ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about seed systems and seed system development. It demonstrates the formal–informal framing continues to influence debates as well as policy and practice in seed system development. The chapter presents two case studies of seed systems, one relating to sorghum in South Sudan and the other to maize in Tanzania. These case studies are built on both genetic diversity surveys of key crops and socio-economic and cultural information on seed management and sourcing. It looks critically at the two dominant framings of seed systems in popular and scholarly debates. The chapter explores how theoretical approaches developed to study institutions involved in social-ecological systems can contribute to the understanding of seed systems. The localisation framing contests several of these tenets, including the scale neutrality of much modern technology and the view that increased productivity of some staple crops translates into improved food security at the household level and social and economic development at the national level.
