A delegation of United States Senators and other government representatives visited DuPont Pioneer‘s seed conditioning plant and warehouse, located outside of Addis Ababa, as part of a visit to key USAID program partners and sites in Ethiopia.
The DuPont Pioneer-USAID partnership exemplifies a public-private partnership with the US private sector as envisioned in President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative. As part of its strategy to promote its hybrid maize seeds, DuPont Pioneer has invested more than $5mn USD in seed multiplication, awareness campaigns, seed demonstrations and the processing plant.
On the site visit, Senators Chris Coons and Jeff Merkley, as well as the Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Judith Pryor, and USAID Ethiopia Mission Director, Dennis Weller, heard from DuPont Pioneer staff, seed dealers and farmers about their experience using hybrid maize seeds.
DuPont Pioneer partners with USAID and the Government of Ethiopia under the Advanced Maize Seed Adoption Program—AMSAP—to provide sample seed on demonstration plots and field training sessions to advance the utilization and acceptance of high-quality hybrid maize seed, fertilizers and improved production techniques.
In 2013, when DuPont Pioneer and USAID inaugurated the seed-conditioning plant and launched AMSAP, the company sold 4000 metric tons (MT) of hybrid seed and nearly doubled sales in 2014. This year, the company sold out of its stock of 6000 MT of seed and expects the volume of seed sales to reach 10,000 MT in 2016.
“The AMSAP program has done a lot to increase demand. More and more farmers are seeing the yield advantages of hybrid seeds, and with the conditioning plant, the seeds in Ethiopia are as good as anywhere else in the world,” explains Melaku Admasu, DuPont Pioneer Ethiopia’s Operations Manager.
Seated: Senator Chris Coons (Delaware), Senator Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Judith Pryor OPIC VP, and Dennis Weller, USAID Ethiopia Mission Director
After parental seed lines are imported from DuPont Pioneer seed centers in South Africa and Kenya and approved by the Ethiopian government, hybrid seeds are multiplied in Ethiopian soil and then sold to maize farmers through a network of input suppliers.
In AMSAP’s third year, the program expanded demonstrations from 3,200 to 5,000 lead farmers. AMSAP demonstrates two Pioneer hybrid maize varieties, Shone and Limu, on lead farmers plot in low and medium altitude areas. Hybrid maize seed yields of 7 MT per hectare—compared to a national average of 2 MT—have encouraged program partners to extend AMSAP’s activities to 2018.
The AMSAP Pioneer hybrid maize seed activities will eventually take place in 27 areas (woredas) and reach over 65,000 indirect and direct beneficiaries each year. In addition, the program will distribute 32.5 MT of seed to lead farmer demonstration sites.
AMSAP is a component of the USAID and Feed the Future program AGP-Agribusiness Market Development, which improves the capacity of maize farmer cooperative unions while building up their infrastructure, especially through the construction of strategic warehouses, which allow farmers and dealers to store seed, which increases seed availability, while they wait for improved market prices, and reduce post-harvest loss. The USAID program also facilitates market channels for maize farmer unions.
Supplying Ethiopian Farmers
In 2007, agricultural inputs dealer Gemechew Tesmesgen answered a DuPont Pioneer ad to begin offering hybrid maize varieties in the fertile plains of Western Ethiopia. His first year, he sold ten quintals of seed, enough seed for about 80 farmers.
“The farmers were not trusting, so I gave them a money-back guarantee. By the second year, they were showing other farmers what the seeds did for them and talking about doubling their yields,” explains Gemechew.
Nonetheless, Gemechew did not see profits from the Pioneer seed for six years. It wasn’t until DuPont Pioneer partnered with USAID and the AMSAP program began that, finally in 2014, Gemechew and his three sub-dealers sold 1500 quintals (150 MT) of hybrid seed, reaching over 12,000 farmers. Pioneer seed now represent 25% of his total revenue.
“Although I have dozens of farmers who have purchased seed from me for the past eight years. This year and last, the demand skyrocketed. Now they all want Pioneer varieties and are trying to increase the size of their plots. In five years, Pioneer seed will be my number one selling product,” he says.
Gemechew has seen a change in his farmers too, expanding their farms, buying tractors and sending their sons and daughters off to university. “The poorest farmers who doubted the seeds the most, have replaced their huts with better houses and zinc roofing. Higher yields made their lives better,” says Gemechew.