Seed is one of the simple yet major input that is essential for  farmers to obtain sustainable livelihood. Conservation (protection) and multiplication of both commonly and rarely utilized crops at farmer’s field holds a great importance to conserve agrobiodiversity which ensures sustainable agriculture. It is now realized by many that the sustainable agriculture cannot be achieved by conservation of agrobiodiversity though farmers nowadays are shifting towards planting more productive crops. Conservation of local agrobiodiversity is crucial to achieve global food security. Farmers and local communities have played a significant role to conserve local diversity and indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) for over centuries. Recently, the concept and practice of community seed bank (CSB) is getting popular as a valid approach for agrobiodiversity conservation at local level. Simply, CSB is a system of conservation and utilization of local genetic resources, operated at local levels and run by the community. Broadly, CSB is a community-led management approach of agriculturally important planting materials which involves production, collection, processing, storage, distribution (exchange, loan, grant, sell) and marketing of locally important genetic resources. These efforts have taken various forms and names: community gene bank, farmer seed house, seed hut, seed wealth centre, community seed reserve, seed library and community seed bank.

Status of CSB in Nepal :

Nepal possesses 484 indigenous cultivated species with an estimated number of 30,000 landraces. Agriculture is practiced from 60 m to 4700 m altitude, favoring a large number of plant diversity. Almost 50% of this diversity has been lost from the fields. Conservation initiatives were first started in Nepal since 1980’s, however, conservation could not cover most of the crop diversity and could not conserve effectively for a longer term, with poor facilities in the earlier period.

CSB were first initiated in Nepal through the support of several NGO’s. The first CSB in the country was established in 1994 at Dalchowki, Lalitpur with the support of USC Canada-Nepal. From the governmental level, the government of Nepal started implementing community seed banks in the fiscal year 2008/09. The program was designed to implement community seed banks covering districts of all five development regions initially. It was planned to establish community seed banks in 17 districts of Nepal. However, actual implementation took place in nine districts, namely Sankhuwasawa, Okhaldhunga, Sindhupalchowk, Dhading, Gulmi, Jumla, Jajarkot, Doti and Dadeldhura. Bioversity International, LI-BIRD, Oxfam and Action Aid are some of the leading research and development agencies to practice and promote community seed banks in Nepal. There are currently about 10 organizations, including the Government of Nepal, that are actively supporting community seed/gene bank activities in the country. Currently there are about 46 operational CSBs of which 40 are well functioning; most of them are working on orthodox crops.

Objectives and Importance of CSB :

The primary objective of the CSB is to improve the access of local farmers to quality seeds through collection, storage, exchange and distribution. It helps to conserve local crop landraces and restore “lost” varieties which enables seed security at the local level. It also can be a mechanism to generate agro-biodiversity based income for member farmers, for example, through the production and marketing of high quality seeds. Well-functioning community seed banks integrate traditional and scientific knowledge and practices. Many community seed banks give priority to conservation, reintroduction, exchange and further improvement of local varieties, but some also produce and supply seed of improved varieties developed by research and development agencies. The community seed banks have an important role to perform in society. Some of them are:-

  • CSB helps to conserve local, rare and endangered landraces.
  • All farmers have easy access to planting materials when they are needed.
  • CSB acts as a backup for the seeds stored in the national gene bank.
  • Poor farmers do not need to store seeds for planting.
  • CSB helps to continuously increase the adaptability of local landraces because of the dynamic nature of conservation.
  • Farmers have access to information regarding landraces and improved varieties.
  • Formal seed quality control systems (seed certification, quality declared seed and truthful labelling) can be made easy by joint action of farmers and Regional Seed Testing Laboratories (RSTL).
  • CSB also help to address the climate change as it acts as an important source of landraces that are highly adoptive and can be used in breeding purposes.

Challenges of CSB’s :

CSB’s have great importance and scope. However, there are several challenges that have hampered the development and sustainability of CSB. One of the major challenges of CSB is sustainability in terms of maintaining their relevance over longer period with people, money and infrastructure. Most of CSB in Nepal are not running properly due to lack of fund, inadequate knowledge of farmers in managing seeds, very few dedicated farmers and high dependence on NGO’s. On the other hand, the intensification, commodification and commercialization of seeds by corporate industries have made people less interested in CSB which have made local landraces run out of public support for its use and conservation. Farmers prefer hybrid varieties over local ones and there is no such incentives from government for farmers for conserving local landraces. There is poor linkage between the farmers (who use local landraces) private sector, market and government. Thus, farmers are less interested in cultivating such landraces which has detrimental effect upon conserving agro biodiversity.

Conclusion :

Most of seed banks in Nepal are established in mid- hill and high hill regions where farmers are marginalized and production is mainly focused on major crops. The rate of return for farmers through seeds supported by CSBs is generally low. Seed quality is serious challenge in those area and advanced laboratory for seed quality control is located in Terai region. The government should focus on solving these issues but most of leaders do not know the importance of agrobiodiversity conservation. Regular budget should be allocated for these seed banks and it should be included in annual plans of local and provincial governments. Institutional provision for these banks should be made to ensure its effective operation. We have experienced many indigenous varieties as well as seen many of them lose their existence in front of us. If not for seed banks, who knows our future generation may not be able to taste some of fabulous local products such as Jumli marsi rice.