Challenges and Opportunities in Securing Forage Seed Systems in Ethiopia

The objective of this paper is to review the existing forage seed production systems, challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia. To achieve this, the authors used published facts including journal articles, edited books, proceedings and reports. Ethiopia is known for its huge livestock population and low productivity due to critical feed scarcity both in quantity and quality. This in turn is the result of low forage development practices which is suffered from insufficient supply of forage seeds at reasonable price in the country. To solve the forage seed supply problem, the public sector, research and development institutions, have been engaged in multiplying improved forage seeds using contractual, opportunist and specialized approach. But their impact is still low compared to the current demand for improved forage seeds as farmers prefer to allot their lands to food crop production than to forage seeds. As a result, the availability of quality forage seeds at reasonable price is currently below the demand which limits improved livestock feed availability in the country. Moreover, the forage seed business do not attract commercial seed companies due to their natural low seed producing capacities, land scarcity, lack of adequate technologies, inefficient seed marketing and distribution networks. Although there are challenges for improved forage seed production and supply, Ethiopia is endowed with favorable environmental conditions to produce different forage species and varieties to enhance livestock feed availability. Therefore, Agricultural research institutions, Universities, NGOs and other stakeholders should exert integrated efforts to promote and develop sustainable forage seed production.