A3-SEED South Sudan: Internal Project Evaluation
- Authors
- David Deng Chol, Nicola Francesconi, Lisa de Graaf, Turo Thomas Mono, Alida Sangrigoli, Esther Smits
- Publication year
- December 2025
This final report presents a comprehensive evaluation of the A3SEED project (2021–2025), a €10 million initiative funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in South Sudan and implemented by IFDC in partnership with KIT Institute. The project aimed to transform the seed sector in South Sudan by strengthening domestic seed production through a private sector–led approach. South Sudan is one of the poorest and most fragile countries in the world and is plagued by instability, displacement, flooding, disease outbreaks and food insecurity.
Drawing on extensive quantitative and qualitative data from five target counties in the country’s “green belt,” the report assesses impacts on agricultural productivity, commercialisation, food security, and dietary diversity. Results show that farmers who accessed seeds produced by project-supported companies nearly doubled their maize productivity, with effects sustained over time.
However, despite strong impacts among adopting farmers, overall seed production volumes remained limited and the majority of humanitarian seed procurement continued to rely on imports. As a result, aggregate improvements at county level were modest. The report concludes that while A3SEED demonstrated that a domestic seed sector can significantly improve productivity, scaling such impact requires systemic reforms — particularly the localisation of seed-aid procurement and the establishment of a national seed quality control and certification system.
