Seed Vouchers and Fairs

Seed fairs support the local seed system and stimulate local agricultural markets. In 2004, more than 120,000 households benefited from seed vouchers and fairs.

The seed voucher and fairs in Burundi are based on the premise that seed demand is overwhelmingly driven by a lack of access to seed and not a lack of availability of seed. This program responds to seed access problems, where farming families lack income, resources, and/or the social capital to access seed. The approach involves supplying access-lacking farming households with a voucher that is used to acquire seed from seed traders, who then redeem the vouchers for cash.

The day of a seed fair, the recipient farming family negotiates for seed with a large number of seed traders and then selects crops and varieties which best meet its needs. The resulting relief package is determined in consultation between voucher holder and seed traders.

CRS consults with local authorities and in coordination with other seed aid implementers to target the area of intervention and to determine the beneficiary list in consultation with local authorities and beneficiary representatives.

Seed fairs to the rescue!

Beatrice Butoyi has not had an easy life. Born with a deformed leg, she needs a crutch to get around. But she is strong-willed and independent and raises several crops, including peanuts, sorghum and beans. Unfortunately, the first rainy season in 2004 ended a month earlier than normal, and like her fellow farmers she was unable to wrest even a meager harvest of beans and peanuts. In a bitter twist of irony, her field overlooks a large, pristine lake, but she has no way to utilize this water resource.

Beatrice lives with her son in Mutwenzi, just outside of the town of Kirundo in northeastern Burundi. Mutwenzi, which nestles amongst a pine grove and overlooks a protected bird sanctuary, is breathtakingly beautiful. But appearances can be deceiving.

Exacerbating her problems was a virulent attack on virtually all of the cassava plants in the region by the mosaic virus that totally wiped out what is normally the most reliable and drought-resistant crop in Burundi, as well as being the primary food staple.

And yet there is hope. In 2003, CRS introduced the concept of seed fairs to Mutwenzi. Farmers were given seed vouchers worth 5000 Burundian francs (about US $4.50), which they could exchange for seeds of their choice from small vendors. The vouchers are printed in convenient denominations that enable the farmers to buy small, affordable quantities of the seeds they need.

This year CRS has agreed to increase the amount 6000 francs, and Beatrice and her neighbors eagerly await the opportunity to prepare for the next planting season. In view of the low rainfall that prompted most farmers to eat all of their seed stocks instead of storing a percentage of them for the next growing season, the opportunity to acquire fresh stocks of seeds is nothing less than a lifeline to the future.

Selecting the beneficiaries of the seed voucher system is the responsibility of small committees, one for each community. The committees are charged with choosing the most vulnerable members of the community: the elderly, the disabled, orphans, and so on. Beatrice, who is both disabled and a single mother, not to mention a particularly vigorous farmer, is well qualified.

Says Beatrice: "I look forward to the next seed fair so I can get the planting material I need for next year. It is good that I can choose the seeds myself. CRS is doing a wonderful thing. God bless CRS!"