There is a growing awareness of the need for a deeper understanding of the relationship between governments and farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Nowhere is this awareness growing more rapidly than in the seed sub-sector. Here the quest for alternatives to the large-scale government seed organisations of the 1970s and 1980s is becoming urgent. This book presents the results of the first study to investigate structural and organisational issues in the African seed sector in detail, using case study material from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It assesses the likely impact on the seed sector of the two trends of structural adjustment and greater emphasis on community participation.