

The immediate visible benefits include children going to school for the first time thanks to profits from seed production, and a general rise in living standards in the village in southwestern Niger where male and female farmers have cooperated in growing new varieties and learning Certified Seed production and marketing methods. These activities are expected to increase during the United Nations (UN) International Year of Family Farming (IYFF 2014), which aims to stimulate policies for the sustainable development of farming families, communal units, indigenous groups, cooperatives and fishing families.