Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions

Oliver T. Coomes, Shawn J. McGuire, Eric Garine, Sophie Caillon, Doyle McKey, Elise Demeulenaere, Devra Jarvis, Guntra Aistara, Adeline Barnaud, Pascal Clouvel, Laure Emperaire, Sélim Louafi, Pierre Martin, François Massol, Marco Pautasso, Chloé Violon and Jean Wencélius

Food Policy, 2015, vol. 56, issue C, 41-50

Abstract: The importance of seed provisioning in food security and nutrition, agricultural development and rural livelihoods, and agrobiodiversity and germplasm conservation is well accepted by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. The role of farmer seed networks is less well understood and yet is central to debates on current issues ranging from seed sovereignty and rights for farmers to GMOs and the conservation of crop germplasm. In this paper we identify four common misconceptions regarding the nature and importance of farmer seed networks today. (1) Farmer seed networks are inefficient for seed dissemination. (2) Farmer seed networks are closed, conservative systems. (3) Farmer seed networks provide ready, egalitarian access to seed. (4) Farmer seed networks are destined to weaken and disappear. We challenge these misconceptions by drawing upon recent research findings and the authors’ collective field experience in studying farmer seed systems in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Priorities for future research are suggested that would advance our understanding of seed networks and better inform agricultural and food policy.

Keywords: Seed supply; Farmer seed systems; Crop genetic resource management; Informal seed sector; Planting material circulation; Social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030691921500086X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:41-50

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2015.07.008

Access Statistics for this article

Food Policy is currently edited by J. Kydd

More articles in Food Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().