July 24, 2018
by Mansi Naithani
“Producing certified wheat seeds instead of wheat grains for the first time by many of my fellow farmers has brought better returns, raised knowledge levels and given us confidence to become a community of quality wheat seed producers,” said Subhash Adhikari, a lea ding wheat farmer in the Chitwan district of Nepal.
Adhikari is one of 70 smallholder wheat farmers in Chitwan benefitting from the Seed System Initiative implemented by the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project in 2017-18. Farmers who plant quality wheat seeds reap greater harvests and are assured better markets for the seed.
Yam Lal Devkota has always grown wheat for grain. In 2017-18, he grew certified wheat seeds for the first time and is determined to continue growing the same with DGGW. CREDIT: M. Naithani
“Nepal employs 66 percent of its 26.5 million people in agriculture,” said Maricelis Acevedo, Cornell plant pathologist and associate director of science for the DGGW. “Progress in the seed sector is essential for improving the lives of the majority of people and for the development of the economy as a whole. Usually, farmers who grow wheat as a cereal crop do so from seeds they have saved—not from quality certified wheat seeds—a practice that is further aggravated by gaps in their knowledge about processing and technical know-how.”The Chitwan district is one of the leading zones in Nepal for the production of maize, wheat, mustard, vegetables and poultry. Farmers there, as everywhere, depend on quality seeds as a fundamental input in crop production. Seed quality and variety determines success in terms of productivity, resilience to pests, disease, and drought, and, ultimately, financial returns. But producing quality wheat seeds is a real challenge for smallholder farmers.
To address the gaps in the wheat seed value chain in Nepal, DGGW agricultural scientists partnered with the Agriculture and Forest University (AFU) of Rampur in 2016 in a five-year project to build an innovative platform to help wheat farmers develop a market-linked quality seed production system.
In the 2017-18 season, 70 wheat grain farmers sowed foundation seeds of Vijay and Goutam, two publicly released, rust-resistant wheat varieties for the Terai (Chitwan) region, on 46 hectares of land (30 Ha farmer land and 16 Ha of AFU land).
“The AFU team worked relentlessly during all phases of the wheat season to source and distribute quality foundation seeds to the farmers and provide on-farm extension training and technical support to the smallholder seed producers to help them produce quality certified wheat seeds,” said Acevedo. “AFU agronomists, entomologists, technicians and extension professionals provided extended support to the wheat seed farmers to get the harvest right.”
More than 65 metric tons of quality certified wheat seeds were produced through this community seed production model. The harvested seeds underwent quality testing and processing at the AFU’s seed lab and seed processing unit, established in early 2017 under the DGGW project.
A buy-back agreement with a local seed company was negotiated to provide assured market linkages to the wheat seed produced by the farmers. The Pithwa Beej Bridhi Company bought processed certified wheat seeds from AFU. Proceeds were the first earnings.
Subhash Adhikari is a leading wheat seed producer under the DGGW Seed System Initiative, in Chitwan, Nepal. CREDIT: M. Naithani
The Pithwa Seed Company will market and distribute these seeds for the 2018-19 season, when AFU aims to double the area under certified wheat seed production and extend the benefit of the “Seed Village Model” to many more Chitwan wheat farmers. AFU also expects to complete the construction of a facility that can store 1000 million tons of seed before the 2019 harvest.“The seed quantity produced by us and the very fact that we did not face any rejections due to quality are in itself a motivation,” said Adhikari.
“AFU and the DGGW are bridging the gap by providing timely access to quality foundation seeds for smallholder farmers,” said Acevedo. “We add management, training and on-site extension support for quality seed production; improve farmers’ knowledge levels about the availability, characteristics, and prices of improved seed varieties; provide access to processing and testing; and build forward market linkages and assured buy-back mechanisms. All of these are aspects of a robust seed production system.”
Mansi Naithani is a project management consultant with International Programs.
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