Discussion Paper on Supplying Seed Aid in Disaster Areas

Michel Fanton warns of the pitfalls in of Seed Aid

   The Seed Savers' Network is frequently asked to supply seeds for development projects. But importing seeds willy-nilly is not necessarily the best way to go about helping those whose food security is not the supermarket but what they are able to grow.
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The GPA on Sustainable Conservation and Utilisation of plant genetic resources (PGR ), Leipzig 1996, warns in its article, 3.50, Assisting Farmers in Disaster Situations to Restore Agricultural Systems, that "food aid combined with the importation of often poorly adapted seed varieties can lower crop yields and keep them low for years, exacerbate hunger conditions, and increase costs of donor assistance well into the future".

Third World village agriculture and subsistence farming may appear at first glance underdeveloped. Lack of seeds we are used to may be obvious to the casual visitor.
   The villagers themselves may confirm your observations, telling you that seeds are badly needed and that there is an urgent need for western-type temperate climate vegetable seeds.
    Before rushing in with imported seed, it's worth finding out what the local situation really is and ask people that know about local agriculture their opinion. Too few aid workers and volunteers recognise that Third World villages have their own traditional varieties of food plants, both wild and cultivated. More often than not, villages have sophisticated . Local Seed Systems (LSS) including seed multiplication, supply and distribution, both formal and informal. They often have village and individual seed banks not visible to the casual onlooker.
   For aid workers, an appreciation of the local food culture is also much needed. We must ask ourselves how appropriate or useful seed donations really would be to the culture we are working with. Asking ourselves this question, however, should not be interpreted that new planting material should not be introduced at all. Some very useful introductions can be made, using national quarantine requirements but only when we know what the situation really is on the ground.

Donating seeds - the motivations
For some travellers, aid and donor organisations, donating seed offers a practical and direct means of lending a hand and extending goodwill. Seed gifts are seen as a positive approach to assisting the needy help themselves. However, things might not be so straightforward:

• Seed companies offering seeds have been known to give old seed stock that they write off to reduce tax liability;
• Supplying free or subsidised seeds on a regular basis undermines local seed saving practices and local seed production and trade and therefore reduce already threatened local agricultural biodiversity;
• Local seed production may be undermined;
• As in the Orissa disaster, GM food including maize that could have been used to replant (with positive DNA tests) were given as food aid to unsuspecting Indians. The Clinton Administration, at the Okinawa G8 Meeting in August 2000, gave one hundred million US dollars worth of agricultural soya and maize surplus to so called Third World countries. All of these may genetically pollute local non- GM crops through cross pollination.

Emergencies create demand
We recognise that emergencies do happen and that they create an urgent need for seeds. For instance, finding supplies of seed in large quantities was and still is a problem in East Timor following the Indonesian occupation and in north-west PNG after the tsunami.
   Sometimes no seed is available locally in commercial quantities. One solution might be to bring in varieties from neighbouring islands or regions. These are best obtained initially from the seed market and/or, as soon as possible, multiplied locally and distributed to local farmers.
   More often than not, relief and rehabilitation agencies, working in disaster areas understand the need for locally adapted varieties.

Where supplying seed is necessary
For the traveller, volunteers or aid workers bringing in seed to a village community in a non-emergency situation, there are a number of points which should be given careful thought.

Germination
Checking the rate of germination before giving seeds. Bringing in seeds with poor germination quality is counterproductive and reduces the yield available to farmers. It may also reduce the credibility of the organisation or person bringing in the seed. Seed viability - a measure of the proportion of seed which will grow - declines from the time of harvest. It is influenced by the way in which the seeds were stored and the time between acquiring seeds and transporting them to their destination. For example, a few hours in a hot shed at 55° C will kill the seeds! A metal container in the sun achieves the same results. The fresher the seed, the better.

The wrong crop or untested seeds
Seeds of the wrong crop or poorly adapted varieties of the right crop are likely to reduce the yield to farmers and will discourage farmers from growing their own food.

Varietal difference is another consideration. New varieties can:

• be highly sensitive to day length, especially for onions and rice
• have a different sensitivity to temperature which sets off flowering
• may not be resistance to pests and diseases in their new environment; the farmer may not know that a variety is susceptible to a particular insect and the crop may be lost
• after prolonged conflicts in war affected areas, labour changes and displaced farmers can no longer grow their traditional crops or land races, the way they used to. In Sierra Leone mangrove rice of a native African species of rice was no longer possible due to its intrensive farming necessitating lots of young people under the control of elders. So new dryland rice from neighbouring regions had to be bought for seeds.

If a seed does not perform well during its first year it may be that the plant is adapting to local climatic and soil conditions. It takes at least two to three years, perhaps longer, until the variety has adapted and reliable seed can be collected from the initial planting.
   While this may be OK for a hobby gardener willing to experiment, this may be tragic for a cashless Third World farmer depending on the produce to feed his family. If you are unsure whether a particular plant is suitable, establish the plant only in a demonstration garden.

Encourage seed saving
Seed donors and, aid agencies should record the name of donated seeds, origins and also its performance in a particular region and encourage farmers to produce their own seeds when the new imported varieties are appropriate. Hybrids cannot be successfully saved. Composite, synthetic or inbred varieties of corn can be recycled for only three years.

Quarantine
Avoiding quarantine may result in the importation of plant disease.
   Disease might affect not only the contaminated seed but could spread to other farms, reducing crop yield, the security of the food supply and the availability of the crop on the local market.
   In the Pacific, quarantine is a serious issue on the minds of many people. Taro was almost totally wiped out in the Pacific since 1950's because of taro blight spreading to many islands.

Finding seeds
The best way to create a reliable supply of seed is to locate local seed varieties and multiply them on site, then distribute them to farmers.

In distributing seed:

• An understanding of the social basis of local seed distribution systems is important where seed is to be distributed on a larger scale
• The vulnerability and resilience of local seed systems needs to be understood and
• An understanding of how planting material is normally obtained is useful, as is knowledge of how seed is normally obtained by villagers in times of crisis and natural disaster.

*Seeds may traditionally be on loan from other farmers; bartered and, transferred, based on social obligations, through cash sales and purchases. Farmers source their own seeds stock from neighbours, families, through marriage and at specific seed ceremonies.
   Seeds are also obtained through community seed exchanges, community seed banks and seed storage and modern seed networks where seeds may come in from a number of locations. In many cultures, offering small amounts of seeds to neighbours is courteous. Repeated donations of larger quantities of seeds is a must in most cultures. Also farmers make token gifts of seeds to each other and loans of serious amounts of seeds for planting because they are confident that they will receive a return as one good deed deserves another. But these informal seed systems only work in peace time when people trust each other and village life remains in working order.
   In the Pacific region, the best sources and pathways for vegetatively-reproduced planting material of staple crops, are the traditional Melanesian and Polynesian families, clans and social organisations, such as women's groups, churches, and local markets. Here, different species and types of taro, yams, sweet potato, cassava, ibika (Hibiscus esculenta) and plantain banana, can all be found. (NB - Vegetatively-reproduced plants are those which grow from a cutting or part of a parent plant)
   The above structures play a lesser role in the distribution of seed-propagated crops. Departments of Agriculture, some agricultural stores, Chinese or Indian owned stores and some non-government organisations have the capacity to supply seeds. This is the case in Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Kiribati.
   The Pacific Islands are not a seed crop culture. Staple crops are usually vegetatively-reproduced and it is at the household level that the least is known about seeds. Suppliers of seeds might be located on distant main islands. The cost of imported seeds may be high. For instance, a shortage of cash can be a barrier as for an outer islander of Vanuatu where one gram of hybrid seeds may cost as much as USD22, a whole month's income.

Vegetatively reproduced crops
Subsistence farmers in regions where the staple crops are vegetatively reproduced may be better placed to restore their food supply in times of crisis or natural disaster.
   Crops such as taro, yam, sweet potatoes, cassava, ibika, plantain etc. may still be available following a disaster and the challenge for development workers might be to reintroduce varieties that are lost, depending on the urgency and sources of funds to do so.

Seeds have advantages
Small scale provision of these planting materials is not so much a problem at the village level but could be difficult on a large scale. This is why seeds might be on offer even though they are not part of the culture. Seeds have the advantage of being:

• relatively light and transportable;
• storable-especially in comparison to some root crops;
• relatively cost effective.

Because many societies utilise mainly vegetatively-reproduced planting material, farmers are sometimes unfamiliar with seed. Yet, mainly as a result of aid programs, seeds are becoming part of everyday life and species such as onion, tomato, cabbage, maize, peanuts, capsicum and even carrot, in cooler parts of the tropics or in the highlands, are increasingly utilised.
   The introduction of seed-grown tropical dark green leafs such as amaranths, basella, and water spinach (Ipomea aquatica), Sauropus androgynus (gooseberry spinach) would be useful.

Avoiding unwanted cross-pollination
Care must be taken not to allow local varieties to cross-pollinate with introduced varieties, that would result in an erosion of favourable traits in the local variety in subsequent generations. This is especially critical where the new variety differs in maturation time, drought resistance or pest resistance.
   Species such as capsicum are technically self-pollinating and are therefore less likely to exchange pollen. Species such as okra, tomatoes and lettuce, cross-breed to a certain extent.
   If the newly donated variety performs well in its new environment and the traditional variety has been losing performance over the years, it may be that the influx of new genetic traits from the introduced plant could be beneficial.
   With self-pollinated crops such as beans and modern tomatoes there is less risk of inter-varietal contamination.

Genetically modified crops
At the time of writing (January 2001) genetically modified (GM) crops such as corn have been given as food aid and may end up being planted by desperate villagers or accidentally planted. Though typically corn cross-pollinates only within a one-mile radious, there is a real risk of contamination as it can cross-pollinate up to eight miles away.
   GM rice is being experimented with but does not cross-pollinate a great deal. However farmers may grow GM food aid unknowingly.
   There is still a chance that this may happen though, as even self-pollinated crops in the right set of circumstances (time of the day, time of the year, insect activity, etc.) can exchange pollen and pollute indigenous crops. Self-pollination is therefore not absolute.
   It would pay to be watchful of GM seed provided as food aid or, worse, for planting.

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Subject  Local Seed Networks
Regional relation  Global
Audience  Academic Researchers - Activists - NGOs - Commercial Farmers
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