Traditional African vegetables seed production is constrained by many factors such as poor quality of the seeds used for production; spatial and time gaps in seed distribution systems and lack of structured seed markets. In response to these weaknesses, seed companies opt to contract farmers for the production of quality vegetable seeds to ensure availability and accessibility. The study analyzed economic potential of contracted farmers producing traditional African vegetable seeds in Kenya using data collected from 153 vegetable seed growers in Western Kenya. Gross margin analysis was used to estimate the profit obtained by contracted and non-contracted seed growers. Findings indicated that, contracted traditional African vegetable seed growers had the opportunity to receive institutional services such as extension, credit, and new technology services from contractors. Contracted farmers received high-profit margin ratio (>50%) compared to non-contracted farmers. The study recommends that public and private organizations should sensitize farmers to enter into contracts with seed companies to get agronomic extension service advantages, ensure quality seeds and increase profits from traditional African vegetable seed production.
