Farmers gain access to and control over seeds
This journal (PDF) by Vice Versa is a special edition centred around the question: How do small-scale farmers from Africa and Asia come upon good quality seeds, and what problems do they face in the process. Policymakers, development workers, farmers and private companies are consulted to answer this question. An ongoing debate in the field of seeds is on the intellectual property of seeds. The journal sheds light on different sides of this debate, but also reveals that for farmers this debate is not of importance; they get there seeds where it best suits them. The journal also focused on the formal seed sector and the support of the Dutch governments for public-private seed projects. Farmers, however, buy their seeds mostly in the informal sector, where most NGOs focus on the way farmers select, collect, test and multiply their seeds. The proponents of the formal and informal sector seem to live in separate worlds, though for farmers these worlds are intertwined since both seed systems are of importance. The Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) tried to connect the formal and informal sector and focused on the development of the seed sector in total during a conference in Nairbori, Kenya. Furthermore, the journal shares the lessons learnt from the Access to seeds index and dives into questions like; why are seed companies hesitant to enter the West-African market and how can entrepreneurship be developed in post-conflict Burundi.