If you work in agriculture or humanitarian aid, you know the drill – when a crisis hits, we rush to provide seeds to farmers. While well-intended, repeatedly handing out free seeds is not a sustainable solution. In fact, this approach can weaken local seed businesses and foster dependency. What if we took a different approach? What if, instead of bypassing markets, we worked through them?

We explored this question during a session at the CSP-Nigeria & ISSD Africa-led Conference held on February 17-18 in Abuja, Nigeria. Seed system experts, policymakers, and business leaders gathered to discuss a crucial issue: Can market-based approaches make seed systems more resilient during crises? What practical lessons can we learn from Nigeria?

The Challenge: Seed Insecurity in Nigeria

Despite progress in the seed sector, seed insecurity remains a pressing issue for Nigerian farming communities, particularly in crisis-affected regions. Nigerian and international organizations frequently provide seed aid to improve seed availability, support communities’ recovery, and ensure farmers can access the crop varieties they need. However, as many participants in the workshop noted, direct seed distribution (DSD, giving out free seeds) does not build long-term resilience. Participants expressed an appetite for market-based programming as a practical alternative to traditional seed aid that could strengthen the seed system over the long-term.

How Can Market-Based Approaches Work in Emergency Seed Systems?

Instead of replacing local market actors, market-based approaches work through and support them, strengthening the seed system rather than bypassing it. During the workshop session, we explored a range of market-based approaches including:

  • Using markets: Farmers receive vouchers or smart subsidies to buy seeds from local agro-dealers or other suppliers. This provides farmers timely access to quality seeds while ensuring seed businesses remain active and sustainable.
  • Supporting markets: Crises impact not only farmers, but also seed suppliers, seed laboratories and government extension service providers. Supporting these businesses—such as through infrastructure rebuilding or financial assistance—helps maintain the seed system’s functionality during and after crises
  • Changing market systems: Strengthening the overall seed system involves more than just seed production and marketing. It requires improving early-generation seed (EGS) production and supply, creating sustainable links between seed multipliers and farmers, and enhancing regulatory and quality control systems. Financial institutions, transport providers, and mechanization service all play critical roles in making the seed market system more resilient in fragile contexts.

Insights from Nigeria: Market-based approaches in emergency seed interventions

The session’s expert panel and subsequent group activity highlighted experiences and lessons learned implementing market-based seed interventions from a range of perspectives – government, research and academia, private seed companies, humanitarian organizations/NGOs, and community-based seed producers (CBSP).  These discussions demonstrated how market-based approaches can work even in emergencies, through interventions such as seed fairs, voucher-based seed responses, support to CBSPs, and insurance schemes for seed multipliers.

For example, many private companies like Premier Seed engage in both institutional markets (selling to aid organizations for DSD) and direct sales to farmers through vouchers, subsidies and seed fairs. As Premier Seed’s Afolabi Samson noted, “Institutional markets are a great opportunity, but we also want to build direct relationships with farmers to keep our business growing.” When institutions buy and distribute seeds, the original branding is often removed. This makes it harder for farmers to know whose seed they receive and where to find quality seed in the future, affecting both traceability and long-term market linkages.

Additionally, some farmers sell voucher-provided seeds instead of planting them (“round tripping”), highlighting the need for better targeting and engagement with private suppliers. Another challenge is low uptake in cost-sharing schemes. One participant noted that when seeds are completely free, Nigerian farmers collect them at a 100% rate. However, when farmers are asked to contribute even a small percentage, uptake drops significantly – sometimes as low as 25%. This underscores the importance of integrating financial solutions and awareness-raising alongside market-based interventions.

Promising examples included an AGRA-supported initiative that is helping private companies like Premier Seed improve access to EGS. Instead of handing out free seeds, this effort is investing in strengthening the supply chain, helping businesses grow while ensuring farmers have a steady source of quality seed. Government agencies (including NASC, research institutions, etc.), NGOs, and other humanitarian partners are also playing a role in strengthening market-based seed systems in Nigeria, including through ensuring seed quality and supply of EGS. Other activities included promoting CBSPs and out grower schemes to better link farmers with private seed companies, developing insurance schemes to protect seed multipliers from shocks, and supporting research institutions to connect with CBSPs to introduce climate-smart seed varieties.

But a big question remains: How do we scale up these small but effective efforts? Key recommendations from the workshop attendees included:

  1. Developing national seed aid guidelines that promote market-based approaches.
  2. Scaling up community-based seed production system by fostering stronger partnerships with private seed companies. Participants noted this is pivotal during crises, as CBSPs can better reach farmers in remote areas as they understand the local context and can navigate the complexities of fragility.
  3. Strengthening collaboration among key market players including government agencies, NGOS and the private sector.

What do these insights mean for ISSD Africa Action Learning Project 3?

These experiences from Nigeria align with ISSD Africa’s Action Learning Project 3 (ALP3) which focuses on seed business development in fragile contexts (read more here). Conference discussions highlighted the interdependence of seed market systems (formal, informal and intermediary) and the various actors within them, including farmers, seed producers, producers, multipliers, traders and agrodealers. They also underscored the pivotal role of market functions such as transportation, information service, financial services, storage and infrastructure and rules (social norms, seed trade protocol, seed regulations and standards).

The insights and connections from this workshop have shaped ALP 3’s strategic direction by providing concrete examples of how market-based approaches can be effectively integrated into seed aid. These learnings will inform our ongoing desk reviews, case studies, and the development of tools and resources, ensuring that our interventions are grounded in practical, field-tested solutions. The discussions reinforced the importance of linking local seed systems with financial services, strengthening supply chain resilience, and fostering collaboration between public and private stakeholders. Moving forward, these insights will guide the design of scalable and context-specific strategies that enhance the sustainability and impact of seed aid programs in fragile contexts worldwide.

Links to resources for further reading

Authors

Geoffrey Otim, Meseret Getahun, Kristin Lambert – Mercy Corps