Linking Up: The Role of Institutions and Farmers in Forage Seed Exchange Networks of Southeast Asia

Abstract

In Southeast Asia, access to improved forages remains a challenge for smallholder farmers and limits livestock production. We compared seed exchange networks supporting two contrasting livestock production systems to identify bottlenecks in seed availability and determine the influences of the market, institutions, and cultural context of seed exchange, using interview-based methods for ‘seed tracing’ and network analysis. Government agencies were the primary sources of high-quality genetic materials, with secondary diffusion in the Philippines dairy case being dominated by key individuals in active cooperatives. In the Vietnamese beef-oriented production context, farmer to farmer dissemination was more substantial. In both cases, formal actors dominated where botanical seed was exchanged, while farmers frequently exchanged vegetatively propagated materials among themselves. To improve access to forage seed in these contexts, government agencies and development actors should coordinate quality seed production upstream while supporting the creation of appropriate training, structures, and incentives for seed exchange network improvement downstream.

Unveiling the Untold Stories of the Banana Local Farmers Amid the Time of Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

“…As a result, the agriculture sector has faced serious production issues, such as slow increase in agricultural output, particularly in banana products. Thus, inputs and financing are in limited supply especially for local farmers (Leyte et al, 2021). Despite this, the farmers remained disciplined and hard working so that they can still earn despite the absence of government support.…”