{"id":89,"date":"2022-06-10T10:53:02","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T10:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/caitlin-breen\/?p=89"},"modified":"2022-07-05T08:42:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T08:42:19","slug":"leg4dev-research-project-seed-systems-in-ssa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/caitlin-breen\/2022\/06\/10\/leg4dev-research-project-seed-systems-in-ssa\/","title":{"rendered":"LEG4DEV Research Project – Seed Systems in SSA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In April 2022 I began my research project for my CCAFS course and was lucky enough to carry out my project as part of the EU-funded project LEG4DEV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LEG4DEV has the goal of scaling legume-based agroecological intensification of smallholder maize and cassava cropping systems in sub-Saharan Africa for water-food-energy nexus sustainability that enables food security and livelihood resilience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I began some tasks which fall under several of the LEG4DEV work packages I started to refine my area of interest. I had an interest in nutrition and in gender but ultimately I decided to focus on seed systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found this area to be very interesting, particularly when it comes to legumes and after some reading of the literature I felt that it was an area that could benefit from further research. Following a week or so of reading and learning about seed systems in SSA and across the world I started to see that there appears to be a gap in the market for improved legume seed, or at least there is a gap when it comes to smallholders accessing improved legume seed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from everydayhealth.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons for this, from infrastructure constraints to policy barriers and in my research project I will be using a systematic review to determine scaling options and barriers for improved legume seed in SSA. So far I’m finding the research very interesting and I will soon be analysing my data to try and find some answers to my research questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to learn a bit more about seed systems I have linked a few papers below which give some insight into how they operate in both formal and informal ways. Also if you want to see how seed policy can affect smallholder farmers I have linked a very interesting documentary from Colombia. Finally, if you would like to learn more about the work of LEG4DEV I have linked our website below also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peer-reviewed articles on seed systems –<\/p>\n\n\n\n