seed systems

This report by the Global Network For The Right To Food And Nutrition concludes that transnational corporations are monopolizing control over seeds with dire consequences for human rights and biodiversity. Increasingly, seed and agrochemical businesses seek to privatize, monopolize and control seeds by patenting and commodifying this very source of life. Meanwhile, peasant and indigenous communities, who have been the developers and guardians of seeds for millennia, are finding their rights to save, use, exchange and sell seeds overshadowed by a corporate agenda that prioritizes profit over human rights and the sustainable maintenance of nature. »

This book examines policies that aim to increase the share of benefits that farmers receive when others use the crop varieties that they have developed and managed, i.e., ‘farmers’ varieties’. In so doing, the book addresses two fundamental questions. »

This paper, published in the Outlook on Agriculture journal, provides an overview and analysis of vegetable seed industries in developing countries, with a focus on Morocco, and the resulting influences on smaller subsistence farmers. The ongoing problems and issues related to the absence of vegetable seed industries in developing countries will undoubtedly affect food production, nutritional health and the resulting food security in these countries for future generations. »

In April, Agriterra organized the Dutch Seeds Debate in The Hague, the Netherlands. The debate is an element of ‘Small Farmers, Big Deal’, a campaign designed by Agriterra to connect companies to farmers.‘What can your organization do to support smallholder farmers in developing countries?’ This was the key question during the debate, which was attended by more than 90 representatives of the government, seed companies, research institutions and NGOs. These organizations were triggered to think about what they can do to support smallholder farmers. »

This research on the Royal Society shows how the origins of food plants has led to the recognition that specific geographical regions around the world have been of particular importance to the development of agricultural crops. Yet the relative contributions of these different regions in the context of current food systems have not been quantified. The authors determine the origins (‘primary regions of diversity’) of the crops comprising the food supplies and agricultural production of countries world. »

This issue of Rural21 shows how closely agriculture, nutrition and health are linked and takes a look at the various entry-points for improving nutrition through agriculture: from the choice of adequate seed systems and breeding programmes through agricultural policy interventions to promoting market access, production diversification and better functioning value chains to capacity building, nutrition education and gender equality. The issue also contains an article on the SUN movement and the importance of pulses. »