Global Ecovillage Network/Solution Library/Seed sovereignty in agriculture

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How to maintain indigenous seed and make them available for the farmers?

Indigenous seed are endangered and are getting lost due to emergence of industrialized seeds i.e. Hybridization, GMOs and the Terminator seeds. It is evident that a majority of our farmers in Kenya have no access to affordable seeds. The presence of multinational companies in Kenya have led to disappearance of indigenous seeds because they have been forced to believe that hybrids and GMOs are the best and that they are able to produce more food and save them from hunger. Our seeds is our heritage. They are used to local climates and they perform well with minimum water.

We need to empower our communities to go back to their roots and restore the culture of the use of indigenous seeds. Farmers can be empowered to come together and share seeds in different forums but the most sustainable one is where farmer groups would be empowered to establish operational seed security systems and seed banks where farmers would save their seeds and collect them during the growing season. Community seed banks are structures that are constructed in the community where farmers preserve their seeds for planting in the seasons to come.

Farmers preserve only local indigenous seeds. Seed production and preservation form an integral part of farming in Kenya and Africa in general. This is a principle that will allow farmers to work towards self reliance in food production. If the farmers embrace the establishment of seed banks, they are supposed to be managed by farmers themselves within the community Farmers will register as members of the seed bank and they will qualify to be members of the seed bank. They then are required to save their seeds in this bank and pick them up during the planting season.

Farmers will be encouraged to exchange the seeds, and whoever borrows the seeds from this bank will be required to return it in double.

• Ecology
  • Seeds, Food & Soil