The Seed Systems Development Project is a four-year (2019-2022) project focusing on expanding the empirical evidence base for Policy and regulatory reform options for seed market development in Uganda. The project is being implemented in consortium with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Wageningen University and Research Department of Economics (WUR-DEC), Makerere University and National Agricultural Research Organisation. The project is conducting the research with grant funding from NWO-WOTRO.
The SSD project in Uganda aims to improve the functioning, integration, and inclusiveness of seed systems and markets in Uganda by strengthening links between the regulatory framework, seed providers, and seed users across multiple dimensions. It is a timely intervention designed to leverage the rapid growth in Uganda’s market opportunities for seeds, traits, and agricultural commodities while addressing the persistent market and institutional failures that limit the transmission of information between smallholder farmers and seed providers.
Ultimately, the SSD project will advance seed system development in Uganda by providing realistic, evidence-based policy options that accelerate crop-specific development, production, and marketing of new varieties and quality seeds to smallholders across the country. The project will identify factors constraining the demand for seeds and traits, and test strategies designed to relax these constraints in the field. In addition, the project will engage with strategic decision-makers to analyse how policies, investment, and regulatory solutions that expand inclusive access to and the benefits from new varieties and quality seed can be implemented.
ISSD Uganda’s work package under the SSD project is worth Euro 111,520 and its key tasks include;
Pretesting of the maize framed eld experiment protocols in Gulu District under the CGIAR-NWO seed systems development research project
