The conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region severely disrupted seed systems, destroying farmer seed stocks, weakening local markets and limiting access to quality seed. Emergency seed assistance helped prevent widespread production collapse, but repeated direct distributions—often late, externally sourced, and weakly coordinated—unintentionally undermined local seed producers, distorted markets, and reinforced reliance on humanitarian support.
In response, the Tigray Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BoANR), supported by the Ethiopia Seed Partnership (ESP) and partners, led a multi-stakeholder process to develop and endorse the Tigray Seed and Seed System Response Guideline, based on the Ten Guiding Principles for Good Seed Aid (10P), which provide practical guidance for strengthening seed security policy and programming. This process brought together government, humanitarian and development (HD) organizations, research institutions, and seed sector actors. Strong government leadership, inclusive consultations, and technical engagement enabled broad ownership across stakeholders.
The Tigray experience demonstrates that coordinated policy leadership, donor alignment, and investment in local seed systems can significantly improve the effectiveness, sustainability, and resilience of emergency seed assistance in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Produced by Mercy Corps and Stichting Wageningen Research Ethiopia in partnership with ISSD Africa, this brief documents lessons and emerging practices from Tigray’s seed system recovery efforts and explores how the guideline was developed, endorsed, and positioned to support more effective and resilient seed responses in the future.