Abstract In spite of many initiatives to set up community or farmer-group-based seed production, there is little empirical evidence about the group functioning in producing and marketing quality seed. This article therefore aims to contribute to better understanding of the process and practice of seed potato cooperatives’ formation and operation in Chencha, Ethiopia. Our study specifically focused on why and how farmer groups organize, produce and market quality seed potato. We collected primary data from two seed potato cooperatives in three phases through interviews, focus group discussions, and field assessment and store inventories on bacterial wilt incidence. We found that the support to the establishing of the two seed potato cooperatives focused more on improving the members’ seed potato production capacity and less on building good governance in the seed chain. The experiences showed the tensions between prescriptive rules, collective action and individual interests which made it very hard to maintain quality seed standards and friendship at the same time. In general, the root of having weak seed cooperatives may not be the lack of intent towards building durable farmer groups. Rather, development practitioners did not take the set-up of strong farmer groups as an evolving process, which continually engages in diagnosis and responds to the emerging social as well as material challenges. The set-up of farmer-group-based seed production, therefore, needs to shift from ‘standard production models’ to an evolving model: an open and flexible model guided by trials, challenges and existing socio-technical and institutional realities.

中文翻译：

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优质马铃薯种子的集体生产和销售：埃塞俄比亚Chencha两家合作社的经验

摘要尽管采取了许多措施来建立以社区或农民团体为基础的种子生产，但关于该团体在生产和销售优质种子方面发挥作用的经验证据很少。因此，本文旨在帮助人们更好地了解在埃塞俄比亚Chencha的种薯合作社的形成过程和实践。我们的研究特别关注农民团体为何以及如何组织，生产和销售优质种薯。我们通过访谈，焦点小组讨论以及田间评估和细菌枯萎发病率存储三个阶段从两个种子马铃薯合作社收集了主要数据。我们发现，对建立两个种薯合作社的支持更多地集中在提高成员的种薯生产能力上，而不是在种子链中建立良好治理。经验表明，规定规则，集体行动和个人利益之间存在紧张关系，这使得很难同时维持高质量的种子标准和友谊。通常，种子合作社薄弱的根源可能不是缺乏建立持久农民团体的意图。相反，发展从业者并没有将强大的农民群体的建立视为一个不断发展的过程，该过程不断地进行诊断并应对新兴的社会和物质挑战。因此，建立基于农民团体的种子生产，