Event Date: Nov 12, 2015
Time: 09:30 AM to 11:00 AM (GMT -5)
Location:
Oceanic Room, Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, District of Columbia, 20004, United States
Event Links: Webinar Recording
Information
Many smallholder farmers rely on local seed varieties to produce staple food crops. Distributed through informal systems, farmers select varieties based on a number of factors including environmental considerations, socioeconomic factors, access and taste preferences. These systems may contribute to the food security of a region, but farmers may also encounter barriers to accessing good quality seed including quality controls and storage issues.
In this Ag Sector Council seminar, geographer and environmental scientist Karl Zimmerer from the Pennsylvania State University described his research in mapping local land races and highlighted some of the lessons learned from this body of work. He also introduced a promising new methodology for gathering a robust census of local seed varieties in a given region. We were also be joined by expert Victor Afari-Sefa of The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), who discussed methods for improving the quality of informal sector seeds and introducing and integrating improved varieties into local networks. This was followed by Tashfiq Ahsan and Md. Mehedi Hasan from Swisscontact, who discussed a project that they are implementing in Bangladesh, working with the private sector to disseminate small seed packets and improving quality seed distribution.
The Informal Seed Sector: A Behind the Seeds Look
Karl Zimmerer
The Pennsylvania State University
Karl Zimmerer is a geographer and environmental scientist at the Pennsylvania State University. His research and teaching is focused on global human-environmental change, with an emphasis on landscape-based cultural and... more social-ecological analysis of sustainability, food security, and agrobiodiversity. He directs the GeoSyntheSES Lab (Geographic Synthesis for Social Ecological Sustainability) that specializes in geospatial analysis and the management of soil-plant systems. Karl is currently a visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University where he is examining political and environmental planning mechanisms in contexts of social uprising and knowledge systems in Peru. He holds Masters and PhD degrees in Geography, with interdisciplinary concentrations in ecology and anthropology, from the University of California, Berkeley. less
Victor Afari-Sefa
AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center
Victor Afari-Sefa is an Agricultural Economist and the Global Theme Leader for Consumption at AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center. Victor leads and coordinates vegetable socioeconomic research in sub-Saharan Africa and globally by... more assessing opportunities and challenges in production systems, analyzing constraints in value chains, and analyzing policy in an interdisciplinary context. He also has expertise in developing agribusiness initiatives by thriving on collaborative and participatory processes. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Justus-Liebig University Giessen. less
Tashfiq Ahsan
Swisscontact - Katalyst
Tashfiq Ahsan is a private sector development specialist with five years of experience in poverty reduction, inclusive markets and agricultural markets. His expertise lies in analyzing and developing feasible interventions in the... more market development approach. He currently manages a portfolio at the Katalyst project. Tashfiq has a proven track record of harnessing feasible ideas to combat poverty through inclusive growth interventions in the agriculture sector. less
Md. Mehedi
Swisscontact - Katalyst
Md. Mehedi Hasan is a business consultant at Katalyst. He has experience working in vegetable and seed value chains and has developed more than 10 market system-focused interventions with partners ranging from small local actors... more to multi-million dollar business organizations to central government organizations. He specializes in inclusive business model development, market systems development, value chain analysis and monitoring. less
I fully understand and appreciate that over 90% of all seed planted by smallholder farmers is informal or "market" seed and this will not change substantially in the forseeable future as the capacity of the seed industry in most developing countries is very limited. The need is to get improved genetic material into the "market" or informal seed distribution system. I thus like to call attention to an article I wrote for the ECHO Asia newletter on what I refer to as a "Genetic Pump" to move improved genetic material into the "market" seed system. The article is available at: http://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/The_Crop_Genetic_Pump.pdf
I hope this will contribute to your webinar discussion.