CSAM: Organized support networks for cassava seed entrepreneurs

Building stronger cassava seed businesses for African seed entrepreneurs and farmers.

The Cassava Seed Association Model (CSAM) is designed to improve the efficiency and sustainability of cassava seed production by bringing together individual seed entrepreneurs into structured associations. These associations allow entrepreneurs to work collectively, share resources, and benefit from economies of scale. The key features of CSAM include joint certification, access to finance, collective marketing, capacity building through training, and policy advocacy.

This technology is pre-validated.

9•3

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 9/9; level of use 3/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

Enhanced income opportunities, access to finance, and better-quality seeds for farming.

Others: Positive medium

By increasing the availability of quality cassava seeds, improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and offering access to finance for those with limited resources.

Women: Positive high

Promotes female leadership and decision-making roles, improving gender equity and access within seed business networks.

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

By improving the quality of cassava seeds, its contributes to the development of more climate-resilient crops, better able to withstand climate-related stresses.

Farmer climate change readiness: Moderate improvement

Training and access to quality seeds enhance farmers' ability to adapt to climate change, ensuring more reliable harvests.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

By preserving local cassava varieties, contributing to the protection of biodiversity.

Carbon footprint: A bit less carbon released

By promoting sustainable farming practices, which can help reduce the carbon footprint associated with cassava production.

Environmental health: Moderately improves environmental health

By reducing the need for excessive chemical inputs, it contributes to healthier ecosystems.

Water use: Same amount of water used

Cassava’s water requirement remains unchanged, but improved crop establishment reduces replanting, promoting efficient water use.

Problem

Fragmented seed production: Cassava seed entrepreneurs operated independently, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent seed quality.
High production costs: Lack of coordination resulted in high costs for seed production.
Limited access to certification: Many individual producers struggled to meet certification standards, limiting their market access.
Inadequate access to finance: Seed entrepreneurs faced difficulty securing finance to scale their operations.
Dependence on free seed distribution: NGO and government seed distribution created dependency, weakening the development of a commercial seed market.
Weak bargaining power: Lack of formal group structures meant seed entrepreneurs had little influence over policies or pricing.

Solution

Formation of structured associations: CSAM encourages seed entrepreneurs to form associations that can pool resources and increase collective bargaining power.
Joint certification: Associations enable entrepreneurs to meet certification standards more easily, opening access to formal markets.
Access to finance: Associations provide a platform for better financial access, improving seed production capacity.
Capacity building: Training programs are provided to enhance the skills of seed entrepreneurs, improving seed quality and production techniques.
Collective marketing: Group marketing helps entrepreneurs reach larger markets, improving sales and income.
Policy advocacy: The associations have a stronger voice in influencing seed-related policies that benefit the industry.
Impact on over 2,700 seed entrepreneurs: The model has already helped over 2,700 entrepreneurs by improving seed quality, market access, and financial opportunities.

Key points to design your project

The Cassava Seed Association Model (CSAM) strengthens the organization, professionalism, and sustainability of cassava seed systems by supporting the formation of seed producer associations. This model directly contributes to national strategies for agricultural transformation, youth employment, gender inclusion, and several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To ensure successful integration and impact, the following activities should be incorporated in your project design:

Stakeholder mapping and mobilization, including seed entrepreneurs, regulatory bodies, farmer cooperatives, NGOs, and financial service providers.
Facilitation of association creation, through steps such as community sensitization, constitution development, legal registration, and leadership selection.
Capacity building workshops to strengthen business, technical, and marketing skills of association members, seed inspectors, and extension officers.
Support for joint certification processes, enabling group-based compliance with national seed standards and protocols.
Access-to-finance facilitation, including linkages with microfinance institutions and cooperatives, and the development of group business plans.
Collective marketing and branding, helping associations develop consistent seed labels, communication materials, and outreach to buyers.
Policy dialogue platforms, to support advocacy on enabling regulations and inclusion in national seed sector strategies.
Monitoring and evaluation systems, to assess performance, track inclusion (e.g., women and youth participation), and capture long-term impact.
A complete implementation toolkit is available and includes:
- Practical guides for association formation and governance
- Training modules on seed entrepreneurship and group marketing
- Templates for constitutions, membership forms, and business plans
- Case studies from Nigeria and Tanzania
- Support from the IITA deployment team and TAAT network
Communication materials—flyers, case videos, radio jingles, and policy briefs—customizable to national and local contexts for effective outreach and policy influence.
Collaborate with key partners such as National Seed Councils, Agricultural Extension Services, Local Government Authorities, and TAAT experts for field-level roll-out and scale-up.

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 9 out of 9

Uncontrolled environment: validated

Level of use 3 out of 9

By the whole project team + project partners

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	Testing ongoing	–Not tested	–Not adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Rwanda	Testing ongoing	–Not tested	–Not adopted
Tanzania	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 1: no poverty

By organizing seed entrepreneurs into associations, its helps reduce production costs and improve incomes.

Goal 2: zero hunger

Its improves access to quality cassava planting material, increasing yields and food security.

Goal 5: gender equality

Women are actively included in CSAM associations and benefit from training, financial access, and market linkages.

Goal 8: decent work and economic growth

By professionalizing cassava seed production, encouraging formalization, investment, and decent income opportunities.

Goal 10: reduced inequalities

By providing voice for smaller producers and marginalized groups by improving access to certification, markets, and financial services.

Goal 17: partnerships for the goals

By relying on public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaboration to sustainably scale cassava seed systems.

Assess the need: Identify the benefits of joining or forming a seed association, including access to certification, finance, and training.
Engage potential members: Bring together a group of cassava seed entrepreneurs who are interested in joining the association.
Develop a constitution: Establish the guiding principles, objectives, and responsibilities of the association through a formal agreement.
Register the association: Officially register the association with relevant authorities to gain legal recognition.
Provide training: Organize training sessions for all members on topics like seed production, quality control, and business management.
Promote services: Raise awareness about the services offered by the association, such as access to finance and certification.
Build linkages: Establish connections with government bodies, NGOs, financial institutions, and other stakeholders to support the association.
Develop a business plan: Create a plan to guide the association’s activities and ensure its financial sustainability.