Markets and Seeds Access Project (MASAP)

Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT) Zambia has partnered with NIRAS A/S who are working in collaboration with the Community Technology Development Organization (CTDO) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in implementing the first phase of the Markets and Seeds Access Project (MASAP) in Zimbabwe and Zambia funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). MASAP is a 12-year project which will be implemented in three phases of four years each. The first phase will run from December 2021 to November 2025 focusing on rolling out the project implementation in the four initial districts of Tsholotsho and Mudzi in Zimbabwe and Sioma and Chipata in Zambia. The second phase, from 2026 to 2029, is expected to consolidate the results from the first phase, provide opportunities for scaling up project activities through increasing the value chains and adding more districts across Zambia and Zimbabwe. The third phase, from 2030 to 2033, shall concretely embed all the system and structural changes inside the institutions to allow sustained project outcomes and a smooth phasing-out of the program.

The aim of the MASAP project is to improve resilience in food security of smallholder households (especially women and youth) by increasing adoption and utilization of improved open and self-pollinated varieties of small grains (sorghum and millet) and legumes (cowpea and groundnut) through strengthening the seed and commodity value chains in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

CTDT Zambia Contribution to the MASAP CTDT will participate through implementing the components of policy engagements and action learning research, and contribute to gender and youth responsive enabling policy environment supportive of small grains and legumes sectors’ needs and interests. This is one of the components of “Innovative and Evidence-based Promotion of Small Grains and Legumes Utilisation and Consumption in Zambia and Zimbabwe” project. CTDT will use its experience of working on similar issues in Chikankata, Chirundu, Rufunsa and Shibuyunji to address the project objectives. CTDT will focus on developing frameworks and systems that support smallholder farmers to be part of the national seed system where their varieties are formally recognized and seed of their varieties is allowed for production and marketing.

Project Outcomes

The adoption and implementation of developed framework for farmer varieties registration is envisaged to yield the following outcomes:

Increase in access to seeds of locally preferred varieties by smallholder farmers, leading to enhanced resilience of their farming systems to environmental shocks, including effects of climate change.
Increase in opportunities for securing support for the promotion of smallholder seed enterprises.
Increase in the participation of smallholder farmers in the reform process of the national seed policy and legal frameworks and awareness on seed policies and regulatory frameworks.
Improvement in food and nutrition security among smallholder farmers and farming communities in the target areas.
Increase in the appreciation of the value of local crop diversity, leading to broader participation in their sustainable conservation and use.
Acceleration in the domestication and implementation of provisions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, including Article 9- Farmers’ Rights.
Increased interest by all partners in the domestication and implementation of provisions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, including Article 9- Farmers’ Rights.