Community Seed Banks: enhancing local seed conservation

The establishment of Community Seed Banks (CSB) has been undertaken by Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) in collaboration with research institutions, universities, government and non-government organizations through various projects aiming to empower communities and small-scale farmers in Southeast Asia since 1996. CSB’s are collections of seeds that are administered by the communities and play a significant role in ensuring seed security, conserving agricultural biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge, and providing options for climate-change adaptation; they can also contribute to the realization of Farmers’ Rights. The main component of the practice was capacity development through Participatory Plant Breeding, Participatory Variety Selection and ecological management through experiential learning in Farmer Field Schools. In the Philippines, the CSB’s became a model of both climate resiliency and agrobiodiversity: mitigating drought through seed distribution to affected farmers in Bohol and enriching the local ‘Dinorado’ variety in North Cotabato. In Bhutan, there was a resurgence of local crop varieties and the inclusion of conservation of PGRFA in their national policies. The impact extends further in Thailand, enabling the revival of the local cultural festival ‘Bun Kao Mai’, a Buddhist celebration of bountiful harvest, excellent seeds and diversity in rice varieties.