Farmer Survey to Understand Community Based Seed Production in Burkina Faso

Millions of smallholder farmers worldwide rely on their own or other farmers' harvested 'grain' (accessed from the local market) as the main source for seed (i.e., planting material). An advantage of this informal seed system is that it is able to meet diverse seed needs at lower cost (i.e., at or close to grain price). However, this informal system is not directly linked with the research system, and thus not able to quickly channel improved varieties generated by the research system. It also produces lower quality 'seed,' which reduces a variety's genetic yield potential. This dataset contains household and village data survey data collected as part of a case study of a business model developed by a farmer association in Burkina-Faso called Association-Song-Koaadba (ASK) to addres some of these challenges. The business model of ASK involves training its members as part-time seed entrepreneurs to produce quality declared seeds (QDS) of improved cowpea varieties for sale to other farmers. The main purpose of this survey was to understand this community based seed production and marketing approach from the perspectives of the seed producing and non-producing farmers living in villages where ASK had trained seed entrepreneurs and member farmers.