Farmers’ prevailing attitudes and practices towards wheat variety and certified seed use, seed replacement and seed storage were assessed through a field survey following a multistage purposive sampling technique to identify 552 smallholder farmers from 10 districts (wereda) in three regional states (Oromiya, Amhara, and SNNP) in Ethiopia. Data were collected in 2013, using a structured questionnaire and subject to descriptive analysis and cross-tabulations. About 57.6% (n = 514) of respondents preferred wheat varieties with high yield whereas 39.9% of the respondents preferred varieties with disease resistance. Farmers purchased an average amount of 157.2 kg certified seed in one season, and most of them paid for it in cash, regardless of their attitudes to seed prices. Disease susceptibility of the existing variety was a significant reason why most farmers (63.8%, n = 538) purchased certified seed. Farmers in the studied areas have practised storing own saved seed up to one year. In conclusion, farmers have good knowledge of certified wheat seed, but their attitudes that dictated the frequency of purchase of certified seed have to be addressed adequately through backstopping of the certified seed supply chain with disease resistant varieties but that have minimum yield penalty.

Poor storage facilities expose seeds to deterioration, resulting in low seed quality under a prolonged storage time. We compared the performance of five bag types: Two hermetic bags (Super GrainPro bag [SGB] and Purdue Improved Crop Storage bag [PICS]), with three non‐hermetic bags (woven polypropylene bag lined with polyethylene [WPP lined with PE], polypropylene bags [PP], and jute bags) for the storage of faba bean seeds for 24 months. Faba bean seed quality was assessed under ambient conditions after 0, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of storage. Parameters investigated include seed moisture content, thousand seed weight, germination percentages, vigor index I and II, speed of germination, percentage of insect‐damaged seed, and insect counts. Results indicated that there was a significant (P ≤ 0.01) interaction of bag types and duration for all tested parameters. Hermetic bags and WPP lined with PE maintained germination percentage above 90% during 12 months of storage. The vigor index remained above 1600 mg% for hermetic bags and WPP lined with PE during 12 months of storage. However, non‐hermetic bags exhibited a rapid drop in vigor index beginning from 6 months of storage. Hermetic bags and WPP lined with PE allowed minimal insect breeding and hence decreased the seed damage caused by insects. The present results demonstrated that in addition to the PICS bags and SGB, the WPP lined with PE can be used for short‐period storage for up to 12 months without incurring a significant loss of seed quality. Hence, we recommend the introduction of WPP lined with PE as faba bean seed storage technique under conditions where hermetic bags are inaccessible to resource‐poor farmers.