A system dynamics analysis of seed banking effectiveness for empowerment of smallholder farmers

This paper presents seed banking as a holistic agricultural intervention into the prosperity of smallholder farmers in Uganda. Unlike the usual top-down agricultural interventions that are government/donor initiatives for crop production improvement and advisory services, the seed banking approach is a bottom-up initiative that enables the smallholder farmers to simultaneous engage in crop production, processing, sales and preservation of seeds for future planting. A system dynamics model is developed and used to evaluate seed banking effectiveness in agricultural profitability and prosperity of farmers. The model simulations show that seed banking provides access to improved seeds for planting irrespective of crop yields volatility or natural calamities such as drought, floods, hurricanes, pests and diseases. In addition, the model confirms that seed banking creates an environment for stable crop prices leading to predictable returns on investment. The paper concludes that farming is profitable provided interventions that target the individual smallholder farmers themselves such as seed banking are supported by government and other development partners.