The Seed Savers' Network (SSN) is an Australian not-for-profit organisation, based in
Byron Bay
Byron Bay (Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah)'' is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia on Bundjalung Country. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headla ...
, New South Wales.
Since 1986, SSN has organised gardeners and farmers to collect, multiply and redistribute garden seeds in Australia and also within peasant organisations worldwide.
SSN operates on the premise that seeds are best kept in their socio-cultural context. It promotes conservation and development of agricultural biodiversity in situ, that is, on-site with growers, rather than in seed banks.
The organisation educates the public on the importance of locally saved seeds, their heritage and associated cultural diversity. It has produced three books and two documentaries.
History
SSN was founded in 1986 by Michel and Jude Fanton.
It is registered as the Seed Savers Foundation Ltd, a charitable organisation.
Commencing in the year 2000 and completed in 2008, SSN decentralised its seed collection, multiplication and distribution of seeds to over 100 affiliated Local Seed Networks (LSNs) around Australia. Gardeners exchange excess seeds and garden produce at LSN events.
Rationale for The Seed Savers' Network
The rationale for the network is that
plant genetic resources are essential to sustainable agriculture and food security. Globally, there has been a decline in agricultural biodiversity with the
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
reporting in 2010 that 75 per cent had been lost in the previous century.
Agencies of the United Nations have prioritised the conservation of traditional varieties of useful plants by gardeners and farmers.
Plant genetic diversity continues to play a central role in shaping agriculture growth in the face of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
. By farmers and gardeners conserving seeds, each seed generation is able to adapt to changes in climate.
Home gardens are micro-environments that contain levels of species and varietal diversity higher than those found in nearby agro-ecosystems.
Home gardens are thus important as reservoirs of agricultural biodiversity. Of equal importance are the gardeners / peasants who have the skills and knowledge of its utilisation.
Seeds with proprietary rights –
plant variety rights
Plant breeders' rights (PBR), also known as plant variety rights (PVR), are rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant that give the breeder exclusive control over the propagating material (including seed, cuttings, divisions, tissue ...
– are not suitable for home seed saving as it is illegal to propagate from patented seed.
Activities in Australia
Since its establishment in 1986, The Seed Savers' Network has collected and conserved local varieties within a network of gardeners who save and swap locally adapted seeds.
From 1986 to 2008 it had a seed bank that received seed samples from around Australia.
Over the space of eight years, culminating in 2008, that seed flow has been decentralised out to sub-groups, Local Seed Networks. These groups collect and distribute local varieties in their region to reinforce local genetic characteristics.
Since its inception SSN has been based within research gardens, designed on Permaculture principles, where varieties are trialled:-
• in Nimbin, Australia, from 1986 to 1991
• in Byron Bay, Australia, from 1998 to the present (2015)
There are also kitchens where the produce is trialled for taste and nutrition.
SSN promotes and popularises seed saving
and educates for seed saving skills via its newsletters, posters, publications, documentaries, the internet and the media with over 500 articles about it.
Global Activities
The SSN has delivered community seed bank training and helped form seed networks in a range of nations with non-government organisations, universities and government departments.
Some of examples of SSN's global activities are listed below.
Solomon Islands
Helped in the establishment of the Planting Materials Network and in several projects conserving traditional local varieties of crops such as vegetables, sweet potatoes, taros, bananas and cereals and pulses for chicken feed. Aided the Kastom Gaden Association in the organisation of over 100 varieties of bananas. The collection was made on the island of Makira and was fully described with internationally recognised descriptors. Varieties were restored to farmers. A collection of 843 varieties of
taro
Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...
nationally with Planting Materials Network funded by the EU and Tarogen network (South Pacific Commission).
Tonga
Save our Seed Project with
The Commonwealth Foundation
Ecuador
Helped establish Red de Guardianes de Semillas in 2003
Cambodia
Worked with the Department of Women's and Veterans' Affairs in 1998 and 1999
Sabah, Malaysia
Worked with People and Plants on education projects aimed at the restoration of planting useful native species with Dusun Kadasan tribals in 1998.
Afghanistan
Worked with NICCO, a Japanese aid agency, in the Agricultural Faculty of Herat University.
Also worked with Slow Food, Italy, in the promotion of traditional varieties of grapes in Herat in 2003.
The Gambia and Senegal
Advised and researched seed networking with
Concern Universal in 2013.
See also
*
Seed saving
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...
*
Seed bank
A seed bank (also seed banks or seeds bank) stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it is a type of gene bank. There are many reasons to store seeds. One is to preserve the genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, disease res ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seed Savers' Network
1986 establishments in Australia
Agriculture in Australia
Nature conservation organisations based in Australia
Gardening in Australia
Horticultural organisations based in Australia