Improving small scale farmers’ especially women access to quality seeds through using the community managed seed security model

The project was implemented in April 2016 and targeted small scale farmers especially women in Gulu district with ten farmer groups with a membership of about 3250 farmers in 4 sub-counties. The project objectives were to: (1) provide a practical, harmonized and systematic approach for promoting community-led seed security among small scale farming communities, (2) generate experiences for strengthening the informal seed sector that can provide good quality seed of required characteristic for small scale farmers in Uganda, and (3) provide for an alternative source of income for the small scale farmers through the sale of surplus good quality declared seeds. The community seed security model looked at a practical, harmonised and systematic approach for promoting community-led seed security for small scale farmers as well as consolidating the technical capacity of small-scale farmers in reproduction saving and distributing good quality seed for improved food security. Key outcomes include the following: strengthened solidarity around protection and promotion of farmer-managed seed systems in the region; increased household seed security, increased farmers’ incomes as the sale of seeds have provided an alternative source of income for the small-scale farmers and increased political support for farmer-managed seed systems.