COMMUNITY SEED BANKS (CSBs)

Community seed banks are also known as seed hut, seed houses or seed library is an approach to store and manage seed.  CSB is a community-led management approach for the conservation and utilization of local genetic resources and to provide access to quality seeds and planting materials of diverse crops to the locals. Seeds are obtained from the farmers in the community and are selected on the basis of agreed requirements and then stored in the seed bank. Thus, CSBs are operated at local levels and run by the community.

Seeds that farmers use can be of local varieties or the new ones coming from breeding programs. However, the major concern is that those seeds must be the most adapted varieties for the region in order to facilitate the quality yield and increase in productivity otherwise farmers face a huge economic and financial loss. CSBs play an important role in maintaining the availability of quality seeds of suitable varieties for the region and preserving them.

Just as some people put their savings in a regular bank, and whenever they need extra money they can take out their savings, seed banks act as farmers’ savings for future planting. One of the main purposes of a community seed bank is to serve as an emergency seed supply when farmers experience a shortage of seeds, due to failure or destruction of crops as a result of floods, droughts, pests, and diseases. However, in the context of our country, the role of CSB is broadened and highlighted to promote local landraces. CSBs promote conservation and use of landraces that are rapidly being lost from the farmer’s field and natural habitat, create awareness and educate people on the importance of landraces diversity for current and future food and nutrition security and supply locally produced quality seeds and planting materials of diverse crops and varieties to the farmers.

Status of community seed banks in Nepal

In the past,  smallholder and marginalized farmers reported that they could not save the seeds for the next season and that there was no way to obtain the seeds of local varieties though seeds of modern varieties were available. To solve this problem, USC- Canada Nepal(USCCN), an NGO started collecting and storing seeds of local varieties, making them available to farmers since 1994 in  Dalchoki VDC. This was the first community seed bank in the country initiated by an NGO. Then, the Government of Nepal started implementing Community Seed Banks (CSBs) in the fiscal year 2008/09. The program covered nine Districts with one CSB in each. At present, there are 46 operational CSBs located in three agro-ecozones of the country, i.e. High Hill, Mid Hill, and Terai out of which 40 are well functioning.

At present, some of the leading research and development agencies to practice and promote community seed banks in Nepal are LI-BIRD, NARC, Biodiversity International, Oxfam, Action Aid, and the Department of Agriculture. Governmental organizations (namely, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Ministry of Agricultural Development, Crop Development Directorate, and Department of Agriculture). These agencies annually allocate some budget for CSBs and organize some CSBs related activities.

Role of CDBs in conserving local varieties in Nepal

It has been estimated that Nepal possesses 484 indigenous cultivated species with 30,000 landraces. Although agriculture is practiced from 60 m to 4700 m altitude which favors a huge plant diversity, almost 50% of this diversity has been lost from the fields. In order to secure the conservation of the collected plant genetic resources and provide access to them, a well-equipped gene bank was constructed in Nepal in 2010.

At the local level, conservation is possible only through the utilization of plants and by mobilizing communities. This is method is called on-farm conservation. CSB is an approach to promoting on-farm conservation of APGRs (Agriculture Plant Genetic Resources). Hence CSB is one of the conservation strategies of the national gene bank.

Jethobudo Dhan, Gujmuje Rayo, Dude Rayo, Kachorwa-4 Dhan, Dude Chino, Rato Kodo, Paheli Simi, Jumli Simi, Kalo Kaguno, Sunale Latte, Borang Dhan, etc. are some of the enhanced landraces that were developed in collaboration with CSB, communities, and farmers.

Strategies of CSBs

It’s a very crucial task for CSBs to regenerate seeds from their collection each year and replace old seed stock with new, healthy, and vibrant seeds. In order to accomplish the task, they employ the following strategies:- i) distribution of seed to members of CSBs on a loan basis, ii) establishing diversity blocks, iii) distribution of seeds t  the users of the  CBM fund(Community seed bank management) and iv) cultivation of one local variety by each member of CSB. Likewise, in case of crop failure, a small number of seeds in the community seed bank are kept as a remnant stock to regenerate again. Also, the exchange of seeds among community seed banks has also been initiated recently, so that CSBs can replace the lost seeds easily in case they lose any variety for any reason.

CSBs have been playing the following roles:-

  1. Conservation of local agrobiodiversity to achieve global food security
  2. Regeneration of local landraces in collaboration with national gene bank
  3. Continuous cultivation of the landraces
  4. Proper storing and display of all samples of available genetic resources
  5. On-farm management of agricultural plant genetic resources by the local group of farmers
  6. Providing access to quality seed of suitable varieties for the region of diverse crops species
  7. Promotion of farmers’ rights and food sovereignty.
  8. Generation of agro-biodiversity based income for member farmers, for example, through the production and marketing of high-quality seeds
  9. Identification, conservation, promotion, exchange, and further improvement of local varieties
  10. Production and supply of seed of improved varieties developed by research and development agencies
  11. Collaboration with field gene bank for germplasm exchange
  12. Collaboration with NAGRC(National gene bank) to carry out collections and to identify priority landraces for red listing