Jottings
2014
A publication of
HOW TO FEED THE WORLD
Heading the list of influences, both
globally and locally, are trade rules and
regulations that affect both local and
global food production and access. Since
small-scale family farmers are actually
feeding the overwhelming majority of
us on this planet – up to 70% in fact –
it’s important to consider their critical
contributions when developing the rules
and policies about how we grow and sell
the food they produce.
An equally important issue to think
about is the way the food is grown. If the
family farm is to have a future on this
planet, as it must, the ability of smaller
scale farmers to stay on their lands is
intimately linked to the fertility of the
soils they manage and the adaptive
capacity of their crops.
This edition of Jottings focuses on the
sustainability of the farming systems
that grow our food. It features concise
articles about USC Canada-supported
farmers in Asia, Africa, Latin America,
and Canada who have chosen an
ecologically sustainable and diversitybased approach to seed and food
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
Photo: Jim Richardson
“How do we feed the world?” is a huge
question, one that seems extremely
complex since there are so many factors
that affect who gets to eat, how much
they eat, and how nutritious the food is.
production, often called agroecology.
Their combination of long-standing
and new innovative practices and their
attention to the interconnectedness
of all the natural resources on their
landscapes are proving the smartest and
most effective way to feed the world in
an age of climate change that for some
amounts to climate chaos.
Chala Chaka harvests teff from his half
hectare field near Bato Chrecha, Ethiopia.
on sustainable agriculture subtitled:
Wake Up Before It’s Too Late
(http://bit.ly/unctad-2013). And of
course, please read on.
Susie Walsh, Executive Director
Don’t just take our word for it. Read the
latest UN Trade and Development report
SAVE THE CENTREFOLD FROM THIS ISSUE AND KEEP IT HANDY. IT HIGHLIGHTS THE WORLD’S
12 MAJOR CENTRES OF AGRICULTURAL DIVERSITY, AND IT’S A GREAT REMINDER TO VISIT
SEEDMAP.ORG, OUR NEW ONLINE PORTAL ON SEEDS, BIODIVERSITY AND FOOD!
BUILDING RESILIENCE IN A CLIMATE OF UNCERTAINTY
West Africa
Photo: Sarah Dalle
Photo: Laurent Viot
By Laurent Viot, Director International Programs
Farmers harvesting millet despite the
scorching 40°C temperatures near Djibo,
Burkina Faso.
It’s difficult to imagine more challenging
climate and soils than you find in the
West African Sahel. Most farmers depend
on rainfall to provide moisture for their
crops and degraded soils. This region of
the Sahelian belt records around 550mm
of rain per year (about half the annual
rainfall in Ontario), all falling in just over
one month around September. As well, in
recent years, farmers have noted irregular
and unpredictable rain patterns which
are affecting seed germination and yields.
In 2012, the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) reported that 10.2
million people from the Sahel region were
food and nutrition insecure and extremely
vulnerable to external shocks.
My first travel as USC Canada’s new
Director of International Programs last
October was to visit our programs in
Burkina Faso and Mali, with USC Canada’s
West Africa Program Manager, Sylvie
Perras. At that time, Mali was still very
much in the news due to armed conflict
and foreign intervention. The population
seemed very anxious as soon they would
2
The West African Sahel is one of the world’s most
challenging landscapes on which to grow food.
be left to face old and new challenges
on their own. Malian refugees have also
crossed the border into northern Burkina
Faso putting additional stresses on local
resources and food supplies there.
Yet despite climate and conflict
challenges, local producers that USC
Canada supports are recording amazing
harvests reaching up to 2 tons/hectare.
To Canadians, these yields may seem
very modest but in the Sahel, with its
increasingly extreme growing conditions,
it remains an incredible feat.
Farmers in both Mali and Burkina Faso
are acutely aware of their environments
and many have been quick to find
innovative ways to work with their
landscapes – including the use of some
new technologies. When we were in Djibo
in northeast Burkina Faso, we noted some
farmers both gazing at the horizon and
checking text messages on their mobile
phones. Earlier, there were reports it had
rained a few villages away, but the skies
were telling a different story. Indeed,
there was no rain for Djibo that night.
Farmers in the Sahel have long developed
their own coping mechanisms and early
warning systems to adapt to their harsh
environment. USC Canada’s role is to
support community efforts to build and
increase resilience in this challenging
environment.
One critical element of USC Canada’s
programs in Mali and Burkina Faso is to
spread the risk of crop failure by greatly
diversifying the varieties planted. To this
effect, USC Canada puts biodiversity at the
heart of its work promoting both germ
banks (conservation of diversity) and seed
banks (multiplication and dissemination
of locally adapted seed varieties). With
each season, saving and sharing seeds
of the hardiest varieties of millet, bean,
and sorghum offers farmers an increased
number of planting choices.
Keeping up with dramatic and
unexpected weather patterns is daunting,
but this strategy has been paying off. For
instance, in Burkina Faso, USC Canada’s
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
local partner APN Sahel has been recording growing
successes that include an increase of crops and varieties
planted in and around Djibo as well as a reduction of the
lean period among farmer members.
Photo: Eileen Jones
In Mali, seed resilience strategies have also proved
effective amid political upheaval. Amazingly, the farmers
who we met felt that the conflict had a limited impact
on their farming. Farmer networks and seed bank
resources, well established in our program communities,
have enabled planting, harvesting, and adaptation to
continue. Certainly, farmers acknowledged a serious
impact on their livelihoods by isolation and constraints
imposed on their movements, preventing trade at local
markets. However, despite their isolation, farmers’ groups
kept meeting and exchanging seeds, and they even
managed to report program progress.
Farmers have continued to nurture their networks
despite Mali’s political instability.
The lesson here is of community resilience. It shows how
far good ideas and quality initiatives can go when owned
and promoted by its members. It also illustrates how
strong foundations of resilience, rooted in agricultural
biodiversity, will continue to be a valuable defence for
these farming communities in times of both political
instability and the rising tide of climate extremes.
Fako Coulibaly, Safo
village, Mali:
Fako has always kept
seeds for re-planting
season after season
but stocks fell short in
the 1976-77 drought
and he was compelled
to purchase new
Fako Coulibaly
millet seed varieties
from Bamako, even
though he was unsure about the actual adaptability of these
new seeds. They turned out to be a short variety that matured
early in August. Fako lost all his harvest to the birds that year.
It was an important and costly lesson. Since 2008 he has
procured his seeds from known sources at the Safo community
seed bank. The CSB offers him a guarantee on quality and
known performance adapted to his local conditions, as well as
a platform for learning and exchange.
January 2014
Photo: Laurent Viot
Photo: Laurent Viot
LESSONS IN RESILIENCE
Abdoulaye
Tamboura,
Fili-fili village,
Burkina Faso:
Abdoulaye
has been
participating
in APN-Sahel
supported land
Abdoulaye Tamboura
rehabilitation
program. He
and his son have been using techniques such as organic
compost, reforestation, as well as planting Andropogon
gayanus, a native, fast-growing grass to mitigate soil
erosion in the harsh arid conditions here. As with others
in this program, Abdoulaye’s efforts have paid off. His
yearly grain production of millet, sorghum, and corn has
showed a 25% increase.
3
CERTIFIED ORGANIC, THE BOLIVIAN WAY
Bolivia
By Dana Stefov, Program Manager for Latin America
Photo: PRODII
is known as a “Participatory Guarantee
System”. It enables the direct participation
of producers and consumers in defining
standards, procedures for certification, and
decision-making – and it has great potential
to improve livelihoods and agroecological
farming practices.
Demetrio Tola and Reyna Hinojosa, promoters and guardians of
agrobiodiversity, harvesting potatoes in Jurinsaya Grande, Bolivia.
To become a certified organic farmer in
Canada can take years of onerous testing
and paperwork, not to mention the hard
field work of ridding soils of chemical
pesticide and fertilizer residues.
And yet, as we all know, every year there is
increasing demand for food that is grown
naturally, without an industrial load of
pesticides or herbicides. With organic
certification comes higher value – and
better prices for the farmers who grow food
this way, as well as strong ecological and
environmental standards that will effectively
protect priceless natural resources of soils
and seeds.
speeding up a process that can take about
six years, but also for building an alternative
model that works for farmers and the
environment.
Participating farmers can earn two different
seals of certification from the national
government, one for “in transition” and
the second for “ecological production.”
Both these seals are a legally recognized
guarantee that products have met certain
ecological standards. For farmers, it is
a valuable ecological seal of approval
that also provides better prices and a
growing market within Bolivia. This is what
There are actually dozens of systems like
these around the world, largely being
used by agroecological producers and
their associations. Primary among their
values are participation, transparency,
conservation, and ecological agriculture,
but they also support community building,
environmental stewardship, and strong
local economies. The agroecological
movement, with significant momentum
in Latin America, has been a pioneer of
participatory certification programs.
In Bolivia, the process is still nascent but
the signs are promising. The Ecological
Producers Forum of Potosí, organized
by PRODII, brings farmers together for
learning, policy advocacy and celebrating
farmer efforts. At the 2012 event, 50 farmers
from the Participatory Guarantee System
program in Chayanta received their organic
certification – an astonishing number for
these early days. There is an even larger
list of winners in this process: biodiversity
and the environment, local markets and
communities, consumers and, most
significantly, the farming families of Potosi.
Our Bolivian colleagues (PRODII) have been
promoting an innovative participatory
certification system in the Potosi region
that works with Bolivia’s national organic
certification Law 3525 and its requirements.
It is getting national attention for not only
4
Photo: PRODII
Is there any way to encourage and reward
farmers who are working toward this
standard but cannot yet receive the relative
compensation for their work and their
produce? In a word, yes.
At local markets, farmers like Celia Molina Condori (brown hat) and her daughter Marina
Choque Molina (selling) are able to label their product ecological as a result of certification.
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
Photo: PRODII
Nicolás Yucra Gomez, surrounded by a species of lupin grown for its edible
bean. He will use it as a green manure to help improve his soil.
Nicolás Yucra Gomez, is a farmer in the municipality of Chayanta in Potosi, Bolivia. With the support of PRODII he and
95 participating farmers from his community have driven the certification of their crops as ecological products. Says
Nicholas, “In order to do this, we have been trained in Law 3525, and we convened an Internal Ecological Production
Committee (CIPE) with farmers from across our community. Others didn’t believe this would be successful, but after a
year of hard work, the Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria e Inocuidad Alimentaria, (like Canada’s Food Inspection
Agency) has given us our certificates. With this system, we now control our own ecological production. It is a guarantee
between us farmers. Now we sell our produce at the Ecofair of Llallagua, displaying the certifícate.
IMPACTS OF PARTICIPATORY GUARANTEE SYSTEMS:
• Improved natural resource
base, stewardship of agroecosystems and suitable
technologies
• Direct and local marketing
that reduces or eliminates
“middle-men” and improves
collective bargaining
• Enhanced knowledge of
locally and ecologically
appropriate farming
practices and reciprocal
learning processes
• Value added
• Reduced costs of production
due to reduced inputs
• Participatory and farmer-led,
including research relevant
to local needs
• Strengthened farmer
networks and trust
Photo: PRODII
• Price premiums by labelling
products “ecological” or
“organic”
• More direct links between
producers and consumers
Nicolas Yucra proudly displaying his
certification.
Nicolás proudly displaying his certification.
January 2014
5
WHERE DOES OUR F
NORTH AMERICAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Jerusalem artichoke, sunflower,
plum, raspberry, strawberry, highbush blueberry,
cranberry and pecan.
FARMERS HAVE CREATED AND MAINTAINED
THE KNOWLEDGE AND DIVERSITY THAT IS THE
BASIS OF THE PLANET’S FOOD SUPPLY FOR
THOUSANDS OF YEARS… AND COUNTING. MOST
OF THIS DIVERSITY IS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
WHERE IT IS INCREASINGLY THREATENED. THE
WAY TO SAFEGUARD OUR FOOD SUPPLY IS BY
USING AND CONTINUING TO ADAPT THE PLANT
AND GENETIC DIVERSITY CAREFULLY BRED AND
NURTURED BY FARMERS.
LIVESTOCK: Turkey and duck.
MESO-AMERICAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Maize, common bean,
Cucurbita (including squash), chili pepper,
amaranth, Chenopodium (a relative of quinoa),
cacao, tobacco, sisal hemp and upland cotton.
SOUTH AMERICAN/
ANDEAN CENTRE
CROPS: Andean and common potatoes, sweet potatoes,
tomatoes, lima beans, cacao, açaí, brazil nut, cassava,
cocona, malanga, guarana and pineapple.
GLOBAL CENTRES OF DIVERSITY
LIVESTOCK: Llama, alpaca
and guinea pig.
Virtually all of the foods we eat – our major crops and most livestock species – have
their origins in the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
Scientists have identified at least twelve major geographic “centres of diversity” –
regions, or hotspots, that harbor a disproportionately high percentage of all plant,
livestock, and cultural diversity. Centres of diversity refer to 1) regions where
crops and livestock were originally domesticated from their wild ancestors (regions
of true origin) and 2) regions of subsequent spread where they are continually
evolving a diversity of new varieties and traits through ongoing adaptation to their
environment and selection by farmers. That’s why a specific crop can be listed in
more than one centre of diversity. The hotspots on the map capture only a fraction
of the vast diversity farmers have been fostering.
6
OUR FOOD DIVERSITY IS UNDER TH
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
FOOD COME FROM?
EURO-SIBERIAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Many forage and grasses,
spelt wheat, horseradish, turnip, parsnip,
plum, pear, apple, cherry and apricot.
LIVESTOCK: Pig and reindeer.
MEDITERRANEAN
CENTRE
CENTRAL ASIAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Oat, pea, fava bean, lettuce, beet,
turnip, radish, celery, rhubarb, olive,
grape, cumin, thyme and flax.
LIVESTOCK: Pig and rabbit.
CROPS: Wheat (common, club and shot),
rye, onion, garlic, pea, lentil, spinach,
beet, carrot and mustard.
MIDDLE EASTERN
CENTRE
CROPS: Millet, buckwheat, soybean,
citrus fruits, cherry, leafy mustard and tea.
LIVESTOCK: Red jungle fowl,
chicken, pig, silkworm and yak.
LIVESTOCK: Sheep and pig.
CROPS: Wheat (einkorn, durum, poulard), barley,
rye, chickpea, grape, pistachio and almond.
LIVESTOCK: Goat, water buffalo,
cattle and camel.
SINO-JAPANESE
CENTRE
HINDUSTANI
CENTRE
CROPS: Rice, pigeonpea, eggplant, okra,
cucumber, yam, banana, mango, ginger,
turmeric, cardamom, sugarcane and black pepper.
LIVESTOCK: Wild red jungle fowl,
water buffalo, cattle, sheep and goat.
AFRICAN/ETHOPIAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Sorghum, pearl millet, teff, sesame,
coffee, african rice, baobab, oil palm, cowpea,
guinea yam, okra, scarlett eggplant and shea.
LIVESTOCK: Donkey and cattle.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Rice, yam, squash, mango,
banana, durian, lime, bamboo,
nutmeg, clove and coconut.
LIVESTOCK: Chicken,
cattle and pig.
AUSTRALIAN
CENTRE
CROPS: Eucalyptus, acacia
and macadamia nut.
HREAT.
January 2014
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOLUTIONS.
FIND OUT MORE: WWW.SEEDMAP.ORG
SeedMap.org is an online portal on seeds,
biodiversity, and food that lets you visit
hundreds of case studies around the world.
To download a print version of this map:
www.seedmap.org
7
CANADIAN SEED PROGRAM: A NEPALI REVIEW
By Pratap Shrestha, Asia Regional Representative and Scientific Advisor
Photo: Kate Green
Pratap Shrestha – our Asia Regional Representative and Scientific Advisor based in
Nepal – visited Canada in September to check out our Canadian program, the Bauta
Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security. He visited three partners: Loïc
and Thomas Déwavrin’s farm in Quebec and, in Ontario, Kim Delaney’s
Hawthorn Farm and Cory Eichman’s Saugeen River Farm. He left us
with these excellent insights.
Pratap with Thomas Déwavrin at his family
farm in Quebec.
Adding Value
It was quite revealing to see how organic
farming can be built into the commercial
agricultural system – especially through
the use of biomass as fertilizer through
planting of “green manure” crops. The
sustained soil fertility results in very
respectable maize and soybean yields.
Innovative marketing approaches are
clearly important to build economic
incentives to organic farming in Canada.
I found the CSA (Community Supported
Agriculture) model - direct supply to the
consumers – particularly impressive. I also
like the way product transformation could
be linked to direct sales.
Photo: Kate Green
Thomas Déwavrin inspects a bottle of
sunflower oil produced at his farm.
Late harvest tomatoes at Saugeen River farm.
8
Farmers Innovation
Farmers’ innovation was another key
element that I observed at the three farms
I visited.
The Quebec farmers I met, Loïc and
Thomas Déwavrin were processing their
wheat and sunflowers into flour and oil
that then goes directly to consumers
and restaurants. This seemed a very
important strategy to reduce the market
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
Another interesting observation was
that organic farming is possible without
integrating livestock in the system, quite
contrary to the Nepal situation. Increasing
biomass with green manure is the key.
Luckily, you have enough land here to
be able to rotate the field with the green
manure crops. That is not the case in Nepal.
margin that the middlemen often get. The
farmer secures a bigger profit margin. This
strategy is also helpful in demonstrating
the different value systems within organic
farming.
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
Organic Farming is Feasible
Kim Delaney demonstrates a homemade
seed cleaner powered by a shop vac.
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
It was quite revealing to see how farmers
save seeds of hundreds of varieties. Kim
has saved more than 200 varieties of crops
like beans, greens, tomatoes, grasses,
herbs, squashes; the Déwavrin brothers
grow more than 5 varieties of maize, three
varieties of soybean and similarly larger
varieties of other crops. And Cory too
saves all kinds of vegetable seed varieties.
Farmers like these are truly the real
custodians of biodiversity.
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
It was interesting to see how these smallerscale family farms depend on family
support and traditions; brothers farming as
a family business, bringing different skills
such as at Loïc’s farm; Kim’s mother helping
her to process some seeds; and the use of
student interns at Cory’s farm. This whole
system of producing good healthy food
is where agri meets culture (agri+culture)
and is not just following the mechanics of
producing industrial food.
USC’s Kate Green and Pratap with Kim
and Aaron at Hawthorn Farm
Still it strikes me that these farmers are left
on their own without much research and
development (R&D) funding. Ironically,
they’re like a “neglected and underutilized
species” (NUS) that we talk about in this
ecological agriculture work. Even so, just
like the NUS crops, they are doing well in
the changing social climate and shining a
light on the future of farming.
January 2014
Photo: Kate Green
Family Farming
At Hawthorn Farm, Pratap and Kim
survey her seed collection.
We owe them thanks, from the bottom of
our hearts, for their valuable contribution
to the conservation and sustainable use
of agricultural biodiversity. This on farm or
“in situ” conservation of our planet’s plant
genetic diversity is of a huge national
and global importance. Growing such a
large variety of crops and making them
available to other farmers is simply great
practice. The Bauta Initiative is very timely.
Appreciating and supporting the work of
these farmers is long overdue.
Farmers breeding
Farmers have always been breeding
new crops and varieties, fewer in modern
days, especially within the West industrial
agriculture system. In countries like Nepal,
on the other hand, the breeding of local,
adapted varieties is still happening on
many small holder farms. The visits to
these comparatively small scale Canadian
farms were quite revealing for me. It was
so encouraging to see farmers keeping
the interest and tradition of breeding alive.
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
Commitment to Conservation
Cory Eichman at Saugeen River Farm
has been breeding tomato varieties.
Through careful selection, the Déwavrin
farm saves their own seeds to plant the
following year. Kim’s work in maintaining
such a huge diversity of vegetables through
careful isolation distances and meticulous
seed selection leaves me speechless. And
what to say about Cory breeding his own
tomato varieties!
Everdale Seed Bank
My last stop was to Everdale Farm and
Environmental Learning Centre. Their seed
bank is great in saving and maintaining
diversity and also giving easy access to
farmers and gardeners. The seed bank
connects community, farmers, and the
National Gene Bank; practices that would
be good to share with our global country
programs.
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
A few of the most interesting innovations
include: seed processing and storage
(use of natural cold air); a wheat flour
machine and sunflower cold oil press at
the Déwavrin farm; seed blower for seed
processing and a unique trailer for bean
vines at Kim’s; and the use of horse-drawn
machines at Cory’s farm. It’s astounding to
see how tools and knowledge that were
rapidly dying are being brought back into
use, and that farmers are going to great
lengths, getting them from as far away as
France. I salute farmers who are keeping
the tradition alive.
Variety is everywhere at Everdale.
Before I end, I would like to extend my
sincere thanks to Thomas, Loïc, Kim, and
Cory for their valuable time and insights.
And what an amazing meal at Everdale –
most of it coming fresh from the farm!
Best regards,
Pratap
9
INNOVATION ON STILTS
Timor Leste
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
By Kate Green, Program Manager for Asia
USC Canada’s operation in Timor Leste, Asia’s youngest country, has recently become a Timorese
NGO, RAEBIA (Resilient Agriculture and Economy for Biodiversity Action). USC Canada is
delighted to continue to support their excellent work.
The da Cunha family has turned farming on a steep
and stony slope into an agroecology based productive
powerhouse. Readily embracing innovation, they are
getting support from our partner, RAEBIA, to try out new
ideas.
Seedlings on Stilts: Above, Aquelino da Cunha, with two of
his children, tested the stilts that delivered excellent results
for his fields (below).
Insects, rain, and a very humid environment all year long
are tough challenges when trying to raise vegetable
seedlings to a healthy and robust stage, ready for
transplanting. Aquelino da Cunha is very pleased with their
latest new idea, a ‘stilted seedling nursery.’
In this way, the maximum number of seedlings is reaching
the transplant stage.
10
Photo: Pratap Shrestha
These simple, raised, waist-high seedling beds have made a
huge difference. The shade and rain cover allow for air flow
to reduce disease and infestations, and the stilts discourage
other pests and provide drainage to reduce water logging.
Jottings - A publication of USC Canada
SPREADING SEEDS… AND EMPOWERMENT
Bangladesh
Photo: Hosneara Khondker
By Hosneara Khondker, Bangladesh Country Representative, and Kate Green, Program Manager for Asia
Girls dry seeds in the hot Bangladesh sun for storing at an ARC seed bank
One of the most striking things about Bangladesh is the
lushness – and the humidity.
In the photo above, young women from the Matrivumi
Adolescent Resource Centre Community Seed Bank are
demonstrating an innovative and effective way to work with
the Bangladeshi ecosystem. When the sun is strongest, they
put their valuable seed samples out in the sunshine to keep
them dry! And what an extraordinary range of seeds – close
to 50 vegetables (beans, tomatoes, cabbages, mustards,
cauliflowers, and onions among them) with up to 5 varieties
of many.
Young women in rural Bangladesh are a most vulnerable
group, with little access to earning income either before or
after marriage. However, garden space is something virtually
all of them can gain access to from parents or in-laws. Harder
to come by is access to information about (1) how to grow
superior vegetables, (2) market their produce, or (3) become
a highly valued seed provider in their community.
That’s where USC Canada’s support of young women is
unique.
The Adolescent Resource Centres (ARCs) are a network
of 16 simple, small buildings hosted by local community
organizations which provide a variety of services to
adolescent girls and young women from 50 villages in the
January 2014
northwest of Bangladesh. The first ARCs were established
about 6 years ago to provide a focal point for health,
education, legal services, and have now added agricultural
skills training for young women. Many local groups provide
services here, but USC Canada’s focus is unique in that it is
helping young women start organic vegetable gardens, run
effective market vegetable businesses, and very importantly,
manage community seed banks in the ARCs.
The seed bank is a great community resource and a
foundation for agroecology in the challenging and rural
communities of the northern part of the country where USC
Canada works. The community seed banks (CSBs) and the
Adolescent Resource Centres that house these seed banks
also provide seed-saving and ecological agricultural systems
training.
The ARCs are now hubs for crucial food and seed security
components and provide ecological agricultural training
workshops for over 1000 young women each year.
Most importantly, the practice of seed saving is being widely
instilled in the community through these community seed
banks, and through the many young women who are now
seen as valuable stewards of these precious resources.
11
NOT JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE
Ethiopia
By Martin Settle, Director of Finance and Human Resources
Photo: Sarah Dalle
And so we have this extraordinary field. This is the Harbu CSB
Seed Multiplication Field, where those small vials of seeds will be
grown out – multiplied by thousands – to meet the demands of the
farmers.
Martin joins local farmers and EOSA field staff near Harbu, in
South Wollo, Ethiopia.
On a typical day, I can be found sitting at my desk at 56 Sparks Street,
reviewing accounts or discussing budgets. This is the typical life of a
Finance Director.
Part of my role at USC Canada, however, is to support our overseas
partners in ensuring that our funds are used effectively. This requires
that I periodically visit our partners. So it was that last September I
found myself standing in a field near Harbu, Ethiopia.
This was no ordinary field. The quarter hectare was divided into
10 small plots. Five varieties of durum wheat, two varieties each
of mung bean and pearl millet, and a single teff were all at various
stages of growth. Each had been selected by local farmers through
a process called Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS). In the PVS
process, many – sometimes dozens – of varieties of a particular
crop are planted close together in very small plots. Through several
seasons the farmers evaluate each variety against their own needs,
and select a few they would like to grow themselves. For the
Community Seed Bank (CSB), this presents a challenge – how to turn
the small handful of seeds in the germplasm storage into a supply
large enough to provide for the many farmers anxious to plant
them.
Multiplication: it sounds like math, but as this is no ordinary field,
this is no ordinary math. This is the math of the miraculous. It’s
the math by which those precious packages of seeds – collected
in the conviction that by their existence alone they are of value –
contribute to the food sovereignty of a community. It’s the math
by which a gift of seed by a single farmer, protected and cared
for by the community of farmers, becomes the nourishment for
generations.
Multiplication describes the Ethiopia program. In the past year,
both of the USC Canada supported CSBs have built satellite facilities
to better serve their remote communities. The work with seeds
transforms the social fabric: the CSBs are now hosting self-directed
women’s and youth groups which through collective action are
benefiting themselves and their community. Beyond Harbu, our
partner EOSA (Ethio Organic Seed Action) has been engaged by
European agencies and the Ethiopian government to replicate
the Seeds of Survival approach in other districts. The benefits
compound as the work multiplies.
This reminds me of yet another multiplier: each dollar donated to
our “Seeds of Survival program is multiplied – by a factor of 4 – by
the Government of Canada, enabling this multiplicative work
to continue.
DONATE TODAY
We can’t continue these kinds of successes without your help. Please donate today.
Donate online. It’s easy, fast, safe and secure.
www.usc-canada.org/donate-now
Call our toll-free number: 1-800-565-6872
Mail your cheque to USC Canada, 56 Sparks
Street, Suite 705, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5B1
Under the oversight of a volunteer/international Board of Directors, our ground-breaking
Seeds of Survival program is managed by a core staff of 20 professionals in Canada and
committed partners in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Canada.
Your feedback is important to us.
Contact us with your thoughts
and opinions about Jottings at
[email protected].
Editorial Team: Sheila Petzold, Ron Cross
USC Canada
56 Sparks Street, Suite 705
Ottawa, ON K1P 5B1
Tel: 613.234.6827
Toll Free: 800.565.6872
www.usc-canada.org
Charity registration No. 11927-6129-RR-0001
USC Canada was founded in 1945
by Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova as the
Unitarian Service Committee of Canada.