Quality Declared Seeds Production Builds Resilience to Climate Change in Central Tanzania

Quality Declared Seeds (QDS) are an important strategic element of crop production and offer a way of successfully producing seeds in areas affected by unpredictable rainfall and ultimately providing food security to vulnerable households. Despite the existence of a well-defined seed system in Tanzania, limited access to appropriate improved seeds for a majority of smallholder farmers is a reason for low crop productivity in the semi-arid areas of central Tanzania. To address this problem, the EcoACT project in central Tanzania, funded by the European Union, under the Global Climate Change Alliance Tanzania, has introduced the QDS Production Model. This local seed production model is a cost-effective way to provide quality-controlled seeds to smallholder farmers. It is not intended to compete or replace the existing schemes of seed quality control but rather offer analternative and boost incomes for farmers producing the seeds and offer quality crops to consumers.