Registration of farmers’ varieties in SADC - Report from dialogue held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 3-4 December 2019

In Africa, smallholder/peasant farmers produce and reproduce the majority of their own seed needs from season to season. Crops produced from this seed contribute substantially to food and nutrition security on the continent. Despite this, farmer seed receives little to no recognition in policy, and there is limited support for farmer reproduction, adaptation, and use. Seed laws prohibit diverse farmer seed from being traded on national and regional markets unless it has gone through procedures and conforms to standards designed for the formal sector and commercial sale. As a result, these seeds and farmer seed systems are excluded from agricultural policies. In this context, the South Africa Development Community (SADC) together with Plant Genetic Resource Centre (PGRC), Seed Services, and CSO actors showed support to smallholder farmers in a regional dialogue hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe, which took place from the 3-4 December 2019. The main objective was to facilitate constructive exchange of information and ideas between smallholder farmers, civil society actors, SPGRC and seed officers from the region, with regard to understanding the registration process of farmer varieties and how best SPGRC would support, strengthen and protect seed and knowledge systems.