Purdue Improved Crop Storage WorkshopAccra GHANA

April 10 – 12, 2012

Tom RemingtonPrincipal Agriculture AdvisorMireille BarbierWest Africa Agriculture Advisor

Improving Cowpea Seed Qualitythrough Hermetic Storage

Presentation Outline

1. CRS2. Background

1. Cowpea2. Vouchers3. Hermetic Storage4. Farmer Managed Seed

System

3. Results & Discussion4. Conclusions &

Recommendations

Catholic Relief Services• Catholic– United States Catholic Conference of Bishops– Option for the Poor

• Relief– Responding to disaster – ‘saving lives’– US Food Aid Partner

• Services– From providing Goods & Services to supporting Sustainable

Service Provision – From Recovery to strengthening Resilience

CRS Scale & Scope

• 2012 Operating Budget of $750 million– Increase from $250 million in 1994

• Agriculture currently largest sector at $185 million

• Working in 100 countries– Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland– Seven Regional Offices (4 in Africa)

• Reaching over 1 million farm households with seed vouchers the past ten years

Cowpea Exports (2010)

Burkina Niger Cameroon Senegal Mali0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Exports (1000 MT)

In 2010, Nigeria imported 1,871,000 MT

Creative Use of VouchersThe Basics

• Vouchers are a subsidy• Vouchers need to be understood as a flexible

marketing tool• Vouchers can connect farmers to input suppliers and

create customers for suppliers• Vouchers can be used to increase supply, increase

demand, increase quality, increase price• Vouchers can support or undermine markets – it

depends on how they are used!

What Farmer Customers Want from Input Providers

– Wide Choice– Low Risk– Trust– Social Event– Short Distance– Free Stuff

A. O’Conner Funk (2007) Observations & Recommendations from the Perspective of a Seed Company Manager

CRS Hermetic Storage Experience

• 1996 GrainPro – Reducing Food Aid Losses

• 1997-2007 Maize Metal Silos in Kenya with SDC• 2007 - On farm Hermetic Grain & Seed

Storage with a focus on the pulses

Support from USAID/OFDA

Supporting and Empowering Farmer Seed Managers

Once farmers have the variety, the economic gains from using certified seed of the self pollinated crops usually does not justify the investment. Moreover, certified seed is not always better quality than the seed reproduced by a farmer (Almekinders & Louwaars, 1999)

Seed Voucher DataCountry Voucher

TypeSeed Quantity

BeneficiaryBeneficiaries Seed x Variety

Niger Cash 42 kg (2 kg cowpea)

15,000 Market Seed of Mixed Crops + Varieties

Burkina Faso Commodity 1-3 kg 20,000 Certified Seed of Improved Cowpea Varieties

Cash Voucher has greater fungibility – used at fairs to empower farmers to make own choices

Commodity Voucher is a Coupon restricted to a specific product – used to promote a specific new variety

Cowpea Varietal Performance in Burkina Faso

Variety Cycle Yield Observations

IT98K-205-8 65 days 926 kg/ha Extra EarlyCalled ‘Hunger Stopper’

KVX396-4-4 70 days 1012 kg/ha Drought resistant

KVX745-11P 70 days 637 kg/ha Dual purpose grain and fodderSemi-runner

Local - - - 321 kg/ha

• Average Seed Rate of 7-8 kg/ha• Average Multiplication Rate of 35• Interest in KVX745-11P for both grain and fodder• Expected and (2011) yield:• Grain 500 (266) kg/ha• Fodder 3000 (519) kg/ha

Hermetic Storage Containers in Burkina Faso in 2009

Type Number Weight Price Price/kg

PICS 179 100 $1.70 $0.02

VegOil 22 25 $3.00 $0.12

VegOil 446 20 $2.50 $0.13

Vegoil 2,115 5 $1.24 $0.25

Mineral Water 1,484 1.5 $0.25 $0.17

• Size of container based on amount of seed to be saved• PICS Sacks and 5 liter containers new from FasoPlast• Other containers reused• Farmer preference for PICS and 20/25 liter containers• Price also dependent on replacement rate

Hermetic Storage Containers in Niger

• Cash Voucher Value of $2.30 – 11,700 PICS Sacks– 4,200 20 liter containers

• 17 vendors with an average profit of $128 each

Adoption of Hermetic Cowpea Seed Storage

2009 20100

102030405060708090

100

MenWomen

Year

%

Change in Germination Rate from R1 to R2

KVX396-4-5-2D KVX61-1 KVX745-11P KVX396-4-40

102030405060708090

100

R1R2 LoR2 HiR2 Av

Cowpea Variety

%

Farmer Maintenance of R2 Varietal Purity

KVX396-4-5-2D

KVX61-1 KVX745-11P KVX396-4-4 KVX414-22-20

102030405060708090

100

Cowpea Variety

%

No verification of purity of certified seed of the five varietiesBased on Grow Outs by INERA

Farmer Managed Seed SecurityParameter Comment

Availability Supply of own saved seed not a problem due to low seed rate and high multiplication rate and in the local market

Access Good quality seed of a range of varieties is often accessible in the local marketsCertified seed, though available, remains accessible only through seed programs and not retail

Seed Quality Cleanliness is non an issue with hand sorting of seed.Farmers able to maintain viable seed with hermetic storage.No apparent ‘degradation’ of saved seed.

Varietal Quality New varieties outperform current varietiesFarmers able to maintain pure seed of new varietiesNo known premium product pricing of cowpea grain

Hermetic Seed Storage Conclusions

• Vouchers can support and strengthen existing supply chains

• All sizes of hermetic containers effective without insecticide

• Farmers adopt hermetic storage• Farmers storing relatively small quantities of seed• PICS sacks with larger volume attractive for primary

aggregators• Stored cowpea grain used for a range of end uses –

including seed (3 – 6%)

Allocation of Cowpea Production

36

57

5

1

ConsumptionSaleSeedGift

Hermetic Storage A Cowpea Value Chain Asset

• Cowpea is the lead export crop from the Sahel• Attractive new varieties are available• Cash & Commodity Vouchers are effective• Farmers are competent seed managers• Hermetic storage controls insect pests• Hermetic storage is an incentive to prevent

varietal mixing in seed management

Suggestions for the Future

• Exploit Vouchers and Fairs• Educate the farmer as both a manager and a customer• Give greater hermetic product choice• Promote combined grain & seed storage• Improve market cowpea seed vendor storage• Address drying with hermetic storage in the humid

tropics• Embrace storage along the value chain from producer

to consumer

Thank You!

CRS/NigerCRS/BurkinaPurdueINRANINERAUSAID/OFDA