Linking Up: The Role of Institutions and Farmers in Forage Seed Exchange Networks of Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, access to improved forages remains a challenge for smallholder farmers and limits livestock production. We compared seed exchange networks supporting two contrasting livestock production systems to identify bottlenecks in seed availability and determine the influences of the market, institutions, and cultural context of seed exchange, using interview-based methods for ‘seed tracing’ and network analysis. Government agencies were the primary sources of high-quality genetic materials, with secondary diffusion in the Philippines dairy case being dominated by key individuals in active cooperatives. In the Vietnamese beef-oriented production context, farmer to farmer dissemination was more substantial. In both cases, formal actors dominated where botanical seed was exchanged, while farmers frequently exchanged vegetatively propagated materials among themselves. To improve access to forage seed in these contexts, government agencies and development actors should coordinate quality seed production upstream while supporting the creation of appropriate training, structures, and incentives for seed exchange network improvement downstream.

Legacy genetics of Arachis cardenasii in the peanut crop shows the profound benefits of international seed exchange

The narrow genetics of most crops is a fundamental vulnerability to food security. This makes wild crop relatives a strategic resource of genetic diversity that can be used for crop improvement and adaptation to new agricultural challenges. Here, we uncover the contribution of one wild species accession, Arachis cardenasii GKP 10017, to the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea) that was initiated by complex hybridizations in the 1960s and propagated by international seed exchange. However, until this study, the global scale of the dispersal of genetic contributions from this wild accession had been obscured by the multiple germplasm transfers, breeding cycles, and unrecorded genetic mixing between lineages that had occurred over the years. By genetic analysis and pedigree research, we identified A. cardenasii–enhanced, disease-resistant cultivars in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. These cultivars provide widespread improved food security and environmental and economic benefits. This study emphasizes the importance of wild species and collaborative networks of international expertise for crop improvement. However, it also highlights the consequences of the implementation of a patchwork of restrictive national laws and sea changes in attitudes regarding germplasm that followed in the wake of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Today, the botanical collections and multiple seed exchanges which enable benefits such as those revealed by this study are drastically reduced. The research reported here underscores the vital importance of ready access to germplasm in ensuring long-term world food security.

Kinship networks of seed exchange shape spatial patterns of plant virus diversity

By structuring farmers’ informal networks of seed exchange, kinship systems play a key role in the dynamics of crop genetic diversity in smallholder farming systems. However, because many crop diseases are propagated through infected germplasm, local seed systems can also facilitate the dissemination of seedborne pathogens. Here, we investigate how the interplay of kinship systems and local networks of germplasm exchange influences the metapopulation dynamics of viruses responsible for the cassava mosaic disease (CMD), a major threat to food security in Africa. Combining anthropological, genetic and plant epidemiological data, we analyzed the genetic structure of local populations of the African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV), one of the main causal agents of CMD. Results reveal contrasted patterns of viral diversity in patrilineal and matrilineal communities, consistent with local modes of seed exchange. Our results demonstrate that plant virus ecosystems have also a cultural component and that social factors that shape regional seed exchange networks influence the genetic structure of plant virus populations.

Germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed systems in red zone areas

Native agrobiodiversity become endangered and even lost due to natural disasters in red zone area such as earthquake that hit Nepal on April and May 2015. Endangered agricultural genetic resources should be rescued and revival of disrupted local seed system was essential for sustainable and productive agriculture in earthquake affected areas. The objectives of this paper are to document methods employed to rescue germplasm and rebuild local seed systems in earthquake affected areas to restore lost crop diversity and strengthen local seed systems. Among 14 severely hit districts by April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, 10 districts were selected for germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed system. We surveyed households and sensitized relevant stakeholders. Earthquake affected areas were declared as red zones and status of crop landraces were assessed through survey, five cell analysis and focus group discussion. Three germplasm rescue techniques, namely direct rescue, diversity fair and indirect rescue were applied. Local seed systems were rebuilt through diversity fair, diversity block, seed exchange, repatriation and diversity kits. Collected accessions were characterized, multiplied and conserved in National Genebank and community seed banks. About 5-10% of total local crop diversity (based on the landraces) were lost due to earthquake in these districts. A total of 921 accessions of 61 crops along with 284 rare and endangered crop landraces were collected and rescued from 35 VDCs of 10 severely earthquake affected districts. Climate analogue sites and climate smart germplasm were identified for some of earthquake affected areas, and five landraces of four crops were repatriated. Participatory seed exchange, diversity fairs and 200 diversity kits (containing 3 to 5 varieties) were employed to revive the local seed systems. Farmers’ preferred landraces were conserved in Community Seed Bank in Lamjung and Dolakha and all collections were conserved in Naional Genebank, Khumaltar, Nepal. The study concludes that multiple approaches and tools are necessary for germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed systems from red zone area

Improving Production and Productivity of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Through Scaling-up of Improved Technologies in the Vertisol Highland Areas of Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Background: Chickpea seed supply is limited for a local level farmer to the farmer seed exchange systems. The scale-up was conducted in the vertisol potential areas of North Shewa Zone of Amhara Region to create wider demand for improved chickpea varieties, strengthen the linkage among the possible actors and enhancing technology multiplication and dissemination to improve its productivity. Methods: Naatolii, Mastewal, Arerti and Habru improved chickpea varieties were introduced and more than 393ha of land was covered and about 826 farmers were accessed through delivering more than 49.3 tons of improved seed. Result: The productivity of chickpea in the area was boosted to 2.61tons ha-1 and yield advantage of 73% to 97.7% was obtained from improved varieties compared to the local cultivar. As a result of this intervention, many farmers benefited easy access to improved seeds of different chickpea varieties through direct seed marketing and farmer to farmer seed exchange.

Applying Knowledge of Southern Seed Savers to Community-Based Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Practice

This project investigated the characteristics, motivations, knowledge, and experiences of farmers and gardeners who are involved in growing, saving, and sharing open pollinated, heirloom seeds. The goal of the project was to help the Revitalizing Ozark-Ouachita Seed Traditions (ROOST) seed bank better understand the people who participate in the seed exchange events that ROOST participates in, sponsors, or organizes. We used participant-observation, interviewing, and a survey to gather our data. We selected nine seed savers from the ROOST database for in-depth interviews that we conducted in various places including homes, seed swaps, gardens, and greenhouses, and we followed this with a survey of a broader group of ROOST seed savers. This article analyzes data from this research and makes recommendations regarding how ROOST and other similar organizations can be better and more effective supporters and stewards of local agricultural biodiversity conservation networks.

Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT

This text aims to present a brief discussion about the existence of the associated production and agro, the unique culture of work and experience of some principles of Bem-Viver, which give the historical basis for the imposition of 'Feast of exchange of seeds crioulas' in traditional communities peasants from cuiabana. This issue is being discussed by the Group of Studies and Research on Work and Education (GEPTE) of the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) of the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). It is a theoretical research and field on the matter concerned with analysis, wheels of conversations and interviews.