Seed Trade in Rural Markets: Implications for Crop Diversity and Agricultural Development

Markets have been found to be an increasingly important source of the seeds of crops and varieties low income farmers need to improve their livelihoods, encompassing both the formal and informal seed sector. Markets also have major impacts on agricultural biodiversity, by affecting farmers' choice of crops and varieties to grow. They are not, however, a homogenous institution, although all too frequently policies and regulations are developed as though they were. Markets vary considerably depending on the participants, on the institutions that govern how and what they exchange, and on local agricultural, economic and social conditions. Developing effective strategies to improve the way agricultural markets work, including how farmers use crop genetic resources, requires understanding of these variations.

Seed Trade in Rural Markets presents a unique set of case studies from Bolivia, India, Kenya, Mali and Mexico on agricultural seed and product markets that describe three important market characteristics expected to affect farmers' access to seeds and varieties: the range of varieties on offer, the information provided about them, and relative prices. The case studies - all based around a common framework to aid comparability - also provide information on social, agricultural and economic factors which may be affecting the market availability, information, and cost of crop genetic resources, and ultimately the capacity to stimulate agricultural development

Published with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations

Leslie Lipper is A Senior Environmental Economist at FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.) Over the past 8 years she has lead an economic research program on the analysis of seed systems and their impact on access, use and conservation of crop genetic diversity.

Leigh Anderson is a Professor in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle. She teaches economics, statistics, and courses in international development, and works on decision making and institutions with a focus on poor populations.

Timothy J. Dalton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. His research focuses on the interface between agriculture and the environment.