Under a tree in a sandy village center on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, women display baskets of millet and handmade wares to prospective customers. After successive years of poor harvests in this harsh environment, farmers who typically rely on themselves or their relatives for seed are obliged to seek it here. They peruse the small amounts of grain women from nearby villages have brought from family granaries. One asks a woman if her grain comes from Tabi, a village nestled in the rocky hills some 20 kilometers away and known for its early-maturing varieties of millet. Answering in the dialect of Dogon, the woman confirms it is a Tabi variety.

Nearly every meal consumed by rural families in drier areas of Mali is based on millet. Although these women most often sell grain for food, their small-scale trade gives other farmers access to vital seeds when both the formal and the informal seed systems fail. Despite the gradual liberalization of the formal seed sector in Mali, no certified seeds are sold yet by traders - either men or women - in local markets. The supply of certified seed continues to be dominated by state institutions and agricultural development and extension services.

"Where formal seed systems for certified seed have limited reach, farmers continue to depend primarily on themselves or their social ties for seed," says Melinda Smale, a senior research fellow of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). "Farmers are very resourceful at finding seed."

Researchers were surprised to discover that local grain markets can provide a form of seed insurance in case of disaster or drought. Village grain markets become especially active as seed markets just before planting season. They're also important later for replanting if the rains that watered the first planting were followed by a dry spell, and after successive years of crop failure, when whole communities find themselves short of seed.

Farmers who sell grain that is suitable for seed may be supporting local crop biodiversity by exchanging genetic resources with a particularly valuable trait, such as early maturity. The team also found that women vendors most often use the money they earn by selling millet to purchase ingredients that add important nutrients to the sauces they prepare for the families' daily millet porridge. The research was conducted by IFPRI, the Institut d'Economie Rurale of Mali and Bioversity International as part of a collaborative project lead by FAO, and builds on the findings of a seed security assessment conducted by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and partners. Findings of the CRS study raise the possibility that, when grain is sold as seed with recognized, valued attributes, vendors are "trading plant genetic resources".

Generally, grain markets are not thought to be good sources of seed because the vendor does not know the variety or whether the grain of several varieties has been mixed. In this case, however, farmers in search of seed know that the grain is suitable for planting because it comes directly from the farmer. Farmer-vendors know about the variety and its characteristics. For the customers, knowing the village of origin is also important, as varieties have a very narrow range of adaptation in this agroclimatic zone, often as little as 40 kilometers across.

The major policy challenge in Mali today, says Smale, is how to develop grain markets into markets for seed. One option is to legalize the sale in village markets of the seed of local varieties that are truthfully labeled, but formalizing the trade of women vendors may not meet the desired objectives of enhancing their welfare. Exchanging millet seed for cash carries social stigma in a culture where farmers have managed the selection and planting of millet varieties for millennia, probably since the crop was domesticated. A fundamental step would seem to be supplying vendors, perhaps through farmers' associations, with small packets of certified seed that has been proven to perform well in this environment. Local nongovernmental organizations are experimenting with seed auctions and fairs to encourage more cash-based exchange of seed.

Supporting the development of local seed markets in the right way will ensure that Malian farmers have access to the genetic diversity they need to combat drought and locust attacks.