AllianceBioversityCIAT/alliance-accelerate-tanzania

# ACCELERATE Tanzania Seed Registry A public, serverless web platform mapping and visualizing Tanzania's seed system ecosystem. Focused on **sorghum**, **common bean**, and **groundnut** value chains, the registry serves 1,000+ actors — seed companies, NGOs, traders, processors, farmer groups, and cooperatives. ## Background **ACCELERATE** — *Accelerated Variety Turnover for Open-Pollinated Crops in Tanzania* — is a four-year initiative (2023–2026) led by the **Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT** and the **Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)**, funded by the **Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation**. **The problem:** Across Tanzania, most smallholder farmers still grow old, low-yielding varieties that are increasingly vulnerable to drought and climate stress. The formal seed sector meets only about **3% of farmers' planting requirements**; the rest comes from informal channels, which keeps improved genetics from reaching the field. Adoption is held back by a lack of product information, limited promotion, poor access to early-generation seed, thin data to guide decisions, and a weak seed supply system. **The approach — a demand-led seed system:** Rather than pushing seed toward farmers, ACCELERATE starts with the sources of demand — the grain traders, aggregators, processors, and institutional buyers who already move crops through the market — and links them to formal, semi-formal, and informal seed producers. When demand pulls quality seed through the value chain, varietal turnover accelerates on its own. Three pillars drive the model: 1. **Information flow** — better information to and from large traders, grain producers, and seed producers builds real demand for quality seed. 2. **Marketplace traders** — engaging the traders who buy and sell grain every day turns the marketplace into an engine for adoption. 3. **Institutional buyers** — when institutional buyers know about and can access improved varieties, turnover speeds up and farmer incomes an …