Efforts Being Made and Success Achieved in Producing Improved Seed of Forage Cops in Ethiopia: Review Article

Abstract

Ethiopia stands first in Africa and tenth in the world in its livestock population. In order to attain sustainable production and productivity of the wealth livestock, improved forage production in quality and quantity is highly important. Improved forage production is largely depending on the improved seed production system. To this end, the current review is aimed to summarize the comprehensive information on the potential efforts being made and achievements so far on the improved forage seed production in the country. So far different approaches have been applied to meet the need of improved forage seed production in the country. Among these involving different public institutes, seed producing enterprises, privet sectors, NGOs’ and “farmers” groups are the major one and produced a large amount of forage seed through different seed system. Besides, development of improved varieties and different agronomic practice, capacity building in seed technology and indigenous “germplasms” collection for variety development are also the effort that under took and significantly enhanced the improved forage seed production. Despite these major efforts and achievements, years of work have showed that forage seed production still faced with many problems such as lack of inadequate forage seed research, reliable forage seed production, processing and distribution schemes, less involvement of privet seed producers, lack of information on the national demand for forage seeds, poorly developed seed marketing systems, and lack of financial incentives for seed prices. Therefore, these problems need to intervene properly in order to enhance future improved forage seed production in the country.