Planning for Scale Brief #3: Integrated Seed Systems

Scaling the adoption of improved varieties and quality seed among smallholder farmers must include both formal and informal seed systems. While the more formal channels of a seed system remain central to scaling, evidence shows that smallholder farmers source the majority of their seed from the informal system; they plant, exchange, and sell a wide range of varieties that fall outside the production and distribution functions of the formal sector. Strategies for scaling seed systems, then, require an integrated approach.Integrated seed systems imply coordinated actions between the formal and informal seed sectors. This brief outlines the salient characteristics of each system and discusses their integration.