Seed fairs
Practical Action
The objectives of Seed Fairs include:
Creating awareness amongst farmers, researchers, extensionists and district planners of
additional alternative seeds and planting material from research station and about seed
from farmers’ own sources.
Enabling local, extensionists and farmer seed experts who do not normally meet to do so
and exchange knowledge and experiences on the old and new crops that they grow.
To create working contacts between farmers, extensionists and researchers which will
continue to exist and develop independent of outside facilitators.
Create opportunities for seed exchanges or arrange future exchanges.
Instil confidence among farmers through a healthy and productive competition.
Create market linkages.
Enable disaster affected farmers to access crops/varieties in quantities of their choice.
Create social interaction.
Figure 2: Participants at the Chivi Seed Fair, Zimbabwe where farmers display best variety
of seeds.
Photo: Practical Action / Margaret Waller.
Benefits from seed fairs
Some of the benefits of a seed fair are:
Promoting seed based to local conditions as farmers exchange and sell seed grown and
produced locally.
Help insure farmers against climatic uncertainties by availing different crop types and
varieties.
Seed fairs help build the local seed distribution system as opposed to ‘ad-hoc’ welfare
interventions.
Farmers may find out innovations on the market whilst seed producers find out farmer
needs, tastes and concerns.
Market linkages can also be pursued which may promote agro-processing and value
addition.
Creates a discussion forum for farmers on the quality, usefulness and price of the seed.
Seed companies may gather valuable information to improve the quality of their seed.
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