Bioversity International scientist Ronnie Vernooy presents on the important role that community seedbanks play in the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity at GIZ Expert Talk on Farmer Seed Systems in Bonn, Germany.

1. Resilient farmer seed systems:
the multiple functions of community
seedbanks
Ronnie Vernooy, Bioversity International

2. Farmer seed security under stress
• Intensification of agriculture
• Commoditization of agriculture
• Concentration of the seed industry
• Lack of support and incentives
• Neglect and lack of support for women farmers/seed
custodians
• Climate change related challenges

3. Community seedbanks: not well known...
• Locally governed and managed institutions to collectively
maintain seeds for local use
• Around for 30 years across the globe
• Different names, forms, seizes, histories
Bioversity International global study and new book in
2015:
literature review; 32 commissioned in-depth case studies;
ongoing action research in Bhutan, China, Nepal,
Malaysia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Uganda,
South Africa, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua

4. Community seedbanks: not duly appreciated,
but great potential
• Multiple functions and services
• Mechanism for farmer empowerment
• Link in national and international systems of crop
conservation and exchange
• Increased awareness of potential roles at government
levels (e.g. roles in in situ conservation policy)
• Recent demand for supportive policy/legal development

5. Evolution

6. Key functions
• From conservation to community
development

7. Conservation
• Short term conservation of mostly local (farmer) varieties
• Longer term conservation of heirloom and rare varieties
• Restoration of “lost” varieties
• Development of protocols for conservation of healthy and
genetically true to type seed and training of local
communities

8. Access and availability
• Platform offering multiple channels of access and
availability of seeds at the community level
• Maintenance of locally adapted seed at a low cost
• Fostering of seed exchanges at local and supra-local
levels
• Provision of adapted seed to marginal communities not
served by commercial seed dissemination efforts
• When quantities suffice, capacity to respond to local
crises/disasters/ acute shortages of seeds (back-up
service)-Seed multiplication including of participatory bred
varieties

9. Seed and food sovereignty
• Maintenance of local control over seed conservation,
exchange and production activities
• Income generation through the sales of seeds
• Sharing of agricultural biodiversity knowledge and
expertise
• Linkages between in situ and ex situ conservation
• Support of traditional and ethnic food culture and cultural
use
• Contribution to sustainable agriculture and food
sovereignty movements

10. Governance and management

11. From autonomous to guided;
from informal to formal
• At initial stages, sometimes a heavy hand of external
actors (NGOs)
• Group of self-motivated farmers setting own rules and
regulations
• Elected committee with more or less clear rules and
regulations
• Under the leadership and guidance of formal sector
(national genebank)
• Evolution to cooperative organizational form

12. Technical issues

13. Support and connections

14. Policy developments
Bhutan: exploring CSBs as key component of national in
situ conservation strategy
South Africa: CSBs central to national in situ conservation
strategy
Brazil: approved legal framework in States of Paraíba,
Alagoas and Minas Gerais; being reviewed in four more
States
Burundi, Guatemala, Nepal: recognition and support as
rural cooperatives
Strategic Action Plan for strengthening the role of
plant genetic resources towards climate change
adaptation in Mesoamerica: multifaceted purposes and
legitimacy of CSBs as local institutions to promote
community-based conservation and sustainable use

15. Achievements
• Has crop diversity
increased? Are more
varieties of crops
available?
• Are quality seeds
available all year round
and in enough quantities?
• Are seeds available that
do well under poor
conditions, such as
drought or floods? After
natural disasters?
• Has the food supply
increased? Has the quality
of food improved?
• Has the income of
households increased?
• Has the community
seedbank facilitated other
local development efforts?
• Have the organizational
capacities of members
been strengthened?

16. Sustainability

17. Some key variables…
• Farmers’ interests and
leadership
• Building on existing seed
exchange practices
• Feasibility of building a
functional facility with low cost
maintenance
• Responsiveness to crop
diversity decline
• Potential to respond to impact
of climate change on local
farming system
• Possibility to link community
seedbank with crop
improvement efforts
• Potential to evolve to a broader
community development institution
• Availability of sound technical
support
• Availability of a local resource
person to mobilize and facilitate
initial steps
• Possibility to connect with
national genebank and research
agencies (exchange of seeds,
technical cooperation, financial
support)
• Enabling policy and legal
environment (incentives, rewards,
recognition)

18. Thank
you!
www.bioversityinternational.org