Latest Seed Sovereignty Resources

ACB executive director Mariam Mayet and research and advocacy officer Sabrina Masinjila recently participated in the fourth edition of the International Farmer Seeds Gathering, this year held in Antibes, France. Co-organised by Reseau Semences Paysannes, SOL and the Maison des Semences Maralpines in collaboration with the European network Let’s Liberate Diversity!, the gathering was a […]

Uncle Wiz is a shining example of a thriving small scale farming and food distribution business that not only farms without chemicals but also focuses on and promotes indigenous food crops. Owners Wisdom and Mpumi Edward live in south Johannesburg and farm on land in Vanderbijlpark. Not only do they grow many indigenous African crops […]

Passer à la version française Haga clic aquí para la versión en español — Press release — Johannesburg, 5 June 2020 On 26 April, 2020, civil society organisations from across the world collectively called for a celebration of International Seed Day and not World Intellectual Property Day. Organisations numbering 348, from 46 countries, united to […]

The ACB is excited to share this new briefing paper (see below for English, French and Portuguese versions), highlighting key issues relating to recognition and support for farmer seed systems in Africa and beyond. Farmers’ seed constitutes the majority of seed used and exchanged. Crops produced from this seed contribute substantially to food and nutrition […]

Will the critical need to address digital sequence information break the Seed Treaty’s effort to fix its benefit-sharing system? It probably should. (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) In November 2019, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (“Seed Treaty”) will meet in […]

A review of some outstanding issues in the negotiation Will the effort to fix ITPGRFA’s broken benefit sharing system measure up to expectations? (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) This paper reviews the key outstanding issues that are expected to be discussed by the ITPGRFA Governing Body, […]

This week the water-stressed city of Cape Town hosts the bi-annual Adaptation Futures conference, where scientists, business leaders, and practitioners from the world of development and agriculture will come together to engage in ‘dialogues for solutions’ to the multifarious problems wrought by our rapidly changing climate. As actors with different perspectives design modes of collaboration, […]

The National Seed Dialogue and Celebration was hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity at Constitution Hill in December 2017. The third video in this series, Participatory Plant Breeding and Smallholder Farmers looked at issues of smallholder farmers & seed breeding/crop improvement and the potential roles of smallholder farmers in these processes were discussed. Since […]

There is growing awareness of the unique and important role smallholder farmers around the world play in conserving, using and enhancing biodiversity. Conventional breeding has created a separation between farmers and specialised breeders. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is a field of action developed over the past 25-30 years to overcome this separation, and reunite farmers […]

The ACB has the pleasure of sharing with you a short 5-minute video of the Southern African seed law and seed sovereignty dialogue, Face to Face: African CSOs confront ARIPO, SADC over Draconian Harmonised Seed Laws, co-hosted by the ACB in partnership with PELUM-Zimbabwe, which took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, 28-30th June 2017. Please watch […]

The Status Report on the SADC, COMESA and EAC harmonised seed trade regulations: Where does this leave the regions’ smallholder farmers? researched and written by Linzi Lewis and Sabrina Masinjila of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), provides a brief background and status update on efforts by regional economic communities to harmonise seed trade and […]

The expansion of the corporate seed market, embedded in the green revolution agenda in sub-Saharan Africa is progressing very fast. This expansion is going hand in hand with regional policies and regulations – in a process also known as seed harmonisation – that will enable facilitate trade across national borders. This has been the case […]