VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLE SEED IN WESTERN RUKUM DISTRICT, NEPAL

Abstract

The vegetable seed is one of the growing high-value subsectors in Nepal because of the increasing commercialization of vegetable production, the deficit of seed supply, and the rising involvement of different actors at different levels of its value chain. In this context, the present study was designed to analysis the value chain of vegetable seeds with a special focus on the competitiveness of the value chain actors. The study was conducted in Western Rukum, Nepal in 2017. Data from 210 randomly selected vegetable seed producers using simple random sampling, 13 seed traders including seed collectors, seed companies and agro vets, eight enablers as well as information from secondary sources were collected and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The result showed that even having nine functional vegetable seed marketing channels in the district there was a weak relationship among value chain actors. The actors involved in the production and marketing sides had different areas of interest. The producers were typically interested in access to technical input and market assurance in both price and quantity, on the other hand, the market actors were interested in quality assurance and market-led price fixation. Additionally, the market information was limited to the local level seed traders. In the contrast, networking among local traders was found very strong. However, they were also not sure about the quality of seed produced by farmers and had to wait until the quality test by the seed company to clear their product. The finding of this study indicates farmers should maintain the quality of seed, the seed traders should provide the essential information to producers regarding the price and quality standard that need to be met, and government agencies should increase the extension service on the technical know-how of high yielding varieties based on consumers demand to promote the export of the seeds.