The political ecology of crops: From seed to state and capital

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Measuring the end of hunger: Knowledge politics in the selection of SDG food security indicators

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The history of hunger: Counting calories to make global food security legible

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Seeding diversity : enhancing farmers’ access to crop varieties and quality planting materials in Uganda’s seed systems

Ensuring food and livelihood security in rural areas relies heavily on crop diversity, yet farmers often struggle to access suitable seeds and planting materials. This study maps and characterizes Uganda’s seed systems to identify approaches to enhance farmers’ access to seeds of well-adapted and preferred varieties. Based on qualitative data from key informant interviews (KIIs) with a range of actors involved in the seed system, focus group discussions (FGDs) with women and men farmers, document analysis, and stakeholder workshops, this report examines the country’s seed systems from the local to the national level focusing on key seed system functions and outcomes

Farmers’ Rights and Digital Sequence Information: Crisis or Opportunity to Reclaim Stewardship Over Agrobiodiversity?

Contestations about the way in which digital sequence information is used and regulated have created stumbling blocks across multiple international policy processes. Such schisms have profound implications for the way in which we manage and conceptualize agrobiodiversity and its benefits. This paper explores the relationship between farmers’ rights, as recognized in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the dematerialization of genetic resources. Using concepts of “stewardship” and “ownership” we emphasize the need to move away from viewing agrobiodiversity as a commodity that can be owned, toward a strengthened, proactive and expansive stewardship approach that recognizes plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as a public good which should be governed as such. Through this lens we analyze the relationship between digital sequence information and different elements of farmers’ rights to compare and contrast implications for the governance of digital sequence information. Two possible parallel pathways are presented, the first envisaging an enhanced multilateral system that includes digital sequence information and which promotes and enhances the realization of farmers’ rights; and the second a more radical approach that folds together concepts of stewardship, farmers’ rights, and open source science. Farmers’ rights, we suggest, may well be the linchpin for finding fair and equitable solutions for digital sequence information beyond the bilateral and transactional approach that has come to characterize access and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Existing policy uncertainties could be seized as an unexpected but serendipitous opportunity to chart an alternative and visionary pathway for the rights of farmers and other custodians of plant genetic resources.publishedVersio

Cultural Effects on Sorghum Varieties Grown, Traits Preferred, and Seed Management Practices in Northern Ethiopia

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“People Gathered by Sorghum”: Cultural Practices and sorghum Diversity in Northern Ethiopia

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Maize variety preferences among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia: Implications for demand-led breeding and seed sector development

Among smallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia (and similar areas in Africa), yield and stress tolerance traits in maize varieties are important. While high yields remain a major objective, breeding and seed system development programs are increasingly based on the recognition that farmers also have an interest in other agronomic and consumption traits. In this paper we illustrate these issues by measuring the trade-offs farmers may be willing to make for specific traits in the mid-altitude maize markets in Ethiopia. Based on Choice Experiments among 1499 respondents, we estimate the preference for a set of agronomic and consumption traits relative to yield. by capturing farmers’ “willingness to sacrifice yield”. The results suggest a significant willingness to sacrifice yield for drought tolerance among both male and female household members, but not for early maturity per se. There was also a high willingness to sacrifice yields for plant architecture traits like closed tip and lodging resistance among male participants, but not among females. Heterogeneity in responses according to gender, education and land area under maize cultivation suggests that market segmentation is necessary for seed system development to become more demand-led and inclusive. Final and realistic segmentation will depend on the commercial viability or social impact potential of each segment

Crop adaptation to climate change in the semi-arid zone in Tanzania: the role of genetic resources and seed systems

Background: Rural livelihoods relying on agriculture are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Climate models project increasingly negative effects on maize and sorghum production in sub-Saharan Africa. We present a case study of the role of genetic resources and seed systems in adapting to climatic stress from the semi-arid agroecological zone in Tanzania. Results: Crop adaptation, switching to more drought-tolerant crop species or varieties, is an important adaptation strategy within a diverse portfolio of livelihood responses to climatic stress. Crop adaptation involves the adoption of improved maize varieties combined with continued use of local varieties of both maize and sorghum. Regression modelling shows that households receiving the extension service and owning livestock are more likely to switch to drought-tolerant varieties as a response to climatic stress than those without access to these assets. The seed system in the study area consists of both formal and informal elements. The informal channels supply the highest quantities of both sorghum and maize seeds. Recycling of improved varieties of maize is common and the majority of households practice seed selection. Detailed assessment of the three different categories of genetic resources – local, improved and farmer-recycled varieties – reveals that drought tolerance is more frequently reported as a reason for growing local varieties than for growing improved varieties of maize and sorghum. The significantly later maturity reported for local varieties compared to the improved varieties bred to have a short growing cycle indicates that households distinguish between drought-tolerance and drought-avoidance traits. Conclusions: Seed system perspectives on crop adaptation offer insights into the complex ways crop adaptation is realized at the livelihood level. The integration of informal and formal seed system elements is important for the adaptive capacity of agriculture-based livelihoods. Our findings highlight the value and importance of location-specific information about crop variety use for arriving at realistic recommendations in impact and adaptation studies

From genebanks to farmers : a study of approaches to introduce genebank material to farmers’ seed systems

This report is prepared for the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Norad, under the Frame Agreement between NMBU and Norad