b'BY: GIGI MANICADSEED SYSTEM RESILIENCE PAPER BUSTS TWO COMMON MYTHS ABOUT SEEDFarmers seed systems, that are based on sharingdo so. However, when demographic and environmental changes within farming communities are the best bet for farmers go as fast as they go today, the natural processes and farmers they secure access to locally adapted seeds that are the mostselection are not sufficient to sustain a secure food situation, effective repository of genetic diversity. Farmers seeds willlet alone produce surpluses to feed the quickly growing urban trump climate change. Commercial seed suppliers makepopulation. farmers dependent on uniform crops that are bound to suc- So, naturally the formal seed systems may be seen as the cumb to some devastating stress. answer. However, the public sector has proven to be unable to Or produce enough seed sustainably, and the private sector can Formal seed sector with their access to science and cap- only reach certain types of farmers with a limited number of ital has the answers to all ailments; the more we know aboutcrop seeds. Public sector breeders need extensive monitoring the structure and function of DNA, the higher yielding andand evaluation programmes to identify whether they do the right more robust we can make crops. The commercial seed mar- thing, whereas private sector breeders simply look at their seed kets offer all farmers the best guarantee. Good seed doesntsales and customer responses to measure their success. And a costit pays. Farm-saved seed is bound to keep farmers poorbottom line of the market is that it only works well when thereand with the growing population, ever poorer. is sufficient competition.So, we need to come out of the trenches and realise that H avent we all heard such statements? Havent wefarmers seed systems have an important role to play for the expressed either of them? Then we are all guilty ofmajority of basic food crops in the Global South, and that com-creating trenches that obstruct a sensible way of deal- mercial seed can provide and excellent service to farmers at ing with one of the most important aspects of farming: havingthe same time, and probably for different crops. So that policy a secured access to good seeds. It is such ideas that nurture anmeasures to support the development of the formal seed system, arrogant -green revolution typeattitude by breeders and seedsuch as breeders rights, need to be embraced while, on the other regulators, that think they know best what farmers need, buthand, local seed exchange and development that are part of sus-often dont have the means to implement what they design. Ittaining household food security of many could well be supported is also such ideas that nurture a romantic idea that local seedas part of farmers rights. always magically adapts to all environmentally stresses and thatBoth propositions, that farmers or formal seed systems communities never got hungry over the last 10,000 years. Thesealone can cater for the needs of farmers and are the answer to worldviews collide in the policy areas of the biodiversity con- global food insecurity, are myths. Not a single country, nor seed vention, and in the polarized views on the protection of farmerssystem, is fully self-reliant on seeds for all crops or plant genetic rights and intellectual property that keep us hostage. At worst,resources for its food and agriculture. Given this global inter-both these singular views tend to be unilaterally prescribed todependence, it is more productive to think in terms of systems supposedly benefit all the farmers in highly diverse context,complementarity. Facilitating the continuous access to plant needs and preferences. genetic resources and innovation; ensuring that both the formal These myths are neither right, nor are they fully untrue.and farmers seed systems function and complement each other; That is the conclusion of a paper by Manicad and Niels Louwaars,and ensuring that plant breeding take place, are more decisive titled Seed systems resilience, an overview published infor the resilience of seed systems and consequently, our global December 2022 in the scientific journal Seeds. The paper doesntfood systems. go as far as the hostage result described above. However, it clearly indicates the weaknesses of both the farmers and formalEditors Note: Gigi Manicad is Senior Consultant at Manicad seed systems. The former is less romantic in practice. A largeDevelopment Consultancynumber of farmers is not even able to save (and select) their own seed and depend on using food grains purchased from the local markets as seed. Development aid organizations annually increase their seed aid programmes distributing free seed of improved varieties to rapidly increasing numbers of farmers. We can indeed assert that the farmers seed systems have shapedFor the original article, please see:our crops during domestication and still have the potential tohttps://doi.org/10.3390/ seeds1040028 30IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'