In-house Seed Multiplication: Securing Affordable Planting Material to Increase Business Resilience

18 Jun 2025 • 5 minutes read

Juan Carlo Intriago Zambrano

What is the innovation?

In-house seed multiplication is a process whereby an organization grows their own seeds on a large scale for sale to farmers. Actors engaging in this process are typically private (seed) companies, farmer organizations, and government agencies. Agribusinesses generally partake in seed multiplication to secure a cost-efficient seed supply to their farmers, and/or to supply the demand of farmers in their areas of operation. In-house seed multiplication differs from community-based seed multiplication in that the latter seeks instead to empower farmers to produce quality seeds for their own use.

Key challenges addressed

Landmark Millers (LMM) procures its produce completely from smallholder farmers (SHFs). To improve SHFs’ access to services and increase their productivity, LMM provides them with a service package that includes seeds, credit facility, and post-harvest kits. Supplying seeds through third parties, however, has brought challenges to LMM. The supply has been inconsistent as providers at times were not able to satisfy the company’s requirements. Quality of seeds has not been always consistent, sometimes not germinating at all. As seed prices are subject to demand, LMM sometimes had to pay quite high prices to supply its SHFs. To tackle these challenges, LMM engaged with its own in-house seed multiplication block farm, onboarding farmers for that purpose. As these farmers cover costs of land preparation, crop management (with LMM advice), and harvesting, this can be considered a joint investment seed multiplication model. With support of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), LMM controls the seed production process, and thus the seeds’ quantity and quality. Moreover, LMM also produces certified seeds to satisfy the local demand, generating new sources of revenues for the company.

How it works?

Tips for replication

Context

The third-party provision of seeds is unreliable
Producing own seeds is more cost-effective for both company and farmers
The company wants to have more control over the seed production process to meet certain market requirements

Best practices

Selecting high-quality foundation seeds varieties adapted to the context: weather- and disease-resistant, high yield, etc.
Involving communities in identifying farmers and locations suitable for the seed multiplication farms
Providing services tailored to seed farmers; e.g., specific training on seed planting, irrigation, etc.
Establishing partnerships with control agencies to monitor the quality of the seeds throughout the process
Forming contiguous blocks of seed multiplication farms to make more efficient use of land and services

Enabling conditions

The company has access to the required resources (i.e., foundation seeds, land, warehousing)
Seed farmers have enough land to establish protection belts that prevent unwanted pollination
Policy environment that allows companies to conduct their own seed multiplication

Business Case

(Expected) Outcomes for Landmark Millers

Reduced seed costs

By means of its seed-multiplication block farm—as opposed to sourcing certified seeds from third providers—LMM has reduced its certified seed costs by about 42-61% in the last 3 years. Common sorghum seeds in the open market costed LMM between UGX 6,000 and UGX 9,000 per 2 kg bag, while their own seeds had a cost of just UGX 3,500 per 2 kg bag

Secured seed supply

Due to its seed multiplication block farm, LMM has gained a larger control over the seed multiplication and supply process. Thanks to this enhanced control, LMM has increased its seed volumes by 50% in the last 3 years, allowing the company to serve many more farmers with improved planting material.

Impact Case

(Expected) Outcomes for Smallholder Farmers

More affordable seeds

Due to in-house seed multiplication, LMM’s farmers have increased their access to high-quality seeds by 50% in the last 3 years. At the same time, during the same period the cost of sorghum seeds per farmer has reduced by up to 61%, from UGX 9,000 to UGX 3,500 per 2 kg bag

Increased yields

LMM has achieved better germination rates by controlling the quality standard of its in-house produced seeds. As a result of suing these improved seeds (alongside the provision of other services), farmers working with LMM have increased their sorghum yields by 50%, from 0.4 to 0.6 MT/ha, in the last 3 years.

Increased revenues

LMM’s seed-multiplication farmers have an increased revenue of 80% as compared to that of grain farmers. While farmers supplying grain are typically paid UGX 1,000/kg grain, seed farmers are paid up to UGX 1,800/kg seeds.

Outstanding Risks & Challanges

In-house seed multiplication demands specific expertise, infrastructure, and investment capacities. These can be a barrier for small companies.
Seed multiplication is more sensitive to droughts than grain production. Unavailability of irrigation water at required stages may result in production losses.
Seed multiplication can pose a lengthy learning process for companies new to its requirements. Building the required expertise can be thus a time-consuming process for them.
Seed multiplication is a delicate process that requires different agricultural practices (e.g., seed planting instead of broadcasting). Inadequate training can thus hinder the whole process.
The quality of multiplied seeds is highly contingent on an appropriate management and control at every step. As such, any mismanagement during the whole process may result in seeds of substandard quality and financial losses.
Seed multiplication farms require protection belts to restrict unwanted pollination from the surroundings. If these belts are not properly laid, the multiplied seeds may result in low quality material and loss of the investmen

Data Source & Disclaimer

Information is based on IDH’s Service Delivery Model (SDM) analysis for LMM, including data from AKL and 380 farmers (information is available on our methodology for SDM Analyses and Farmer Surveys). Additionally, interviews with company, agents, and farmers have been held since the start of Technical Assistance (2022) during which the innovation is tested and scaled. A longer time span and additional data are needed to verify and quantify impacts. Farmfit will conduct an end-line assessment of the company’s SDM and farmer livelihoods based on a repeat data collection at company and farm level.