ha of faba bean and 10.6Ha of tef 486.11

Not met

WoA

Mush

food barley(HB1307), malt barley(holker, miscal and sabini) and bread wheat(digalo and bolo) 65.99

11.73Ha food barley, 20.34Ha malt barley and 14.45Ha bread wheat 1716.3

Not met

WoA

Guay bread wheat 50 52.5Ha of bread wheat 2915

Not met

WoA

Yetnora not entered in to production

Genet Tshay Tef (kuncho) 2.75 11Ha of tef 108 Not met

WoA

Adis Birhan Tef (kuncho) 1.5 6Ha of tef 198 Not met

WoA

Ediget Fana Tef (kuncho) 3 12Ha of tef 214 Not met

WoA

Adis Alem not entered in to production Not met

Adet Hana not entered in to production Not met

Metadel Wedefit wheat 114.84

104.4Ha of wheat 5220

Not met SE

Enalma wheat 141.79 128.9Ha of wheat 6187.2

Not met ASE

Endeg wheat 242.77 220.7Ha of wheat 9931.5 Not met ASE


5. Supporting private small and medium-scale seed producers

5.1 Supporting small and medium-scale seed producers in Amhara region

Private seed producers in Ethiopia currently often operate as out-growers for public seed enterprises and BoA. The ISSD programme aims to strengthen small and medium scale private seed producers, support their establishment in the region, and enhancing their professionalization, and public private partnerships.

One of the program objectives of the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Program in Ethiopia is support small and medium seed enterprises. In this regard, the program identifies gaps and opportunities where small and medium seed producers could better serve quality seed production, arranges trainings, workshops and experience sharing visits, The program also provides technical advice, facilitates linkage with supporting institutions ( financial institutions , government bodies, public seed enterprises and non-governmental organizations). With the above mentioned supports and activities it is expected that small and medium scale seed producers will be transformed to commercial seed companies in the region.

The specific objectives of the small and medium private seed producers support component are: Promote and support the emergence of small and medium scale private commercial seed

producers in the region • Increase the number of professional and market share in the supply of quality seed of superior

varieties significantly • Facilitate cooperation of small and medium scale commercial seed producers with commercial

seed companies, public seed enterprises, and agricultural research centers at federal and regional level.

5.2 Process of supporting seed producers

The process of support for private seed producers in the region starts with an assessment based on the designed questioner so as to collect base line data and to identify challenges and opportunities. The detail support process was prioritizing the problems based on the assessment and discussion with governmental organizations, public seed enterprises and influential private seed producers. In addition, the assessment result had been presented in the consultation workshop in which major stakeholders participated. In the consultation workshop major challenges were identified and solutions were also suggested by forming groups with best combination of sectors. In the consultation workshop, besides problem prioritization solutions to the problems were also suggested. Based on the suggested solution plan of support had been prepared and discussed within the innovators and presented for the core group. Then implementation plan had been prepared and executed with the participation of major stakeholders. The major supports were creation of linkage with major stakeholders, capacity development (training, workshops, experience sharing visits and field days), and technical support at field, provision of co-grant based on the proposal and joint evaluation with private sector


representative. In general a participatory approach to support small and medium seed producers had been used starting from the need assessment till implementation.

Table 6. Basic data on small and medium scale seed producers in Amhara region

Name of the enterprise Owner Woreda, zone Area for seed

production (ha)

Capital(ETB) Number of employees

Temcha improved seed Molla Bishaew Machakle ,East Gojjam zone

150 300,000 1

Nile Improved seed P.L.c Awi and west Gojjam zone

- 2,000,000 1

Bayhe Mekonen Bayhe Mekonen Bure, wonberma wuredas and west Gojjam zone

192 4,763,000 2

Ethio-Agriceft Sheh Mohamed Aliamudi

Jabtehnan and ankesha woredas, west gojjam an awi zones

6565

4,000,000

10

Ayehu-zengeni Asrat Ankesha , Awi zone 1380 - 15

Avalo Internatio Nal

P.L.C Mainly West Gojjam,Awi zones

800 3,587,118 19

Freeland P.L.C Mecha, west Gojjam zone

- 400,000 1

Loma and zemera P.L.C Machakle, East Gojjam zone

150 500,000 1

Merkeb union Primary cooperatives

Mecha and Dera, South Gonder and West Gojjam zones

- 48,698,993 1

Yimam Tesema Yimam Tesema Ankesha, Awi zone - 1,500,000 2

Jema Partner Mecha, West Gojjam 5 195,000 1

Engate International* P.L.C West Gojjam zone - - -

Legwoyne* P.L.C West Gojjam zone 150 200,000 1

Aberham H/selassie* Aberham West Gojjam zone 88 - -

*The three private seed producers are almost sopped seed production


Table 7. Basic data on seed production and marketing of private seed producers in Amhara region (2012/2013)

Name of the enterprise Type of grower Crop and variety

Seed production

area(ha)

Amount of seed

produced(Q)

Amount of

seed sold(Q)

Average price(ETB/Q)

Market client

Merkeb union Out grower Maize BH-540 variety

84 700 On process

Will be fixed by the region

Primary Cooperatives and farmers

Freeland Out grower Wheat Pica flour variety

2.5 20 On process


BoA and producers

Ayehu-zengeni Out grower Maize BH-540 variety

100 1800 On process


B0A and producers

Ethio-Agriceft Out grower Wheat HR-1685

variety 120 2002 On

process Will be fixed by the region

BoA, cooperative union and producers

Pavon variety 40 482

Yimam Tesema Out grower Maize BH-540

45 600 On process


B0A, cooperative union and producer

Avalo International

Out grower Teff On process


B0A, cooperative union and producer

Kuncho variety 9 180 Etsub variety 5 75 Red pepper Markofana

variety 1 2 *

Total 406.5 5861 NB: * indicates clean seed from pepper not the biomass, Among the active private seed producers only 6 produced seed in the production year because others are discouraged by the previous year marketing and carryover stock

5.3 Activities and achievements in supporting private seed producers

The major activities to support private small and medium seed producers in 2012 were creation of institutional linkage (workshop, experience sharing visit, field day and direct discussion with major partners), marketing and business management training, consultancy studies to recommend solutions to basic problems, co-grant and technical support. The major achievements’ made so far are assessment of the private seed producers, consultation workshop to identify problems and suggest solution. In the consultation workshop national, regional partners and public seed enterprises) were participated.


Experience sharing visit in SNNPs Alaba special woreda had been made at Ato Alemayehu Mekonen mechanized farm. The participants of the visit were organized from private and public seed producers and major partners. In addition, a team organized from private seed producers, SPCs and partners had visited Oromiya and SNNPs. Moreover, in collaboration with pioneer private seed producer company in wonberma district 54 participants (expertise, supervisors and farmers) had visited the two new maize hybrids i.e. p-3812W/Limu/ and 30G19 . To fill the skill gap training had been also conducted for 31 participants (expertise and private seed producers) for seven days in the area of crop production, protection, seed law and policy, marketing and business plan preparation. Discussion with decision makers and private seed producers had been also conducted for a day to create awareness and improve the linkage in between decision makers and private seed producers. The objective of the discussion was to identify problems and familiarize them for decision makers for future action. In the workshop the total number of participants was 25.

A grant had been provided for four private seed producers. The grant had been given after the private seed producers prepared a proposal to use the grant for additional investment fund only. To increase the number of private seed producer’s promotion had been also done in two potential seed producers. The major drawbacks in the process of support were basic seed shortage in terms of quantity, quality and variety, poor linkage with research and extension, poor quality controlling system, uncompetitive marketing , poor support( credit, land policy and others) and capacity problems( technical and financial).

The amount of seed produced by private seed producers due to marketing problem is 5,861 quintal only. Generally the contribution of the private seed companies is only 12% to the volume of formal seed produced in the country (Dawit Alemu, 2010). They produce mainly hybrid maize which is more than 9o% and the marketing system is as out grower for all crops in our region. The share of the private seed producers in the region is about 10% from the formal sector on average. The outlook of private seed producers in the future is to continue in the seed business specially if the marketing problem is solved and it is free. Their vision is to be commercially strong and develop into a commercial seed company and their business goal is to increase their market share in the supply of quality seed.

6. Partnerships and innovation

6.1 Partnerships and innovation in Amhara

With the partnerships and innovation component, the ISSD programme aims to develop a mechanism with institutionalized regional coordinating bodies for facilitating innovation and learning in the seed sector. Partnership and innovation projects allow experimentation with innovative solutions for key seed sector bottlenecks. The process itself develops and consolidates clear roles, responsibilities and task division among seed sector stakeholders.


6.2 Partnerships and innovation process

Partnership approaches are important for bringing together major stakeholders at regional and woreda levels to discuss on challenges of seed sector and come up with solutions. The Regional Platform is the representative of major stakeholders who are involving in the seed sector of the region. Platform formally met twice in the year through regional partnership workshop to communicate the results of the identified innovation projects, to discuss the challenges of seed sector in the region and to decide on the projects. The ISSDII partnership facilitator has presented the seed value chain challenge analysis for discussion to prioritize the key challenges in the region. Then participants discussed the challenges in group to identify the seed sector challenges and prioritized innovation projects. Hence, seed marketing, agro-dealers approach for seed supply, access to credit, seed quality problem, establishment of seed quality regulatory body, amendment of specific bylaws and guidelines and early generation seed multiplication were key challenges of seed sector prioritized and identified by platform during regional workshop. Out of the identifed innovation projects seed quality and seed marketing were the continuation of the previous year identifed projects.

Immediately after identified and prioritized the key seed sector challenges by the platform/ regional partnership workshop, the ISSD program took initiative of describing the key identified challenges to the core group for approval and further action. Here the core group assigned responsibilities to relevant institutions to prepare project proposals and implement the projects accordingly. As the result seed marketing, agro-dealer approach, access to credit, establishment of regulatory body and seed quality were assigned to BoA to execute and prepare project proposals. Similarly, early generation seed multiplication and amendment of specific bylaw and guideline were assigned to ARARI and CPA respectively to prepare project proposal. However, seed marketing, agro-realer approach and access to credit were not put into practice due to the presence of huge amount of seed leftover and absence of leading partners respectively.

Following the task division and approval of the documents by the core group, the ISSD program continued to conduct bi-lateral and multilateral discussions with respective partners in which mutual understanding was gained in a better way. Moreover, a workshop has been organized with core group and BoA management team to have common understanding and to reach in consensus on the execution of new partnership projects. The main purpose of these discussions was to facilitate the preparation of project document and devise strategic actions in which the ISSD team plays facilitation role. As a result, each concerned partner organization has prepared and submitted proposal to ISSD for approval and budget support. After the preparation of project documents by respective partners, MoU was signed between ISSD Amhara and each respective partner. Following MoU singing ISSDII released the budget for implementation of the project by the lead partners.

Once the project is started the ISSDII team and core group’s main task became making regular follow up concerning the proper implementation of the project as per the agreement. The ISSD team has made regular coaching and monitoring on the execution of the project both at field and office levels. The team used both formal and informal mechanisms of monitoring and evaluating the results achieved. Moreover, the core group has made regular follow up and monitoring to the implementation of the Annual report BDU ISSD Amhara programme 30

projects as per the agreement. As the result the core group met four times with main task to monitor and evaluate the achievements of the innovation projects. Finally regional partnership workshop was organized to communicate and share the results among stakeholders and to explore for future action from the innovation projects.

6.3 Regional core group

The regional seed sector core group is the representative of platform. The regional core group is composed of manageable size of members from major stakeholders who play key role in seed sector partnership program as indicated in table 8. The seed sector core group is chaired by BoA and ISSD Amhra is secretary. The core group formal meeting period is quarterly while sometimes it can conduct urgent meeting when required. The roles and responsibilities of the seed sector core group are to lead the seed sector, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the innovation projects, link the project with government activities and plan for future action by over viewing the regional seed sector challenges etc.

Table 8. Core group members in Amhara Region

Name Organization Position in organization Dr. Teshome Wall chairman of core group

Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) Deputy bureau head

Dr. Abera Hailemaryam Amhara Seed Enterprise (ASE) Manager Dr. Yigzaw Dessalegne Amhara Region Agricultural Research

Institute (ARARI) Deputy director

Dr. Yitbarek Semanea Avalo International PLc Manager Ato Dessalegne Adamu Avola goshiye SPMC Chairman Ato Kassahun Tesega BoA Plant quarantine process owner

Ato Tsehay Asmare ORDA Crop production head Ato Aderaw Dagnaw Cooperative Promotion Agency (CPA) Office head Dr. Tesfaye Shiferaw Bahir Dar University Community service vice president

and ISSDII institutional coordinator

Dr. Tadesse Dessalegne ISSDII project Project coordinator Ato Mesfin Astatkie (Secretary of core group )

ISSDII project Partnership facilitator

6.4 Activities and achievements in partnerships and innovation

Seed quality assessment of different crops in Amhara region project implemented by BoA in collaboration with regional seed laboratory (Table 9). The objectives were to assess the aspects and magnitudes of seed quality problems across the seed chain and seek intervention strategies in enhancing the production and distribution of high quality seed. Similarly, assessing the storage


structures and conditions of multipurpose cooperative, collect hybrid maize, teff and wheat seed samples at distribution center, conduct laboratory test and assess field status at growth stages were the main activities. As the result two days workshop was organized for 20 seed inspectors and laboratory technicians to familiarize the project activities. Hybrid maize, wheat and teff seed sample collected from 15, 3 and 1 multipurpose cooperatives store respectively before distribution and tested in laboratory for their physical quality. As the result 70.9qt certified hybrid maize seed was found poor physical quality and rejected from distribution. Moreover, field assessment result indicated maize field was observed plant population reduction. The population reduction ranges from 35%-98% and on average found less than 50%. However, teff, wheat and malt barley farmers filed were found in a good condition (Annex 4). In order to enhance seed quality, ISSDII Amhara organized 7days intensive training for 32 seed growers, regional seed and quarantine experts on seed production, quality control, certification, seed laws, standards , seed marketing and business plan development. Moreover, ISSD II in collaboration with Adet research center organized two days PQDPM production guide line awareness creation workshop for 45 participants of experts, seed growers and researchers. Study on the establishment of regional independent Seed regulatory body was implemented by BoA in collaboration with other partners with objectives to assess and document the existing seed regulatory system and propose the structure, responsibilities and accountability of well functioning regional seed quality regulatory system. The main activities were review of the experience of other countries and other regions such as Oromiya, organize & established team of experts supported by contracting consultant, review the regional experiences on the strengths and weaknesses of the system through field level assessments, organize different workshops to communicate the results and submit the final document for approval. As the result team of experts was established from BoA, ARARI, ASE and ISSDII Amhara and experience sharing tour was conducted in MoA, ESE, ATA, ISSD and Oromiya region to commence seed system assessment. Following the experience sharing tour data was collected through focus group and individual discussions with selected regional, zonal, Woreda and kebele level partners. As the result draft existing regional seed system analysis result and concept note for establishment of regulatory body document were submitted to selected partners for comment and one day consultative workshop was organized with participation of stakeholders to enriching the document. Currently the team is starting to incorporate the comments obtained from the consultative workshop. However, hiring of consultant was delayed due to absence of procurement guide line in the region. Early generation seed multiplication project was implemented by ARARI with its sub research centers and its objectives to maintain and multiply the early generation seeds of released crop varieties and provide quality and sufficient amount of starting seeds of crop varieties to different stakeholders. The activities were maintain and multiply quality early generation seed. As the result 11.6, 5.8, 16.7 and 7.4ha of different early generation seeds multiplied at Adet, Srinka, Debrebrhan and Gondar ARCs respectively. Amendment of specific guide lines and bylaws to improve SPMC project was implemented by CPA in collaboration with other partners. The objectives were to pinpoint and amend the current SPMCs guideline and specific bylaws that may induce active participation of beneficiaries. The main activities were review literature of experiences in the region, conduct filed assessment on problems through discussions with SPMCs, amend specific SPMCs bylaw and guide line, and organize training for


cooperative experts on amended bylaw and guide line after approval. The key achievements were data collected from selective 9 SPMCs in the region through focus group and individual discussions, one day regional workshop was organized for regional stakeholders to communicate the assessment result and SPMC guide line amended. As the result, SPC start up member size was amended from 120 to 40 members to register as seed producer cooperative in the region. Following the amendment of SPC guide lines, two days awareness creation workshop was organized for 18 Woreda CPA experts. Table 9. Overview of partnership projects in Amhara Region

Partnership project Leading organization and partners

Location (woreda, zone) Start of the project (month, year )

Seed quality assessment of different crops in Amhara Region during 2012 cropping season

BoA in collaboration with regional seed laboratory, RARAI

Regional level April, 2012

Study on the establishment of regional independent seed regulatory body

BoA in collaboration ARARI, ASE, BDU-ISSDII, Seed growers

Regional level April. 2012

Amendment of specific guide lines and bylaws to improve SPMC performance

CPA in collaboration with BoA, BDU-ISSDII and NGOs(ORDA and FHE)

Regional level April, 2012

Early generation seed multiplication

RARAI in collaboration with research centers, BoA and seed growers

Adet, Srinka, Gondar and Adet agricultural centers

May, 2012

7. Enabling and evolving seed policies

7.1 Seed policy related activities in Amhara

The ISSD programme aims to strengthen the development and implementation of evolving seed policy frameworks, regulations, directives and manuals as well as implementing capacity, guided by the ISSD approach of supporting a pluralistic seed sector. Most of the activities in this area are implemented at national level, coordinated through the Programme Management Unit in Addis Ababa. Liitle has done on this component at Amhara region. Policy briefings on seed law were done during trainings. The regional cooperative law was revised and its implementation directives were designed. Private-public partnerships were enhanced. Generally, a lot shall be done in the future.


8. Knowledge sharing and capacity development

8.1 Introduction to knowledge sharing and capacity development

The ISSD programme aims for continuous sharing of experiences and lessons learnt within the ISSD programme components, among components, and with partners at all levels of the Ethiopian seed sector. A wide range of instruments is used for sharing experiences and lessons learnt, to foster the use of concepts, methodologies, insights and practices among partners and stakeholders in various domains.

Within all sectors different modalities for capacity development are developed and implemented among staff and partners. The main activities in this component (tailor-made trainings, entrepreneurship training, Wageningen-based ISSD training) are coordinated at PMU level and described in the national level annual report.

Publications such as magazines, newsletters, flayers, brochures, posters etc. are continuously used to share progress of activities, achievements, lessons learnt and to promote major component objectives to key partners in the region, among ISSD Ethiopia and the general public. Special publication such as Innovations through ISSD, manuals, booklets for research results and best practices are also published for key partners working in the seed sector. The ISSD website and different social media are also used to share ISSD’s achievements to internal and external audiences.

At regional level ISSD team members are supported throughout the process of their activity both technically and professionally to increase their efficiency.

8.2 Process of developing a framework for knowledge sharing

The yearly planning of knowledge sharing was held with all KSCD innovators sitting together. Then regional specifics were done in consultation with the regional team of ISSD and in line with the budget line form CDI. The planning included all activities of developing a communication and sharing platform and templates and formats.

8.3 Activities and achievements in knowledge sharing

ISSD II program advocates integrated approach that includes both formal and informal seed sectors and the involvement of the private, public, governmental and non-governmental actors in the seed sector development. Hence, ISSD Amhara has promoted the overall objective of ISSD, activities of ISSD Amhara, its best practices or innovations gained through implementation of different program components, practical challenges and lessons through publications and social media to key audiences and partners in 2012.

The ISSD program expects two magazines to be published by regional units. ISSD Amhara published the first magazine during the first half of the year. The second magazine is in press and will be available for distribution in a couple weeks. As the year 2012 was ISSD II’s commencement year, other publications


such as brochures, calendar, business cards, flyers etc. were also published and used to promote the program and its components to stakeholders and the general public. In order to address different audiences, ISSD Amhara uses a combination of different media platforms for communication. In addition to the print publications, social media has been used in 2012 by creating a regional facebook page and word press blog.

As team work is one of the approaches of ISSD to accomplish the objectives and mission of the program better, facilitation of group communication through sharing knowledge and facilitating exchanges of materials among the team members has been carried out by the KSCDI. This includes the creation of appropriate platforms or media and assisting team members to use these media efficiently and effectively. For this purpose, to date, dropbox account for sharing documents and collaborative work and yahoo group mail for easy knowledge sharing has been created and managed. Documentation has been also a major activity in 2012. Activities, best practices, events and products of these processes and/or reports have been documented and categorized for ready-to-use formats in audio, video and text formats. Major documentations include seminars, trainings, workshops, best practices, experience sharing events, meetings, reports of all types etc. Text documents are available on the online cloud storage- dropbox- for internal use while the audio and video documents are in portable hard discs. For capacity development, in addition to sharing knowledge which is also a capacity development by itself, separate capacity building activities have been also carried out throughout 2012. These include facilitation of workshops, seminars, trainings and meetings etc and preparing of different templates. Facilitation activities to support the proper communication and implementation of different activities as desired have been done integrated with the team members. Different templates have been also prepared to support meaningful and easy communication through using common formats. Power point presentation template is in use while most of these templates will be available to users in 2013.

Since, the position of ISSD Amhara KSCD has been vacant for several months and the current innovator has used an action plan prepared by the previous innovator, it is believed that the overall performance of the knowledge sharing and Capacity development would be better than what is so far accomplished.

9. Research and studies

9.1 Introduction to research and studies

The ISSD programme aims to support innovation in the seed sector through MSc and PhD studies in different areas that relate to seed sector development, including socio-economics, agronomy and plant sciences, policy and regulations, agribusiness development and innovation systems. The university partners in the programme host MSc students with ISSD MSc research grants on topics of interest to the


programme. The national level annual report will give an overview of these MSc grantee studies and also share an update on ongoing PhD research.

The programme aims to facilitate innovation though evidence based documentation and assessments. In addition to the MSc research, local Development Agents (Das) associated with the ‘first generation’ LSB sites are supported in obtaining BSc degrees.

Four MSc research grants were awarded. However, only two out four MSc research grants were implemented. The other two were not implemented because of the students’ own problems related to approval of their research by their respective Universities.

9.2 BSc studies of Development Agents in Amhara

ISSD provide research grants to students of relevant Ethiopian universities in plant science, social sciences, law, business and other areas. This component includes the budget for BSc/BA grants for those DAs who have shown their commitment over the last two years collaborating very closely with the LSB innovator team, supporting the farmer group in their locality in the activities for LSB development. Bahir Dar University ISSD II Project selected and enrolled 8 DAs of partner woredas in LSB sites with a grant for BSc/BA study in an area relevant to ISSD (six plant science and two rural development ) to enhance their capacity through their graduate training/BSC degrees in Bahir Dar University.

The objective of the project component is to enhance capacity of DAs in LSB sites and to facilitate further innovation in the seed sector through evidence based documentation and assessment.


Annex 1. LSB consolidation – key activities and achievements in the innovation sites

This table provides the progress against the action plan.

Seed Producer Cooperative

Topic Action Activity Status (met, in progress, unmet)

Marwold Partnership enhancement

Partnership enhancement

Identification of additional partners

met

Facilitate discussion forums met

Preparation of MoU met

Capacity development

Cooperative organization and management

Manual preparation met

Identification of trainees met

Conduct training met

Facilitation of basic seed supply and marketing

Identification source of basic seed met

Assessment of SPMC seed demand met

Linkage the SPMC with seed suppliers

met

Facilitate contractual marketing met

Facilitate experience sharing

Conducted experience sharing

met

Main achievements

• 7 management committee members were trained on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• 22 management committee members were participating in experiences sharing within the region SPMC (Goshiye) and outside the region SPMC (Alaba Woreda)

• Woreda seed core group has been organized and functioning • Training manual was prepared and distributed to the cooperative • 78 quintals of bread wheat basic seed were secured • 52.5 hectares of land were covered for certified seed production • 750 quintals of certified bread wheat seed were produced




Goshiye Partnership enhancement

Partnership enhancement Identification of additional partners

met



Capacity development Cooperative organization and management





Identification source of basic seed

met

Assessment of SPMC seed demand

met


met

Facilitate contractual marketing

met



met

Main achievements • Woreda seed core group has been established and functioned • Training was provided to 7 executive committee and controlling members and seed quality committee member

on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• Training manual was prepared and provided to the cooperative • 20 cooperative members shared experience with in the region and outside the region • 87 quintals Kuncho tef basic seed were secured • 50 quintals of mart barely basic seed were secured • 290 hectares and 40 hectares of land covered with tef and malt barely respectively • 2,000 quintals and 100 quintals of tef and malt barely seed haven produced respectively • 10 management committee members shared experiences with in the region SPMCs and out of the region (Tigray

and SNNSR)




Woken Partnership enhancement


met

Facilitate discussion forums

met


Capacity development Leadership and planning






met


met


met


met



met

Main achievements

• Training was provided to 7 management committee members on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• Training manual was prepared and provided to the cooperative • 53 quintals and 50 quintals of bread wheat and potato seed were secured respectively • 8 management committee members were participating in experiences sharing within the region (Goshiye SPMC)

and out of the region (Alaba Woreda SNNR SPMC) • 53 quintals and 50 quintals of wheat and potato basic seed were secured respectively • 30 hectares and 3 hectares of land were covered respectively in this year • 800 quintals and 100 quintals of certified seed have been produced




Gusha Partnership enhancement


met







Entrepreneurship






met


met


met


met



met

Main achievements

• 7 executive and control committee members were trained on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• Woreda seed group has been established and functioning • Training manual was prepared and distributed to the cooperative • 22 management committee members were participating on experiences sharing within the region SPMC

(Goshiye) and outside of the region Alaba SPMC • 56 quintals of bread wheat basic seed were secured • 15 hectares of land was covered with bread wheat certified seed production • 480 quintals of certified bread wheat have been produced


• 22 cooperative members were participating in experiences sharing with in the region SPMC (Goshiye) and outside the region SPMC (Alba)



Kudme Partnership enhancement


met








Identification source of basic seed met

Assessment of SPMC seed demand met


met



Conducted experience sharing met

Main achievements

• 7 management committee members were trained on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• Training manual was prepared and distributed top the cooperative • Woreda seed core group has been organized and functioning • 8 management committee members were participating in experiences sharing within the region SPMC (Goshiye)

and outside the region SPMC (Alaba Woreda) • 88 quintals of bread wheat basic seed were secured • 50 hectares of land were covered for certified seed production • 575 quintals of certified bread wheat seed were produced


Topic Action Activity Status (met, in


progress, unmet)

Beteyohanse Partnership enhancement


met







Entrepreneurship






met


met


met



Conducted experience sharing met

Main achievements

• Woreda seed group has been established and functioned • 7 executive and control committee members were trained on financial management, entrepreneurship,

leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management • Training manual was prepared and distributed top the cooperative • 8 management committee members were participating on experiences sharing within the region SPMC (Goshiye)

and outside of the region Alaba SPMC • 260 quintals of potato basic seed were secured • 13 hectares of land was covered with bread wheat certified seed production • 1,000 quintals of certified bread wheat have been produced • 8 cooperative members were participating in experiences sharing with in the region SPMC (Goshiye) and outside

the region SPMC (Alba)




Zabatsiyone Partnership enhancement


met

Facilitate discussion forums

met






Entrepreneurship






met


met


met


met



met

Main achievements

• 7 executive and control committee members were trained on entrepreneurship and leadership and business plan preparation

• Training manual was prepared and distributed top the cooperative financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and planning and cooperative organization and management

• Woreda seed group has been established and functioning • 8 management committee members were participating on experiences sharing within the region SPMC9Goshiye)

and outside of the region Alaba SPMC • 5 quintals of bread wheat basic seed were secured • 15 hectares of land was covered with bread wheat certified seed production


• 300 quintals of certified bread wheat have been produced • 8 cooperative members were participating in experiences sharing with in the region SPMC (Goshiye) and outside

the region SPMC (Alba)



Chankie Partnership enhancement


met









met


met


met


met



met

Main achievements

• Woreda seed core group has been organized and functioned • 7 management committee members were trained on financial management, entrepreneurship, leadership and

planning and cooperative organization and management • Training manual was prepared and distributed top the cooperative • 8 management committee members were participating in experiences sharing within the region SPMC (Goshiye)

and outside the region SPMC (Alaba Woreda) • 5 quintals of bread wheat basic seed were secured • 17 hectares of land were covered for certified seed production • 340 quintals of certified bread wheat seed were produced


Annex 2. Basic information on LSB scaling up partners

Name of partner organization: Gondar University

Interest of ISSD programme in partnership:

- Good experience in seed production and LSBs achievements - Sense of reducing the gap of informal and formal seed systems - Opportunity to build a sustainably experienced LSB - Influential partner; opportunity for policy influence

Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in community service projects - High seed demand in the area - Food deficiency and low productivity - Lack of coordination or working in partnership

Names and type of farmer groups: Abay, licensed SPC Daber Nigat, licensed

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Daniel Tadesse Other members: Zenebe G/Medihen

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo - Dashen Brewery

Partner’s contribution to LSB scaling up:

- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary - Fuel - Money - Vehicle

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with Dashen Brewery for marketing - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development

Use of ISSD 25% co-funding contribution:

- Organization of training in seed production, cooperative organization and marketing for farmers, wereda experts, cooperative boards and DAs

- Consultation workshop - Experience sharing

Support from ISSD team: - Support on producing proposals - Preparation of MOUs - Facilitation in the transfer of money - Cluster workshop and experience sharing - Coaching and monitoring in relation to marketing


Name of partner organization: Gondar Agricultural Research Center



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in seed production - High seed demand in the area - High demand of cash crops by exporters - Lack of coordination or working in partnership - Interested in LSB model

Names and type of farmer groups: Takusa , informal group Metema , informal group

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Teferi Alem

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo


- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary - Fuel - Vehicle

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Cooperative setup - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Local level partnership development



- Consultation workshop - Experience sharing - Partnership meeting



Name of partner organization: Sirinka Agricultural research Center



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in seed production and FRG - High seed demand in the area - Food insecure area - Lack of division of roles

Names and type of farmer groups: Abouar: informal group Sirinka, informal group Warkaye: informal group

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Daniel Lemlem




Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with WoA and union for marketing - Facilitate Seed inspections - Local level partnership development




Support from ISSD team: - Support on producing proposals - Preparation of MOUs - Facilitation in the transfer of money - Cluster workshop and experience sharing - Coaching and monitoring in relation to marketing - Preparation of scale up modality

Name of partner organization: Wollo University



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in community service projects - High seed demand in the area


- Food deficiency and low productivity of the area - Lack of coordination or working in partnership - Availability of professionals

Names and type of farmer groups: Beke , informal SPC Gerado , informal group

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Mikiyas Wondimu Other members: Dr. Asnake Dr. Kebede



- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary - Fuel - Vehicle - Exemption of courses

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development





Name of partner organization: Debre Berhan University



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in community service projects - High seed demand in the area - Potential to produce cereal and pulse crops - Lack of coordination or working in partnership - Interested in the LSb model - Interested in division of roles and responsibilities

Names and type of farmer groups: Weyra Amba, informal <<wele >>, licensed spc

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Gebre Other members: Kidane


Additional partners: - WoA - WCo - Zonal agriculture and cooperative office


- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary - Fuel - Vehicle and motorcycle - Course exemption for focal persons

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with agriculture offices - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development




Support from ISSD team: - Support on producing proposals - Preparation of MOUs - Facilitation in the transfer of money - Cluster workshop and experience sharing - Preparation of LSB modality - Coaching and monitoring in relation to marketing

Name of partner organization: Debre Berhan Agricultural Research Center



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in seed production - High seed demand in the area - Interested in the ISSD approach - Need of working in partnership

Names and type of farmer groups: wele deneba, informal Mangudo, informal Mush, licensed spc

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Zerihun

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo - Zonal agriculture and cooperative office


- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary


- Fuel - Vehicle

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with agriculture offices - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development





Name of partner organization: Debre Markos University



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in community service projects - High seed demand in the area - High potential for seed production - Experience of farmers in seed production

Names and type of farmer groups: Guaay, informal Yetnora, informal group

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Workneh Fisseha Other members: Habtamu Ayalew

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo - Zone agriculture office - Zone cooperative office



Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production, cooperative organization and marketing - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development



- Consultation workshop


- Experience sharing Support from ISSD team: - Support on producing proposals

- Preparation of MOUs - Facilitation in the transfer of money - Cluster workshop and experience sharing - Coaching and monitoring in relation to marketing

Name of partner organization:

Jabi Cooperative office



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in organizing cooperatives that produce seed - High seed demand in the area - Potential of the area tom produce seed - Interested in the LSB approach

Names and type of farmer groups: Genet Tshay, licenced SPC ediget fana, licenced SPC Addis Berhan , licensed SPC

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Alene Other members:

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo -Werda administrative and promotion office



Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with office of agriculture for marketing - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development






Name of partner organization: Burie Agricultural office



Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in seed production - High potential for seed production - High seed demand in the area - Interested in division of roles and responsibilities

Names and type of farmer groups: Metadel Wedefit, licensed SPC Enalma , licensed SPC Endeg, licensed SPC

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Andualem Other members

Additional partners: - WoA - WCo - FC


- Staff days (salary) - Office space - Communication - Stationary - Fuel and lubricants - Vehicle

Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Linkage of SPC with ASE - Facilitate Seed inspections - Partnership development





Name of partner organization: BDU-College of Agriculture and environmental science


- Good experience in seed production and LSBs achievements - Sense of reducing the gap of informal and formal seed systems


- Opportunity to build a sustainably experienced LSB - Influential partner; opportunity for policy influence

Interest of partner in LSB scaling up: - Good experience in community service projects - High seed demand in the area

Names and type of farmer groups: Adet Hana , informal Adis Alem, Licensed

Partner’s team members: Focal person: Dr Mirkuz Abera Other members: Fantahun, yemane, Demeke Mewa




Partner’s activities: - Training in seed production - Organization of field days - Facilitate access to basic seed - Base line survey - Partnership development






Annex 3. Supporting private seed producers – key activities and achievements


Seed producer Activity Status (met, in progress, unmet)

Yimam Tesema produce maize (BH-540 ) variety , 45 ha Met produce rice, Areka variety in 15 hectare area Unmet produce sesame, in 10 hectare area Unmet prepare business plan Met Provide training with the partners Met Purchase of fumigation sheet in progress

Main achievements

Produced maize BH-540 variety in 45 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops production , seed marketing and entrepreneurship had been given for two expertise


Molla Bishaew Production of wheat, Kekeba variety in 114 hectare Unmet prepare business plan Met purchase of wheat crusher in progress provide training Met

main achievements

business plan had been prepared training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for one expert purchase of wheat crusher is on progress

Seed producer Activity status (met, in progress, unmet)

Bayhe Mekonen Produce maize in 100 hectare Unmet Produce red pepper in 50 hectare Unmet Produce cotton in 40 hectare Unmet prepare business plan Met Provide training with the partners Met

Main achievements

Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given


Merkeb union Produce maize, in 200 hectare area partially met Produce Wheat in 100 hectare area Unmet prepare business plan Met Provide training with the partners Met

Main achievements


Produced maize BH-540 variety in 84 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for one expert


Freeland Produce wheat, in 20 hectare area partially met prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met Purchase of water pump, geomembrane ,

sprayer and others in progress

Main achievements

Produced wheat, pica flour variety in 2.5 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for two expertise


Loma and zemera Produce wheat, in 30 hectare area Unmet Produce wheat in 70 hectare area Unmet prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met

Main achievements

Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for one expert


Ayehu Zengene Produce maize, in 145 hectare area almost met prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met

Main achievements

Produced maize , BH-540 variety in 100 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for two expertise


Ethio-agriceft Produce wheat in 160 hectare area Met prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met

Main achievements

Produced wheat , HR-1685 and pavon variety in 160 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for two expertise


Avalo International Produce teff in 14 hectare area Met Produce red pepper in 1 hectare area Met prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met


Main achievements

Produced teff kuncho variety in 9 hectare area and Etsub variety in 5 hectare area Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for two expertise


Jema prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met Purchase water pump and other irrigation

materials In process

Main achievements

Purchase of irrigation materials is in the process Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for one expert


Nile improved seed prepare business plan Met Provide training with partners Met

Main achievements

Business plan had been prepared Training in major seed crops and seed marketing had been given for two expertise


Annex 4. Partnerships and innovation – key activities and achievements



Title project: Amendment of specific guide lines and bylaws to improve SPMC performance

Leading partner: Cooperative Promotion Agency (CPA) Other partners: NGOs (ORDA, FHE) and SPMC Location: Region Start of the project (month, year)

April, 2012

Objectives: • To pinpoint key issues to reconsider and amend the current SPMCs organizational guideline, specific laws and bylaws.

• To identify particular bylaws required for SPMCs for sustainable local seed production and marketing

• To propose some improvement measures that may induce active participation and sense of ownership of beneficiaries

Description of activities: The planned activities accomplished were :- • Review literature of experiences in the region, country and beyond • Conduct formal survey on assessment and identification of related problems in regional ISSDII

project areas through discussion with SPMCs • Review on laws, bylaws and guide lines of the region • Amend the specific seed multiplication and marketing cooperative laws, bylaws and guide lines

towards intended objectives • Organize discussion forum with regional stakeholders on assessment result and identified

problems of SPMC • Organize discussion forum with ISSDII project woreda cooperative promotion office experts on

amended laws, bylaws and guidelines • Possible amendments agreed upon submitted to concerned regional office for approval.

Moreover, the planned activities which did not take place were o Organize experience sharing tour to other regions on SPMCs bylaws and

guidelines o Organize training for cooperative experts in selected ISSDII project woredas on

amended bylaws and guide lines after approval Main achievements: • The SPMC bylaw and guide line amended. The startup number of members amended

from 120 to 40. • One day workshop organized to communicate the assessment result with regional

stakeholders • Organized two days workshop for ISSDII project woreda cooperative promotion

experts on amended bylaw and guide line to create awareness • The amended document endorsed by the regional decision makers and circulated in

the region for implementation . Hence, the project result in system change in the seed sector.

Budget through ISSD: 50,029.00 Birr Co-funding contributions: CPA contributed co-funding both in cash and in kind.


Title project: Study on the establishment of regional independent seed regulatory body

Leading partner: Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) Other partners: ARARI, Regional seed laboratories ,Bahir Dar university, seed growers (farmer cooperative,

public and private seed producers) Location: Regional level Start of the project (month, year)

April, 2012

Objectives: • To assess and document the existing regional and national experiences in relation to seed regulatory system

• To propose the structure, responsibilities and accountability of well functioning regional seed quality regulatory system

Description of activities: Planned activities accomplished were( Takes place) • Organized and established a team of experts • Review of the experience of other countries like Zambia and Kenya • Organized experience sharing tour to MoA, ESE, ATA, Oromiya region to develop the

document • Review the regional experiences on the strengths and weaknesses of the system • Conduct field level assessments on seed quality to get direct information from users and

stakeholders • A draft document prepared • Organized one workshop to communicate the results to enrich the document for

stakeholders. Moreover, Planned activities did not takes place or in progress were

o Contracting a consultant to guide the team o Organize different workshops to communicate the results to enrich the

document o Submission of the final document accepted by all seed actors to the concerned

regional body for possible approval and proclamation Main achievements: • Regional seed system assessment conducted

• A draft document prepared and submitted for selective reviewers for comment • One workshop organized to communicate the result to comment and enrich the draft

document for regional stakeholders (BoA management team, experts, public and private seed growers, ARARI, Bahir Dar university)

• Consultative discussion conducted individually with BoA management team to reach in consensus on the regulatory body

• BoA committed to establish the seed quality regulatory body Budget through ISSD: 170,825 Birr Co-funding contributions: Co-funding contribution has been organized both in cash and in kind. BoA allocated cash for fuel

as well as in kind to carry out seed system assessment.


Title project: Seed quality assessment of different crops in Amhara Region during 2012 cropping season

Leading partner: Bureau of Agriculture (BoA)

Other partners: ARARI, Bahir Dar University, regional seed laboratories and seed producers (cooperatives,

private seed producers and companies and public seed enterprises)

Location: Region Start of the project (month, year)

April, 2012

Objectives: • To assess the aspects and magnitudes of seed quality problems across the seed chain • To allow all actors in the seed sector to recognize the problems, their causes and seek

intervention strategies in enhancing the production and distribution of high seed quality Description of activities: • Assessment of storage structures and conditions multipurpose cooperative

• Collect seed samples at distribution center (close to distribution) in multipurpose cooperative store and other stores

• Conduct laboratory test to approve seed quality • Analysis of laboratory data and present to decision makers to avoid distribution of poor

quality seed • Assess the field status during emergence, flowering and maturity stages • Conduct experience sharing through organizing different workshops

Main achievements: • Two days workshop was organized for 20 seed inspectors and laboratory technicians in order to familiarize how the project activities to be done and to have common understanding

• Selected major crops certified seed sample such as hybrid maize, wheat and teff were collected before distribution from 15, 3 and 1 multipurpose cooperatives store respectively and tested in laboratory for their physical quality (germination, purity, moisture and physical health). Thus, 70.9qt certified hybrid maize seed was rejected from distribution

• Field assessment were done to check and triangulate the laboratory result and to assess the growing status of farmers’ field.

• Field assessment result indicated population reduction ranges from 35%-98% and on average most of the maize field plant population found less than 50%. Hence, the project result in system change in the seed sector to ensure seed quality.

Budget through ISSD: 188,331.00 Birr Co-funding contributions: BoA has contributed co-funding both in cash and in kind. BoA allocates co-funding in cash for

fuel and maintenance as well as in kind for project accomplishment.


Title project: Early generation seed multiplication

Leading partner: ARARI Other partners: Research centers, seed growers (farmers, public and private), BDU Location: North shewa, North Wollow, North Gondar and West Gojam zones (Debre Brhan, Srinka,

Gonder and Adet ARC) Start of the project (month, year)

May, 2012

Objectives: • To maintain and multiply the breeder and pre-basic seeds of released crop varieties • To provide quality and sufficient amount of starting seeds of crop varieties to different

stakeholders and farmers seed producer cooperatives • To develop system for access of quality pre-basic and basic seed to the seed growers

Description of activities: • Maintain the identity of breeder seed • Multiply different classes of seed both on farm and on station • Follow up the performance •

Main achievements: • 41.03ha early generation (both breeder, pre basic and basic ) seeds of different released varieties maintained and multiplied

• System thinking developed • The quality and quantity of early generation seed supply improved

Budget through ISSD: 474,957.75 Birr

Co-funding contributions: Co-funding contribution have been organized both in cash and in kind. The research centers allocate cash for fuel to accomplish the seed multiplication and the rest contributed in kind.


Annex 5. Knowledge sharing


ISSD newsletter and other publications

Activities:

• Publication and distribution of regional biannual magazine no.1 at midyear (Amharic) • No 2 of the regional biannual magazine published with double content (Amharic &

English) • Flyer about ISSD program in the region published and distributed (English) • Calendar (table) published and distributed with ISSD photos and key statements about

ISSD program (English) • MSc thesis abstracts documented and made available on KSCD Ethiopia dropbox

folder Outputs: • ISSD Program objectives and mission communicated to target audiences (to all

regional partners, scale up partners, SPMCs, NGos, Private companies etc) • ISSD regional program activities, achievements, and advances shared to key

stakeholders • ISSD program promoted • Research results shared among ISSD staff

Planning versus progress: • Since the regional KSCD position was vacant for some months in between, publishing number 2 of the regional magazine was started late and hence budget was not used before 31/12/12. But it does not need budget line change for 2013

Photo & video sharing and documentation

Activities: • All events (trainings, meetings, workshops, seminars, experience sharings etc) have been documented in photos, text and when necessary in video

• Training videos have been prepared in CDs for sharing Outputs: • Lesson learnt in each activity have been documented Planning versus progress:

Sharing through websites

Activities: • The regional unit page on www.issdethiopia.com has been published with basic information about the regional unit’s activities and components.

• Introducing the ISSD website and the regional pages to key stakeholders Outputs: • Relevant information about ISSD Amhara and its activities and components are shared

for international audiences. • Links of the ISSD website have been communicated to stakeholders

Planning versus progress: • met

Social media

Activities: • A regional facebook page has been created


http://www.issdethiopia.com/

• A regional blog has been created • Both pages have been updated with the latest information and news about ISSD

Amhara program and its activities, achievements Outputs: • A digital communication platform has been created and experiences and

achievements have been shared to different stakeholders (most facebook fans are those connected to agriculture sector).


Sharing ISSD activities / achievements through local media

Activities: • Amhara Radio (regional radio and TV) has made programs on selected LSBs • Amhara Radio has transmitted programs about ISSD programs and activities in

Ethiopia and Amhara region Outputs: • ISSD objectives, activities and achievements have been shared among the general

audience in the region • Best experiences of LSBs have been shared.

Planning versus progress: Partly met

Exchange/twinning LSBs and seed entrepreneurs

Activities: • A regional experience sharing has been made to Goshiye SPMC which has shown strong performance and achievements

• Representatives from all SPMCs, representatives from key partners participated • Audio, photo and video documentation has been made and shared

Outputs: • The experience and achievements of the SPMC has been shared by key stakeholders and similar farmers groups.

• A document was prepared about the experience and shared to all regional partners through dropbox


Regional workshops, seminars, share-fairs

Activities: • Support on planning, organizing and facilitating workshops, seminars, trainings for and with other innovators

• Facilitating during workshops, seminars, trainings for the proper communication to take place

Outputs: • Proper communication to meet targeted objectives • Taking lessons for future planning

Planning versus progress: met


Traveling seminars (regional and local)

Activities: • An experience sharing travel has been made to SNNPR and Oromia regions • Innovators participated • Genesis farm, Private farm, SPM union, SPMC were visited

Outputs: • Local level seed packing and marking lessons were learnt that could be practiced in our region

• An entrepreneurial and mixed business type development by private seed companies lesson was also learnt that can be practiced in our region

• Other important lessons have been also taken Planning versus progress: Partly met

Internal (ISSD) sharing and communication

Activities: • ISSD Amhara dropbox account has been created and shared among all internal staff • Group mail has been created and used • Outputs and advances published are shared on ISSD Ethiopia dropbox and KSDI

Ethiopia for other KSDIs • Email communication among KSCDIs whenever something is shared on the dropbox • Email communication for other resource sharing

Outputs: • Internal file sharing is carried out using dropbox shared folders • Other links and immediate messages have been communicated through the regional

group mail • Lessons, experiences and templates have been shared among KSDI



Annex 6. BSc studies of Development Agents in Amhara

University Name DA Origin (to which LSB related) Area of study

Bahir Dar University Zig-yalew Gashaw Beteyohanes SPMC Plant science

Bahir Dar University Mulugata Degsew Mar-woled SPMC Plant science

Bahir Dar University W/t Seyida Dawud

Zewudie

Woken SPMC Rural Development

Bahir Dar University Amare Gebeyehu Birhanu Kudimi SPMC Plant science

Bahir Dar University Yaregal Muchiye Goshiye SPMC Plant science

Bahir Dar University Enkanhone Amogne

Bayinesagn

Zaba-tsion SPMC Plant science

Bahir Dar University Mihiret Geday Abay Chankie SPMC Rural Development

Bahir Dar University Adugnaw Tiruneh Gusha Shinikurita SPMC Plant science


Documents

ISSD -ETHIOPIA PROGRAMME 2012 ANNUAL REPORT · Ethiopian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Provision of quality and sufficient amount of ... Ethiopian agriculture requires