Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks

Community seed banks are farmer-managed organizations that conserve and sustainably manage local crop and tree diversity. They are found in many countries of the Global South and increasingly in the Global North. Altogether, they maintain hundreds of crop and tree species and thousands of mostly loc...

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Autores principales: Vernooy, Ronnie, Adokorach, Joyce, Gupta, Arnab, Otieno, Gloria, Rana, Jai, Shrestha, Pitambar, Subedi, Abishkar
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: MDPI 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158214
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author Vernooy, Ronnie
Adokorach, Joyce
Gupta, Arnab
Otieno, Gloria
Rana, Jai
Shrestha, Pitambar
Subedi, Abishkar
author_browse Adokorach, Joyce
Gupta, Arnab
Otieno, Gloria
Rana, Jai
Shrestha, Pitambar
Subedi, Abishkar
Vernooy, Ronnie
author_facet Vernooy, Ronnie
Adokorach, Joyce
Gupta, Arnab
Otieno, Gloria
Rana, Jai
Shrestha, Pitambar
Subedi, Abishkar
author_sort Vernooy, Ronnie
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Community seed banks are farmer-managed organizations that conserve and sustainably manage local crop and tree diversity. They are found in many countries of the Global South and increasingly in the Global North. Altogether, they maintain hundreds of crop and tree species and thousands of mostly local varieties and distribute tons of quality seed per year. Through their activities, they share and safeguard the world’s agrobiodiversity, contribute to seed security, and allow farming households in local communities to produce and consume more affordable, secure, diverse, and nutritious foods. However, community seed banks are knowledge-, resource-, and time-intensive organizations that operate through their members’ voluntary contributions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the sustainability challenge of community seed banks and identify strategies that address it. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used, complemented by secondary data analysis of research reports and other deliverables, resulting in five case study countries in Africa and Asia. Five promising sustainability strategies can support viable community seed bank development: value addition; nature-positive agriculture; enabling environment and national genebank partnership; networking and digitalization; and modern, low-cost seed quality technologies. Sustainable community seed banks can make important contributions to national seed sector development but they need stronger policy and legal support to maintain their sustainability.
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spelling CGSpace1582142025-12-08T10:29:22Z Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks Vernooy, Ronnie Adokorach, Joyce Gupta, Arnab Otieno, Gloria Rana, Jai Shrestha, Pitambar Subedi, Abishkar food systems agrobiodiversity gene banks strategies sustainability community involvement seed Community seed banks are farmer-managed organizations that conserve and sustainably manage local crop and tree diversity. They are found in many countries of the Global South and increasingly in the Global North. Altogether, they maintain hundreds of crop and tree species and thousands of mostly local varieties and distribute tons of quality seed per year. Through their activities, they share and safeguard the world’s agrobiodiversity, contribute to seed security, and allow farming households in local communities to produce and consume more affordable, secure, diverse, and nutritious foods. However, community seed banks are knowledge-, resource-, and time-intensive organizations that operate through their members’ voluntary contributions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the sustainability challenge of community seed banks and identify strategies that address it. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used, complemented by secondary data analysis of research reports and other deliverables, resulting in five case study countries in Africa and Asia. Five promising sustainability strategies can support viable community seed bank development: value addition; nature-positive agriculture; enabling environment and national genebank partnership; networking and digitalization; and modern, low-cost seed quality technologies. Sustainable community seed banks can make important contributions to national seed sector development but they need stronger policy and legal support to maintain their sustainability. 2024-10-08 2024-10-29T11:30:40Z 2024-10-29T11:30:40Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158214 en Open Access application/pdf MDPI Vernooy, R.; Adokorach, J.; Gupta, A.; Otieno, G.; Rana, J.; Pitambar, S.; Subedi, A. (2024) Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks. Sustainability 16: 8665. ISSN: 2071-1050
spellingShingle food systems
agrobiodiversity
gene banks
strategies
sustainability
community involvement
seed
Vernooy, Ronnie
Adokorach, Joyce
Gupta, Arnab
Otieno, Gloria
Rana, Jai
Shrestha, Pitambar
Subedi, Abishkar
Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title_full Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title_fullStr Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title_full_unstemmed Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title_short Promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
title_sort promising strategies to enhance the sustainability of community seed banks
topic food systems
agrobiodiversity
gene banks
strategies
sustainability
community involvement
seed
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158214
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