A new project, Accelerating Agriculture and Agribusiness in South Sudan for Enhanced Economic Development (A3-SEED), funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Juba, is set to launch in South Sudan next year.
Building on EKN’s seed sector and agribusiness interventions in South Sudan, A3-SEED is designed to move the seed sector from humanitarian support to a commercial, sustainable, and adaptive agriculture sector. A3-SEED will ensure the availability of improved seed down to the last mile through agri-entrepreneurship and supporting existing private-sector seed companies. The project will improve seed and input marketing, distribution, and production practices. Additionally, A3-SEED will support the emergence of individual commercial seed producers who produce for the local market and/or outgrowers for a seed company.
Over 5 years (2021-2025) A3-SEED aims to reach more than 100,000 farming households, which will see a doubling of income from marketable surpluses of targeted commodities, thereby improving livelihoods. A3-SEED will support commercialization of the seed sector through the following four result areas:
- Commercial Quality Seed Production to focus on ensuring efficient, high quality, and economically viable seed production, sales, and distribution tailored for market-oriented smallholder farmers.
- Quality Seed use, good agricultural practices, and climate resilient farming practices among smallholder farmers resulting from tailored sales and distribution strategies provided by seed companies and commercial seed producers.
- Quality Seed input and output marketing and distribution through the establishment of last-mile input distribution and effective seed, input and output market relationships, which improve local competitiveness through agribusiness development, women empowerment, and youth employment.
- Learning and capacity development to support the above result areas, together with targeted research to address bottlenecks, support adaptive project management, and advance knowledge on seed sector development.
A3-SEED is led by IFDC and will be implemented together with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) under a budget of €8.5 million including a €1 million intervention fund.
