FIELD Report No. 21: Understanding Systemic Change in the Vegetable Seed Market – A Qualitative Assessment

This report from the FIELD-Support LWA examines changes in the local market system resulting from the introduction of vegetable seed mini-packets in Bangladesh (facilitated through an Action for Enterprise program), and how those changes affected local farmers and their households. It first presents the findings of a market system assessment based on a review of secondary data and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with market actors. Second, the paper presents findings from in-depth interviews conducted with two groups of farmers: those who purchased the vegetable seed mini-packets and those who did not. 

Through this activity, AFE also created a Business Planning Facilitation Tool to support companies expanding into this new market. While the tool was designed for vegetable seed mini-packets, it can be easily adapted to other Input Supply company products as well. The tool has two components: i) a comprehensive set of questions to use with companies during planning sessions which cover the principal components of a business plan including the target market, competition, enabling environment, costing and pricing, and projected revenues, and ii) an associated spreadsheet that is used in conjunction with the question guide to create a multi-year projected profit and loss statement.