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Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers

The Kenyan maize seed sector exhibits high hybrid adoption rates, a growing number of seed companies, and an extensive agro-dealer network. Nonetheless, maize yields remain low and uptake of new, stress-tolerant varieties has been disappointing. This article investigates interactions in maize seed v...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rutsaert, Pieter, Donovan, Jason
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7307449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32641870
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030727019900520
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author Rutsaert, Pieter
Donovan, Jason
author_facet Rutsaert, Pieter
Donovan, Jason
author_sort Rutsaert, Pieter
collection PubMed
description The Kenyan maize seed sector exhibits high hybrid adoption rates, a growing number of seed companies, and an extensive agro-dealer network. Nonetheless, maize yields remain low and uptake of new, stress-tolerant varieties has been disappointing. This article investigates interactions in maize seed value chains in Kenya, and decisions made by agro-dealers, farmers, and seed companies, to gain a better understanding of how to encourage the uptake of new, stress-tolerant varieties. Data were collected during the 2019 seed-purchasing season from Kenyan seed companies (n = 8), agro-dealers (n = 80), and farmers immediately following their seed purchase (n = 466). Most agro-dealers had a wide offer of seed products available, but seed companies’ engagement with them was limited and marketing efforts were directly focused on farmers. Only a fraction of farmers used the agro-dealer environment to guide their decision-making. However, when agro-dealers engaged with farmers, they influenced varietal selection in 80% of the cases. Agro-dealers were one of the key information outlets about maize seed varieties. Seed company engagement with agro-dealers and in-store promotions (push marketing) should be further explored to improve returns on investments in seed systems.
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spelling pubmed-73074492020-07-06 Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers Rutsaert, Pieter Donovan, Jason Outlook Agric Articles The Kenyan maize seed sector exhibits high hybrid adoption rates, a growing number of seed companies, and an extensive agro-dealer network. Nonetheless, maize yields remain low and uptake of new, stress-tolerant varieties has been disappointing. This article investigates interactions in maize seed value chains in Kenya, and decisions made by agro-dealers, farmers, and seed companies, to gain a better understanding of how to encourage the uptake of new, stress-tolerant varieties. Data were collected during the 2019 seed-purchasing season from Kenyan seed companies (n = 8), agro-dealers (n = 80), and farmers immediately following their seed purchase (n = 466). Most agro-dealers had a wide offer of seed products available, but seed companies’ engagement with them was limited and marketing efforts were directly focused on farmers. Only a fraction of farmers used the agro-dealer environment to guide their decision-making. However, when agro-dealers engaged with farmers, they influenced varietal selection in 80% of the cases. Agro-dealers were one of the key information outlets about maize seed varieties. Seed company engagement with agro-dealers and in-store promotions (push marketing) should be further explored to improve returns on investments in seed systems. SAGE Publications 2020-01-20 2020-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7307449/ /pubmed/32641870 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030727019900520 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Rutsaert, Pieter
Donovan, Jason
Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title_full Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title_fullStr Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title_full_unstemmed Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title_short Sticking with the old seed: Input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
title_sort sticking with the old seed: input value chains and the challenges to deliver genetic gains to smallholder maize farmers
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7307449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32641870
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030727019900520
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