There is a wide recognition that the global balance for food production and environmental sustainability is tipping [1], with future food and nutritional security threatened by the unsustainable intensification and expansion of industrial agriculture [2–4]. Increased attention is being given to alternative ways of crop production, based on traditional smallholder farming systems such as agro-ecology¹ that promote biodiversity, reduce reliance on external chemical inputs and sustain year-round yields [3]. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) for example has called for redesigning of the Global Food System in support of small-scale agro-ecological systems [4], whilst World Bank and the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) has noted smallholder farming to be the main pathway to enhancing productivity, profitability, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction in Africa [5, 6].

Several scholars (e.g. [7, 8]) corroborate that smallholder farming systems in Africa have the potential to sustainably provide livelihoods, food and nutritional security to most of the continent’s population. Yet the success of smallholder agriculture is largely determined by the viability and resilience of local seed systems. Such systems are estimated to account for 60–100% of seed materials planted by smallholder farmers in Africa [9–11] and are envisaged to remain the dominant seed source in Africa in the foreseeable future [11, 12].

Seed is the basic unit of crop production [13], and its quality is a primary determinant of yield and nutrition [9]. Yet seed is not only a vehicle for promoting productivity, nutrition and resilience, but also an entry point for achieving multiple development goals [11]. The practices that farmers use to produce, procure, save, exchange and sell seed define what we refer to as farmer-led seed systems, sometimes described in the literature as informal, traditional [14], local [15] or farmer-led or managed [16, 17]. Although such seed systems continue to be maligned as having inferior quality, few studies support this assertion. By evaluating 60 sorghum samples collected from farmers in the Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) and Chimanimani districts of Zimbabwe, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating how different seed sources and storage practices influence seed quality (storage moisture content, germination quality and fungal incidence levels).

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after rice, wheat, corn and barley and the second most important crop (after maize) in sub-Saharan Africa [18]. It is also the main cereal food for over 750 million people living in semi-arid tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America [19]. Sorghum is drought tolerant and has high and stable water use efficiency, tolerating temporal waterlogging and heat, whilst endowed with high germplasm variability and nutrition [20]. The crop is recommended for special diets such as for diabetics and infants since it is rich in essential minerals. It is also used as a livestock feed, for industrial manufacture of ethanol, traditional brewing, house thatching and fencing [21]. For these reasons, we focus on sorghum seed as an entry crop to evaluate the resilience² of farmer-led seed systems in smallholder farming communities of Zimbabwe.

Current levels of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with the adverse effects of climate change and the high cost of agricultural inputs, suggest that crop farming in smallholder farming communities is likely constructed around farmer-led seed systems [12]. Such systems are often criticized because seeds in their circulation are not tested for quality [22]. In contrast, the formal seed system is not always compatible with the diverse seed requirements for smallholder farming systems [23]. Farmer-led seed systems have proved to be resilient, as the systems continue to function without support from known quality assurance institutions [11, 24].

Pests and diseases, poor harvesting, handling and storage are however major challenges to seed quality. The study thus investigated fungal infections, germination and moisture qualities as key determinants of seed quality. Fungal infections cause seed moulding, a condition caused by parasitic and/or saprophytic interactions of numerous fungal species. Moulding reduces yield and affects seed viability, kernel weight and nutritional quality in sorghum [25, 26]. Although we screened five different fungal species, Fusarium sp. are the most economically important fungi in sorghum [27], causing diseases such as damping off, seed rot, head blight, root and stalk rot and seedling blight [25].

In addition, fungal grain infections also produce mycotoxins. These secondary toxic metabolites contaminate food and feed produced from infected sorghum. Mycotoxins have a huge impact on human and animal health. They cause many adverse health effects such as the induction of cancer and mutagenicity, as well as oestrogenic, gastrointestinal and kidney disorders, with some being immunosuppressive [28].

This study, which was done in Zimbabwe, provides a classic example of a country with a plethora of social, economic and ecological perturbations. The economy of Zimbabwe collapsed in the first decade of the twenty-first century, rendering its currency obsolete and crippling agricultural production [29]. This affected seed security in the context of failing formal markets, constrained disposable household income and increased vulnerability to the effects of climate change. This backdrop of a ‘failed system’ presents a fitting environment for investigating the resilience of farmer-led seed systems in the sense of its capacity to effectively supply viable and fungal-free quality seeds. Although this context is not unique to Zimbabwe, many countries in the world can learn from this experience.

An interdisciplinary research approach was used, with data collected through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods including household surveys, key informant interviews, participatory observations and laboratory experiments. The study was undertaken in smallholder farming communities of Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) and Chimanimani districts of Zimbabwe. UMP is located in Mashonaland East Province, whilst Chimanimani is in Manicaland Province. The study districts are spatially characterized by diverse natural agro-ecological regions, and our specific study areas were situated in the natural agro-ecological region IV [30]. This region receives low mean annual rainfall of 650–800 mm with mean annual temperature of 18–24 °C [30, 31]. These areas are highly prone to the effects of climate change, drought, poverty and food and nutritional insecurity. They have poor soils and are in general deemed unsuitable for crop production. Nonetheless, farming communities in these areas depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods.

The results show that 75% of farmers surveyed grew sorghum, with 68% of their seed acquired through farmer-led seed sources (other farmers, relatives and local markets). The observation that farmer-based seed sources are common in smallholder communities is similar to those reported in earlier studies [5, 9, 10, 12, 23]. This confirms the importance of sorghum as an important crop and validates the fact that farmer-led seed systems remain the dominant source of seed in such communities [12].

Farmers used a diversity of seed sources and storage facilities, providing an inherent and resilient seed supply to the farmers. If one seed source or storage facility fails, then alternatives can be utilized. These alternatives give farmers a chance to evolve adaptive pathways that can sustain their seed security [12] and can thus potentially achieve food and nutritional security [7]. The diverse seed sources from which farmers acquire their seed may enable the easy flow of climate-adapted genes from one farmers to the other [34], access to new landraces, the recovery of lost varieties and the renewal or broadening of the genetic base of their seed stock [17, 35]. Such practices may present smallholder farmers with broader opportunities for coping with extreme abiotic and biotic stressors under climate change [35, 36].

Local markets were found to supply seed with the highest germination rate at 93%. Only 13% of the samples tested positive for A. flavus, A. niger and C. lunata, with Fusarium sp. and Penicillium sp. completely absent. The absence of Fusarium sp., which is the most economically important fungi in sorghum production, further strengthens the importance of local markets as a trusted source of quality sorghum seed. The findings point to good seed production practices by farmers producing for local seed markets. Our results corroborate those of McGuire and Sperling [11] who found that 50.9% of farmers across six countries (including Zimbabwe) acquired their seed from local markets, with 55% of the transactions cash based. Farmers are rational beings cognizant of risks associated with planting poor-quality seeds; trade reported at local seed markets thus presents evidence that the source is trustworthy and reputable [24]. The reported frequent use of local markets by farmers clearly comprises an informal certification of this seed channel.

Findings indicated that more than half of the sorghum seed samples were infected with A. flavus, A. niger, C. lunata and Fusarium sp. Though the fungal incidence levels were very low, their presence points to potential fungal damage to seed and crops, with associated negative impacts on food security, human and animal health. The study also recorded very high A. niger PI in samples originally sourced from NGOs and stored in sacks (99.2%) and granaries (60.4%). There could be a number of factors that influenced these results, including the susceptibility of screened sorghum varieties to fungal infections [37] and handling, transportation and storage conditions (from the origin to the beneficiary in such cases as seed aid) [38].

A. flavus and A. niger were the most prevalent fungi detected, and their presence indicates health threats to both humans and animals from potential mycotoxin poisoning in sorghum food and feed [39]. Mycotoxin exposure in children causes malnutrition and stunted growth. In addition, mycotoxins in livestock cause high livestock mortality. However, most detections were of low incidence (<25%). We suggest that these results indicate both the capability of farmers and their significant management expertise to keep their seed clean.

Seed from other farmers also scored high germination (>80%), low moisture content (<11%) and low PI of fungal infections (<26%), reinforcing the finding that farmer-led seed sources have the capacity to produce seeds of high quality. The findings concur with Louwaars and de Boef [9] who noted that some farmers in smallholder farming community could produce seed of good quality and share with their neighbours. Alverez et al. [40] found smallholder farmers in Cameroon not only producing good-quality seed but also highly knowledgeable about sorghum seed production. The failure of the seed samples acquired through relatives to meet the seed certification standards could be explained by the likelihood that seed and grain are often interwoven in exchange. The chances of grain conversion to seed are even higher during crises or post-crises.

We conclude that farmers have the capacity to effectively produce and exchange amongst themselves seed of good quality that is comparable to or even higher than the standards of formal seed systems. Similar findings have also been reported for other crops, including cowpeas and maize. Biemond et al. [22] for example found that farmer-produced cowpeas seed samples had lower infection frequencies of seed- and soil-borne pathogens than seed-certified and foundation seed samples. In a follow-up study on maize, Biemond et al. [41] found that farmer-produced seed samples were heavily infected with a range of seed- and soil-borne pathogens, although control samples produced by a public institution were also heavily infected.

The RP and PI for storage facilities did not give a clear indication of which facility is better suited for storage. There is scope to do further tests with a larger sample size to analyse differences. Variations may have also resulted from the handling of seed and different seed management practices. We found sacks to be the most commonly used storage facility in both districts; these were mainly coated with polythene and had limited free air circulation, thus stimulating fungal infestation. In addition, farmers sometimes recycle the same sacks from year to year and there is a possibility of carrying over the fungal inoculum through sacks. Traditional storage facilities such as the kitchen ceilings and granaries were the least used storage facilities.

Our findings reveal unequivocally that farmer-led seed systems have the capacity to provide quality sorghum seeds for crop production in Zimbabwe. They channel seeds of reasonable quality within comparable levels to the set certification standards. Such systems not only present opportunities to deliver seed, food and nutritional security in sub-Saharan Africa but also have the potential to provide solutions that are resilient to changing climates. Farmer-led seed systems deserves greater recognition and support from governments and other relevant players in crop production in order to develop a tailored and appropriate seed system that meets the ever-evolving needs of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.