A huge problem
amongst gardeners in the central regions of Benin is a complete lack of access
to affordable seeds. As it stands,
farmers from this region must travel at least five hours to one of the major
cities in Benin, where they may find a reliable distributor. This voyage is often too expensive for an
ordinary villager to make, and then the packages of seeds that they have
travelled to purchase are often marked up to a rate that makes them
unaffordable.
Along with a
number of other volunteers in the region, I’ve been working to create a seed
distribution network that will bring a preferable alternative to this
dilemma. Although individual packets of
seeds are expensive, purchasing bulk orders of them is exceptionally more affordable
in terms of a unit cost. Thus, we’ve
been working to unite gardening groups throughout the central regions of Benin
so that they can have the buying power to purchase enough seeds to make them
affordable to the average villager. On
top of this, we’ve been working with different Beninese organizations to create
a structure of distributors that can bring seeds from the major cities to
individual communities with minimal to no additional cost to the farmers. In essence, this distribution network will
allow farmers access to very cheap seeds at a location that can be reached with
no added hassle to themselves.
