Report of follow up field visits to Limpopo and Eastern Cape

This report presents the findings of a field mission to Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces of the Republic of South Africa, following a previous mission which had recommended establishing pilot community seedbanks in each province. See previous report Embracing diversity: inputs for a strategy to support community seedbanks in South Africa’s smallholder farming areas. Report of field visits to Limpopo and Eastern Cape Using a participatory approach with the farmers and extension staff from the two pilot sites, the mission analyzed current seed systems and seed management practices and discussed the criteria for sound governance and management of community seedbanks. A site for the proposed community seedbank in Sterkspruit was identified and work has started to make the seedbank operational. In addition, food fairs held in both sites celebrated traditional crop diversity and culinary practices of the farming communities, literally savouring the local diversity

Sharing diversity: establishing and supporting community seedbanks in South Africa (pilot phase 2013-2015)

A promising start has been made: the two new community seedbanks of Gumbu and Sterkspruit and complementary technical support provided by the government will allow farmers to improve seed conservation technologies, increase access to crop diversity, apply crop improvement practices and explore seed production and marketing opportunities. The Gumbu community seedbank in particular illustrates the key role of women farmers in local conservation efforts and how these efforts in turn have the potential to change the local agro-ecological and socio-economic landscape. Future work will continue to pay attention to the successes and challenges of such farmers’ efforts and continue to draw more attention and support to: encourage the safeguarding and improvement of local plant species and varieties maintained by smallholder farmers and their communities recognizing the central role of women; value and reward farmers’ collective efforts to safeguard and improve agricultural biodiversity and associated cultural values and knowledge; and support farmers technically and financially to organize themselves, and strengthen their organizational capacity taking into consideration the leadership role of women

Understanding of the farmers' privilege concept by smallholder farmers in South Africa

Legislation on plant breeders’ rights – the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 1976 (Act No. 15 of 1976) – currently is being reviewed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. This legislation provides for farmers’ privilege, which is one of the exceptions to plant breeders’ rights. It allows farmers to save seed of protected varieties for their own use. Farmers’ privilege, and particularly its impact on smallholder farmers in developing countries, is a widely debated issue. During the public consultation process, several comments proposing amendments to the farmers’ privilege provision were received from various stakeholders. However, no comments were received from the smallholder farmers who may be directly impacted by this provision. This pilot study was undertaken to assess the understanding of the farmers’ privilege concept by smallholder farmers from the historically disadvantaged communities and their current practices with regard to seed saving. The results showed that the majority of the smallholder farmers were not aware of the existence of the legislation on plant breeders’ rights and therefore do not understand the farmers’ privilege concept and its implications. They also did not know whether the varieties they were using were protected by plant breeders’ rights or not. Little information has been published on the impact of plant breeders’ rights in South Africa in general. We hope that this study might inform policy decisions on matters related to plant breeders’ rights and the farmers’ privilege.http://www.sajs.co.za/hb201

Mobilizing diversity: establishment of the first two community seedbanks in South Africa’s smallholder farming areas

This report presents the findings of the 2015 field missions to Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces of the Republic of South Africa. The missions aimed to build the technical and organizational capacity of the farmers to be able to manage the community seedbanks independently, with minimum support from Bioversity International and the NPGRC. Physical buildings were built or prepared and farmers in the two project sites contributed seeds for the very first collections of their community seedbanks. Contributing farmers have agreed on the functions and governance and management structures of the community seedbanks, and have learned about seed registration, and seed selection, treatment, storage and maintenance

Embracing diversity: inputs for a strategy to support community seedbanks in South Africa’s smallholder farming areas: Report of field visits to Limpopo and Eastern Cape

This report presents the findings of a field mission to Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces of the Republic of South Africa. The mission aimed to assess the viability of establishing and supporting community seed banks in the country’s smallholder farming areas. Tools used included four cell analysis, seed network mapping, seed survey and historical trend analysis. The report recommends establishing pilot community seed banks in each province backed up by sound management and monitoring plans

Green shoots. Community seedbanking in South Africa: endeavours and outcomes 2016-2019

This brief summarizes the progress made in establishing and supporting a national network of community seedbanks in South Africa in the period 2016-2019. Three community seedbanks are up and running. Some exchanges of seeds and knowledge have taken place within the country and with neighboring Zimbabwe. Recurring drought is a major challenge to maintain collections viable, but plans are made to bring more diversity to the community seedbanks

Understanding of the farmers’ privilege concept by smallholder farmers in South Africa

Legislation on plant breeders’ rights – the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 1976 (Act No. 15 of 1976) – currently is being reviewed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. This legislation provides for farmers’ privilege, which is one of the exceptions to plant breeders’ rights. It allows farmers to save seed of protected varieties for their own use. Farmers’ privilege, and particularly its impact on smallholder farmers in developing countries, is a widely debated issue. During the public consultation process, several comments proposing amendments to the farmers’ privilege provision were received from various stakeholders. However, no comments were received from the smallholder farmers who may be directly impacted by this provision. This pilot study was undertaken to assess the understanding of the farmers’ privilege concept by smallholder farmers from the historically disadvantaged communities and their current practices with regard to seed saving. The results showed that the majority of the smallholder farmers were not aware of the existence of the legislation on plant breeders’ rights and therefore do not understand the farmers’ privilege concept and its implications. They also did not know whether the varieties they were using were protected by plant breeders’ rights or not. Little information has been published on the impact of plant breeders’ rights in South Africa in general. We hope that this study might inform policy decisions on matters related to plant breeders’ rights and the farmers’ privilege

Implementing a national community seedbank strategy for South Africa

South Africa's Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in collaboration with Bioversity International, has initiated a community seedbank strategy to support smallholder communities to revive and improve their traditional seed-saving practices for the sake of food security and sustainable agriculture. The Gumbu village case study was particularly interesting due to the high interest in participation due to the active interest and participation in the project of women farmers