This field guide focuses on farmer seed production and marketing at the community level for local or district markets. This first draft draws on a wide range of guides by organizations working with farmer field school methodologies to enhance smallholder farmers’ skills and knowledge to make informed decisions about opportunities to engage in seed enterprises and improve their livelihoods. It also draws on various guides developed by the Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security program partners Champion Seeds and PELUM, based on experiences and lessons learned in distinct country contexts. It was developed within the Farmer Seed Enterprise component of the SD=HS program, complementing the program’s field guides on participatory plant breeding and nutrition.
The objective of this document is to provide guidance for developing a curriculum on farmer seed production and marketing in the context of the Sowing Diversity=Harvesting Security (SD=HS) program, currently implemented by consortium partners in eight countries and coordinated by Oxfam Novib. SD=HS takes an integrated approach focused on: 1) crop diversity through participatory plant breeding (PPB); 2) farmer seed production and marketing; 3) local food plants for nutrition; and 4) supportive policies.
The second component aims to ensure that indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers enhance their livelihoods, income and seed security through improved production of and market access to high quality seeds of diverse crops and varieties, adapted to farmers’ needs and preferences. It is currently being implemented in China, Guatemala, Nepal and Zimbabwe.
