Second mission to Ethiopia in the ISSD program, 9-20th April 2015
In agreement with the Centre of Development Innovation at Wageningen, Rutger Persson conducted his second mission to Ethiopia in the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) program, 9-20th April 2015, with the following agenda:
- The website of the Ethiopian Seed Association
- Training material/ guides in business management, seed marketing, seed production, post harvest handling, warehouse management, seed quality control
- Seed Code of Practice
- Strengths, Weaknesses and Actions reported by Evaluation Team
- Preparations for a one day awareness creating workshop for agricultural input suppliers, vegetable seed importers and CGIAR centres (to be conducted by ESA)
- ESA´s News Letter
Assisted the Ethiopian Seed Association in finalizing the design and content of their new website, which was launched on www.ethiopianseedassociation.wordpress.com.
The final stage of editing the Business Plan template, prior to printing and dissemination among ESA´s members, as a practical and useful working tool in planning and optimizing the company earnings.
Worked on the specific task in developing a Seed Code of Practice for the seed sector, in order to safeguard the seed quality, creating confidence among the Ethiopian small-scale farmers in certified seed of improved varieties.
Assisted ESA in planning for another workshop in create awareness among input suppliers, vegetable seed importers and CGIAR centres working in Ethiopia, to become members of the Association, attracting them to advertise on the ESA website and work closer with their members who are engaged in producing and marketing seed.
The observations by the ISSD evaluation team were taken into consideration in the discussions with ESA, how to further improve the Associations mandate by:
- Focusing on development of services before further actions to attract more members
- Financial sustainability is less important than service development (in the short term perspective)
- Identify relevant business linkage between company and Local Seed Business and facilitate that linkage.