Are investments in an informal seed system for cowpea a worthwhile endeavour?

High seed quality is a critical component for realising yield potential. Forsmallholder cowpea farmers in northern Nigeria the informal seed system is amajor supplier of genetically high-quality seed, but the physiological quality offarmers’ produced seed remains unknown. The project “Promoting SustainableAgriculture in Borno State” (PROSAB) trained and supported farmers in seedproduction in Borno State, Nigeria. We analysed the quality of farmers’ producedcowpea seed based on standard quality testing criteria, and evaluated its fieldemergence as a proxy for non-genetic seed quality. We carried out a survey amongseed producing farmers about their production and storage practices, and testedseed quality of samples from these farmers, from seed companies and comparedthese to foundation seed. Field emergence of farmers’ produced seed was notsignificantly different from that of foundation seed (P=0.47) or seed companysamples (P=0.12). Cowpea seed quality, however, was inadequate in both theformal and informal seed systems. Five out of six foundation seed samples, 79 outof 81 samples of farmers’ seed, and six out of six seed company samples failed tomeet standards for foundation and certified seeds of the National Agriculture SeedCouncil (NASC), the seed industry regulatory agency in Nigeria. Multipleregression analyses predicting field emergence showed that projects like PROSABcan improve seed quality. Especially proper storage and reducing seed damage canincrease field emergence significantly. Our findings suggest that it is worth toinvest in improving the informal seed system of cowpea.