Banking for the future: - Third World Network

9Bringing traditional varieties back to farmersin EthiopiaEthiopia is regarded as a secondary centre for durum wheatdiversity. This diversity has been endangered due to theintroduction of modern varieties of wheat, as well as byrepeated droughts and unprecedented food crises in the1970s and 1980s. To counter this development, researchersfrom the national gene bank at the Institute of BiodiversityConservation (IBC) collected traditional varieties of durumwheat from different agro-ecological zones. In addition tothis ex situ conservation, twelve community seed banks wereconstructed in six different districts from 1994 to 2002 9 .The community seed banks aims at contributing to asustainable conservation strategy and supporting seedexchange of traditional varieties among farmers. Banks aremanaged by the local farmers, who use them to exchangeseeds of traditional varieties from diverse crops, such aswheat, teff, barely, lentil, beans and chickpeas. Havingregistered in crop conservation associations, farmers borrowand return seeds from the community seed banks. As intereston their seed loan, they are obliged to return more seeds thanthey initially received, thereby helping to increase the banks’seed stock.One of the twelve seed banks is the Ejere Community SeedBank, situated in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Since 2001it has been managed by an NGO called Ethio-Organic SeedAssociation (EOSA) in collaboration with the IBC.Through community seed banks, farmers’ varieties that hadbeen lost on farms were brought back from the national genebank at IBC. At the same time, samples of the remainingdiversity in farmers’ field were collected. Now, the communityseed bank in Ejere maintains about 90 accessions of durumwheat out of which 50 are under screening. Each year, theIBC undertakes renewal of this collection. EOSA, on itspart, works to increase the interest of the private sector inagricultural products of traditional varieties for processingand trade. EOSA also provides training and direct technicalsupport for farmers.“People considered it a miracle whentraditional varieties were brought backto their door steps after having beenconsidered lost completely.”Tadesse Reta (45), farmer and memberof Ejere Community Seed BankSaving seeds in Honduras: relief when theweather hitsIn Honduras, as in most of the world, the commercial seedsystem is generally not designed with the interests of smallscalefarmers in mind. The Honduran NGO Foundation forParticipatory Research with Honduran Farmers (FIPAH)helps farmers organise community-wide research teamsknown as Comités de Investigación Local (CIALs). Thesefarmer research teams identify the most pressing localagricultural problems and find solutions, one of which isthe establishment of community seed banks. Here bothtraditional varieties and varieties improved throughparticipatory plant breeding are stored.Several CIALs have set up community seed banks to ensurethat the poorest farmers always have access to quality plantmaterials. This helps to ensure that communities have a stablesupply of food. In 2000, FIPHA assisted the establishmentof one seed bank in the community of Santa Cruz in Yoritoin Northern Honduras. Initially, the community seed bankfocused on rescuing traditional varieties in the area. Afterreceiving training, the community also started to provideseeds to its members.During the flooding caused by a tropical storm in 2008,farmers in Yorito lost approximately 90 present of theirmaize and bean harvest. The stocked seeds in the bank wereimmediately distributed to farmers and all farmers attached tothe community seed bank managed to plant again when thestorm stopped. The response was effective and no other reliefservice came so quickly and directly to the farmers rescue.According to former, local CIAL leader, the late Don LuisAlonso, the inhabitants of Yorito were saved by its communityseed bank. “After the flood, we distributed seeds to ourmembers and other farmers in the community. Thus, we areless dependent on support from outside,” said Alonso. Thiscontrasts with the situation in 1997, when hurricane Mitch hitthe country. Then farmers had to receive seeds from outsidewithout being familiar with their quality or characteristics.“Local varieties of wheat have lowproductivity, but give us considerablesecurity since they withstand extremeand unfavourable climatic conditionsand are less demanding in terms ofmanagement and input requirement.Their food preparation qualities aresuperior and highly demanded forspecialty products such as local beerproduction. Productivity of localvarieties, particularly in durum wheat,needs to be improved.“Getachew Admassu (52), farmer and memberof Ejere Community Seed Bank9 Severin Polreich (et al.) (2005): ”Assessing the Effectiveness of the CommunitybasedSeed Supply System for in Situ Conservation of Local Wheat Varieties”, paperpresented at the Conference on International Agricultural Research for Development,Stuttgart-Hohenheim, October 11-13, 2005Images opposite side:1. Community seed bank in Rampur Dang, Nepal. Traditional seedstorage structure made of bamboo for storing tubers. Photo: LI-BIRD.2. Rice management in Northern Thailand. Photo: CBDC-Nan.3. Visitors learning from diversity block established by the communityseed bank of Kachorwa in Nepal. Photo: LI-BIRD