Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important staple food crop in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the second largest wheat producing country in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) following South Africa [1]. Wheat provides about 15% of the caloric intake for the population [2], placing it second after maize and slightly ahead of teff, sorghum, and enset [3]. It is also the fourth largest cereal crop produced by close to 5 million smallholder farmers, which makes about 35% of all smallholder farmers in Ethiopia [4, 5]. In 2013/14, for example, wheat accounts close to 17% of the acreage of arable land and a fifth of all cereal food crops produced in the country [6].
The productivity of wheat varies in different parts of the country depending on the agroecological conditions and other factors. The average annual production of wheat was 4,537,852.34 tons [5]. The national average wheat productivity is around 2.67 tons per ha [5], which is below the average of both the SSA and the world [7]. Out of the total 4,549,571.4 tons produced in the country, Amhara region in total contributes 1,319,062 tons; from which East Gojjam zone alone contributes about 319,780.9 tons [5].
Farmers in Ethiopia are producing both local and improved wheat varieties. However, the coverage of improved variety is quite low [3]. Most of wheat production goes to household consumption in different forms and supplies to the local market. Quite large quantity of wheat is also supplying to agro-industries for processing flour wheat for making bread, injera (traditional Ethiopian pancake), macaroni, pasta and other food types. Although there are limited/no concrete data on the proportion of wheat area allocated for durum and bread wheat, the demand for the two is increasing due to the expansion of bread flour and pasta making factories in the country [8].
Limited availability of and access to quality seed is regarded as one of the main obstacles to increase agricultural productivity in Ethiopia [9]. In most cases, due to several reasons, farmers could not able to access quality seed from suppliers, which forced them to use poor quality seed and eventually obtain low production. To improve the situation and help farmers to access quality seed at the required time and amount, there is a need to strengthen the seed systems [10, 11]. Seed system in Ethiopia represents the entire complex of organizational, institutional and individual operations associated with the development, multiplication, processing, storage, distribution and marketing of seed in the country [12]. The seed sector in Ethiopia can be categorized into different seed systems. Traditionally, seed systems in Ethiopia are broadly categorized into two systems: formal and informal seed systems [13]. In recent times, the intermediary seed system has appeared in the Ethiopian seed sector. The intermediary seed system shares attributes both from the formal and the informal seed systems [11, 14]. The seed systems development strategy has recognized the three seed systems in the Ethiopian seed sector [14].
Smallholder farmers are involved in multiple seed systems, which can guarantee them to access seed in terms of quantity and quality [15]. Most smallholder farmers (nearly 90%) access seed through informal seed system, which is the primary seed source for rural community [16, 17]. Farmers use their social network, as an important feature of informal seed system, to access seed. This involves the seed exchanges among farmers in the context of social interactions [18, 19, 20]. The formal seed system covers only small portion of the seed demand of smallholders. Seed companies in the formal sector mainly focus on a few crops particularly wheat and hybrid maize. Wheat and hybrid maize make up nearly 64% and 23%, respectively, of the total certified seed supply from the formal sector [21].
Most of the earlier studies conducted in Ethiopia have focused on bread wheat varieties adoption [22, 23]. There is limited information how and to what extent farmers access seed from different seed sources. Particularly, information regarding to the identification of existing seed sources through which farmers are accessing the seed they want is scarce. Knowing the seed sources and the available channels could help farmers to secure the seed, to trace back the sources when such quality problems occur, and to maintain the linkage between seed suppliers and farmers. Furthermore, evaluating the quality of the seed that supplies through different seed sources and understanding the various constraints that inhibit farmers in using quality seed are crucial to improve the seed security of the farming community [20]. There is a lack of information in assessing the potential seed sources and possible interventions to improve the existing seed sources in major wheat producing areas of Amhara region, Ethiopia, including Baso Liben district. According to Baso Liben district office of agriculture (BLWoA), insufficient amount of improved bread wheat seed, higher agricultural inputs price, inadequate supply of good quality seed, inadequate seed distribution and lack of information on the extent of bread wheat seed sources are the major constraints in the district [24]. Therefore, the central research questions that this paper aims to address are: (1) to identify the existing bread wheat seed sources; (2) to identify the key factors affecting the use of improved bread wheat seed; and (3) to assess practitioners’ (farmers and experts) suggestions to improve the existing seed sources in Northwest Ethiopia.