Seed farmers are the back born of agriculture sector, growth and development. It was reported that 90% of the seed farmers and their households are living on less than $ 1 USD per day. The majority are women. Women contribute greatly to food production, processing, packaging and marketing and their contribution are growing and remain under-estimated and under-recognized (source women Agriculture and Food Production report 2018, FAO).
Seed farmers have little security or opportunity for training advancement and empowerment. Seed farmers are unable to move beyond small-scale seed production farming enterprise due to the extremely limited financial resources at their disposal (source seed farmers’ production report 2018).
Seed farmers remain among the most disadvantaged marginalized and lack vulnerable group. Unskillful men and lack of implements among the seeds farmers has become a felt need, national and international embarrassment. The seed farmers association operating in the Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Lofa, and Nimba counties reported a case to the head quarter of Sustainable Youth Capacity and Agriculture Development Initiatives for redress and durable solution in response to their request. Team of Development practitioners was organized to conduct a need assessment survey (NAS) on October 15, 2019 and the survey therefore revealed that inadequate seed production, processing, packaging, distribution and supply chain are the main barriers that currently prevent seed farmers to increase production, productivity and profitability.
During the survey, quantitative method such as close ended interview and qualitative method focus group discussion were used to measure the gap and subsequently.
Comments