*****Dar es Salaam******, 1 August 2011.* Seeds of local crop varieties must
be included in relief-seed packages distributed to small-scale farmers after
natural calamities if indigenous agricultural diversity is to rebound
faster. Agricultural relief efforts should also capitalize on existing
social networks to distribute seeds more effectively and efficiently. These
are among the findings of a recent study looking into the loss and
subsequent recovery of cowpea diversity in ****Mozambique**** after massive
flooding, followed by severe drought, hit most of the country about 11 years
ago.****
** **
After natural disasters such as floods and drought that often wipe-out their
crops, farmers usually receive relief seed packages to help them recover and
restore their food security and source of income. However, most of the seeds
in these relief packages are generally of introduced and genetically uniform
varieties purchased from markets or from seed companies by well-meaning
relief agencies, which slow the recovery of crop diversity.****
** **
Interestingly, the study also noted that the speedy recovery of Mozambican
cowpea diversity after the double-disasters of 2000 was largely due to the
exchange of seeds among farmers through gifting and other social
interactions involving friends, family members, and relatives within the
same community or adjacent communities.****
** **
Dr Morag Ferguson, a molecular biologist with IITA and one of the study’s
lead researchers, says farmers in **Africa** traditionally grow many crops
and several varieties of each crop on the same plot of land to cope with
unforeseen economic or environmental instabilities. They usually set aside
part of their harvest to serve as seed for the next cropping season. They
also share or trade some of these seeds with friends and relatives.
Therefore, when natural disasters strike, many farmers often lose their
seeds and are forced to rely on relief, buy from the market, or receive
seeds as gifts from friends and relatives. ****
** **
“We found that the substantial recovery of cowpea genetic diversity two
years after the calamities was mainly due to the informal exchange of seeds
among farmers that served as a social-based crop diversity safety backup. It
is therefore important that seed relief strategies recognize and capitalize
on this existing traditional network based on social relations to help
restore diversity especially after natural upheavals,” she said.****
** **
The study was initiated in 2002, two years after the flood-drought double
disasters and carried out in Chokwe and Xai Xai districts in the Limpompo
River Valley –areas that were among those severely affected. The findings of
the research have been published in the current edition of ‘Disaster’, a
publication of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).****
** **
The research established that nearly 90% of the farmers in the affected
areas received cowpea relief seed immediately after the back-to-back
calamities. Two years after, only one-fifth of the recipient farmers were
still growing the seeds, while more than half sourced their seeds from
markets. However, this did little in restoring cowpea diversity in the
affected communities as the seeds bought by farmers from the market were
mostly uniform, coming from other districts that grew just one or a few
select varieties.****
** **
On the other hand, about one-third of the affected farmers obtained seeds
from friends and relatives living within the same or neighbouring localities
to restock their farms – the same people that they have been exchanging
seeds with prior to the disasters. This practice was the main reason why
cowpea diversity was restored in these areas, the study showed.****
** **
Dr Ferguson says that such a social relations-based seed distribution system
is already in play in an approach developed and implemented by the Catholic
Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with other relief agencies in which
seed vouchers are exchanged for seed at ‘Seed Fairs’. In this approach,
farmers from nearby districts not affected by disaster and with excess seed,
come to the Seed Fair to sell seed to disaster-affected farmers in exchange
for vouchers, which they then cash-in with the relief agency. ****
** **
“This approach recognizes that farmer seed systems are robust and resilient,
and can provide seed even in emergency situations. And this study shows that
such an approach will be more effective in restoring diversity faster and
more efficiently than a system based on direct distribution only,” she says.
****
** **
The study was the first of its kind to investigate in detail the effects of
disasters on crop diversity and its recovery. It combined agronomic
observations (for example looking at the seeds’ colour, size, pattern, and
shape) with biotechnology tools to determine the seeds’ genetic makeup. ****
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