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Défendre l’autonomie et la souveraineté 7 Photos
A community seedbank has many advantages: it is cheaper to maintain; allows more participation and feedback from the community; stored seeds are more in tune with natural environment and gets replaced regularly; and most of all, it provides a dynamic link among farmers to choose, improve and share seeds amongst themselves.This photo was taken from UBINIG's seed wealth center in Tangail, Bangladesh. The woman farmer inspects the different rice varieties in clay jars.
A community seedbank has no other more reliable back-up than a farmer's own household. It has been said many times: whoever controls the seed controls agriculture. “Food security starts from home, fuels the need for – and forms the basis of – autonomy and sovereignty” says the woman farmer when asked about her motivations for keeping and rotating so many varieties of crops in her farm. It is a laborious process but “it stops being that when it becomes your way of life”.This photo was taken from a village in Pastapur, Andhra Pradesh, India where a farm family collects and maintains about 50 different seeds of rice, beans, peas and vegetables.Related reading:Special Seed Law Seedling [http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=344]
The importance of local / traditional varieties can only be realised if it is in the hands of farmers. It's usefulness – whether as seed or repository of culture and history – ceases when held dormant in a cold genebank.This Sri Lankan farmer measures his height against a traditional long-stemmed rice variety in Cambodia, resistant to heavy floods.The photo was taken from Panyachi Village, Kampong Thum Province in Cambodia.
Farmers' workshops can be very useful especially when it is organised to collectively analyse a common issue such as hybrid rice. China has been at the forefront of hybrid rice development in Asia. On the other hand IRRI, with assistance from China, ADB and FAO, leads in assisting other countries like Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Philippines to develop strains more suited to tropical conditions. With the UN's Millenium Development Goal (MDG) to cut poverty, more and more Asian countries are turning to hybrid rice as a panacea to an impending global hunger.This photo was taken from a Hybrid Rice workshop held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2004. Farmers from India, Bangladesh and Philippines shared experiences and analyses why hybrid rice is not the solution to increasing farmers' income, let alone growing population of Asia.Related reading:Fiasco in the field: an update on hybrid rice in Asia Hybrid rice in asia: an unfolding threat
The importance of sharing knowledge along with the seed saving and exchange initiatives amongst farmers cannot be underestimated. It is this free and open sharing of knowledge and seeds that has actually largely sustained farm agriculture to this day. Without knowledge of the seed, the seed is rendered useless. Without the seed, the knowledge of the seed also becomes useless. It is a full circle.This photo was taken from Farrmers' Experience with Agricultural Research, a regional workshop held in Thailand and Cambodia in Dec 2004. A Thai farmer demonstrates a practical technique in choosing the best seeds for sowing.
Rice plays a central role in Cambodia. Ninety percent of farmland in the country is devoted to rice. The kingdom's economy largely depends on rice production. With the high production cost associated with HYV technology and hybrid seeds, farmers are turning their eyes to alternatives. One is SRI – or the system of rice intensification that originated from Madagascar – which has gained currency in Cambodia.For most organic farmers in the villages, though, it is more than just a rice farming technique that befits many farms without access to irrigation. It is also increasingly adopted by farmers as a strategy to mobilise support from local authority to conserve local varieties of rice. The government promotes HYVs but allows rice farmers to also plant local rice varieties.This photo was taken from an SRI farm in Panyachi Village, Kampong Thum Province in Cambodia during the Farmers' Experience with Agricultural Research workshop in 2004.
More photos on the Growing Diversity website |
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