In August last year, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) hosted a discussion on farmer seed systems, in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

From Brazil, we were joined by two activist farmers, Severina da Silva Pereira from Paraiba and Sebastião Augusto Estevão from Minas Gerais, and researcher Gabriel Fernandes of the National Biodiversity Working Group.

They talk about the importance of traditional farmer seed, and how it is intertwined with the history of the struggle of black people in Brazil and an intrinsic part of indigenous knowledge. They also explain how they fought to have their traditional farmer seed protected and how they promote the preservation of indigenous seeds and agroecological farming methods.

This meeting in Zanzibar brought together members from farmer organisations, non-governmental organisations, academia and government institutions (specifically gene banks and research institutes) from 10 African countries – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and five countries beyond Africa – Brazil, France, Italy, Nepal and the United States.

Farmers’ seed, which is an intrinsic aspect of indigenous knowledge, constitutes the majority of seed used and exchanged. Crops produced from this seed contribute substantially to food and nutrition security for billions of people. However, these seeds receive scant recognition, and there is limited support for their reproduction, adaptation and use by farmers, for farmers.

A briefing paper came out of this meeting, summarising key insights and highlighting areas for further work to recognise and support farmer seed systems, in English, French and Portuguese.

To read more, please click here: https://www.acbio.org.za/en/changing-... We gratefully acknowledge Heloise Palacio Rodrigues for volunteering her time to translate the Portuguese into English subtitles.