Progress in agriculture depends upon technology, and also on entrepreneurial flair and enterprise among farmers and their supply chain. This book provides considerable insight into seed businesses, mostly small, in countries across sub-Saharan Africa. It is not about science, technology or management: It is a selection of case studies of successful seed businesses in the context of each country's agriculture, seed business history and legislation (and where most crops are established from farmer-saved seed).

The context is what happened in the decades after the structural adjustments of the 1980s imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In almost all cases, this led to the demise of the parastatal (etc.) seed companies. The book illustrates the extent (often meagre) to which the private sector took up the resultant slack. A striking point is the almost (but not quite) complete absence of multinational seed companies, despite the adaption of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) standards by most of the countries.

This is a people-centered story of a wide variety of small enterprises surviving against the odds – from the traditional farmers in Dogon country, Mali to the more commercial Premier Seed Nigeria. As the book emphasises, selling seeds requires more knowledge than retailing soap, but the retail season is short and stock deteriorates rapidly without good care.

This is a thorough, well-designed book. I found it fascinating and difficult to put down. It is highly relevant to overcoming barriers to new variety introduction in Africa – and hence food security – and is relevant to development more broadly.