UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:	United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Country:	United States of America

Name of Focal Point:	Faculty of Development Studies, Bunda College of Agriculture, Lilongwe

Initiative Title:	Small holder common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seed production, Malawi

Internet links:	http://ftp://ftp.fao.org/SD/SDA/SDAR/sard/GLO_bean_production_Malawi.pdf http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/beans/index.htm

Scope:	Regional: - Africa

Status:	Completed

Timeframe:	Start: 2004 End: 2004

Stakeholders/Partners:	Research Institution: CRSP at Faculty of Development Studies, Bunda College of Agriculture, Lilongwe, Malawi Government Institution: Seed Inspection Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture NGOs: Total Land Care, Concern Universal, Action Aid

Relevent issues:	- Food security and sustainable agriculture - Enhancing agricultural productivity through adequate and sustainable inputs - Community-based and indigenous approaches to food production - Diversifying agricultural production systems

Objectives/Challenges:

CRSP’s program aimed at making seeds of improved bean varieties more readily available to smallholder farmers. This was achieved by involving them in seed multiplication. The program targeted low income farmers who operate in very small land holdings. The size of their land holdings is usually less than 1 hectare and the land is under customary land tenure system, i.e. under the custodianship of traditional chiefs. The Seed Multiplication
Component of the Bean/Cowpea CRSP decided to collaborate with several NGOs and in some cases directly with smallholder farmers to engage in seed multiplication and dissemination. The NGOs involved include Total Land Care, Concern Universal and Action Aid.

Lessons Learned:

Impacts on livelihood of the practice users - Actual: Seventeen farmers around Bunda College of Agriculture received a total of 352 Kg of seeds and harvested 3607 Kg, increasing the amount
tenfold. Farmers did not sell the entire crop harvested, but kept some for food and for seed source, only 60% of the entire crop was sold (2184 Kg) for a total of 12,000 Malawi Kwacha (MK).
General success factors - Malawi has been experiencing frequent droughts which have tended to affect maize (the main staple) more seriously than legumes. Early maturing varieties such as kalima and nasaka tend to escape such droughts.
Problems remaining to be resolved - The major problem requiring further consideration is marketing. The smallholder seed producers involved are very resource poor farmers who would like to sell their seed immediately after they have harvested their
crop but are unable to. In most cases, farmers have to wait for 4 to 6 months after harvest before buyers come to buy the seed. The farmers cannot wait that long and end up selling the seed to vendors at very low prices.
Other problems that the farmers experienced are:
• Due to a shortage of seed, some farmers did not receive seed after preparing their gardens and this was perceived as a great
inconvenience,
• The seed was received very late. It was distributed in December
while beans are normally planted in November in that area,
• Some plants were drying and they thought they were being attacked by underground pests but they never found the insect or pest attacking the plants,
• Due to the late planting, the seed was affected by a dry spell,
• Lack of irrigation equipment such as treadle pumps.

Policy Options:

An amount of two seed varieties, kalima and nasaka, were sold to NGOs who distributed the seed to smallholder seed producers in packs of 5 Kgs in their areas of jurisdiction. Some seed was sold directly to smallholder seed producers around Bunda College of Agriculture. Seed producers who registered for the first time were trained in seed production techniques, with the aim of building their capacity on how to meet all sanitary and inspection
requirements. When they had produced the seed, they were encouraged to keep enough to grow a commercial crop and sell the rest to other farmers. Some of the NGOs like Total Land Care actually bought back the seed and distributed it to other farmers who grew it as a commercial crop. The program helped low resource farmers access improved seed varieties with superior traits compared to local varieties, and provided an additional source of income. Most of the farmers that have been involved in the
program are very interested to continue with it, however they suggested some changes to aspects of the seed multiplication program: 1) seed should be distributed as early as October so that they are able to plan how much land to reserve for the seed multiplication program, 2) seed of several varieties should be distributed so that the farmers are able to compare their performance.

Summary:

In Malawi there are no formal systems for production and dissemination of bean seeds. Private seed companies do not find grain legume seed production profitable enough to engage in its marketing since farmers can recycle their seed for several years without experiencing major decline of seed quality. This creates an unreliable market for the private seed companies and as a result they have not engaged in legume seed production. However grain legumes such as beans are important food crops which make a major contribution to protein intake and are also good sources
of cash income. Therefore it is important that research to improve seed varieties is carried out and dissemination systems implemented to supply them to small holders.
Two bean research programs take place in Malawi including the Bean
Improvement Program (BIP) by the International Centre for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT) and Bean Cowpea Collaborative Research Support
Program (CRSP) funded by USAID which works with researchers from the University of Malawi, Faculty of Development Studies, Bunda College of Agriculture. These research programs have developed a number of varieties (17 varieties) but most of these varieties have not been widely disseminated among farmers.
CRSP’s program aimed at making seeds of improved bean varieties more readily available to smallholder farmers. This was achieved by involving them in seed multiplication. The program targeted low income farmers who operate in very small land holdings. The size of their land holdings is usually less than 1 hectare and the land is under customary land tenure system, i.e. under the custodianship of traditional chiefs. The Seed Multiplication
Component of the Bean/Cowpea CRSP decided to collaborate with several NGOs and in some cases directly with smallholder farmers to engage in seed multiplication and dissemination. The NGOs involved include Total Land Care, Concern Universal and Action Aid.