• Continuous loss of agricultural biodiversity / genetic erosion
• Difficulty to access seed adapted to local and organic conditions through the market
Solution
Community Seed Banks are a powerful tool for farmers and gardeners to cooperate in the management of seed diversity. Seed selection, production and management by farmers could be a collective action, in which shared actions allow to face technical problems and to find new solutions. Community Seed Banks could provide organic varieties and heterogeneous material to farmers seeking cultivars adapted to local conditions.
Description
Location: A Community Seed Bank (CSB) should have separate rooms for acquiring seed checking, cleaning and seed storage. Clear entry and exit routes need to be established. Good hygiene and regular surface cleaning with alcohol are important to avoid contamination. Avoid wood or porous material surfaces. For storage ideally temperature should be <15°C and relative humidity <40%. Seed loosing germinability quickly should be stored <4°C.
Equipment: A CSB can operate with very basic equipment. The minimum are sieves with mesh appropriate to the seed being handled, plastic buckets and containers, vacuum packing machine and weighing scale. For prestorage temperature treatments, a deep freezer (-20°C) and an air dryer (e.g. food dryer) are essential.
Data management: All seeds entering and leaving the CSB should be recorded. It’s important to record the origin of the seed, local name, who grew it, harvest year. Data can be recorded on paper or digitally, ideally both. For seed distributed outside the CSB it’s advisable to use the Standard Material Transfer Agreement.
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When you activate this function, your browser establishes a direct connection with the servers of the third-party provider. We would like to point out that data is transmitted to the third-party provider after activation, and the latter may set cookies that can also be used for analysis and marketing purposes. For more information, please refer to our privacy policy.
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