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Apr 17, 2007

A Focus on Local

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Honduran Farmers Produce Higher Quality Seeds – Locally

April 2007

Selecting beans of highest quality is part of ensuring good harvests

Dolores Raudales is a farmer in the Vallecillos region of Honduras. She had been growing beans for years, but was finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. She says, “I and the other farmers in the community produced beans; however, despite using good cultivation techniques, yields were low.”

Enter a Honduran NGO called FIPAH – short for Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers. FIPAH – USC’s partner in Honduras – helps farmers organize community-wide research teams known as CIALs. The CIALs identify the most pressing local agricultural problems and find solutions.

Community Teamwork
When FIPAH came to Dolores’s village of Chirinos to organize a CIAL, she was quick to join. It would be an opportunity to learn what was going on with the decreasing bean yields.

“Improving community access to quality local seed definitively changed the production of beans in our community”

Once the members of CIAL Chirinos got organized, it didn’t take them long to identify the problem. After a bit of research, they concluded that the problem was the seed being used.

“We were not using quality seeds,” says Dolores. “We were not using local seed.”

Farmers exchange and sell seed as a way to ensure everyone has better access to quality planting materials

“Improving community access to quality local seed definitively changed the production of beans in our community,” says Dolores. Productivity doubled as a result.

“Now, month after month, farmers are being convinced that producing and using quality seeds – locally produced – offers major benefits,” says Dolores.

Across Honduras
FIPAH is working with CIALs on similar projects throughout the country, encouraging communities to produce maize and bean seeds locally and improve soil and water conservation practices. And with CIAL members reaping the rewards of better harvests, it doesn’t take long for word to spread.

FIPAH has also been helping farmers organize seed exchanges where they can buy, sell, and exchange their locally produced seeds. Better access allows more farmers to take advantage of this resource.

In the seed bank at Mina Honda

In Yoro region, CIALs have managed to set up three seed banks. At the most vibrant seed bank, in the community of Santa Cruz, farmers are producing more than 500 Kg of maize seed every year.

Dionicia Corea, known as “Nicha,” is the coordinator of CIAL Divino Paraíso in the community of Mina Honda. She says their experience mirrors that of CIAL Chirinos.

“Every year our seed bank distributes local seed varieties throughout neighbouring communities,” says Nicha. “Not only do we see better harvests, but farmers have more income.”

Government Support Lacking
In Honduras, as in most of the world, the commercial seed system is generally not designed with the interests of small-scale farmers in mind. There is a lack of national and international policies to promote and protect community seed producers and thus, communities’ food sovereignty.

There’s still a lot to do, but the CIALs are up to it. Members of 90 CIALs across the country have organized into a larger national association. Together they are raising awareness among both the public and the government to promote farmers’ rights and sustainable agriculture.

In the meantime, FIPAH is continuing to encourage local seed production, and the CIALs are still spreading the word – and local seed – with farmers like Dolores and Nicha leading the way.

Stable Supply in Seed Banks
Improving access is one of the driving forces behind community seed banks as well. Several CIALs have set up community seed banks to ensure the poorest farmers always have access to quality planting materials. That little bit of help ensures the community has a stable supply of food.

Improved Local Skill
In 2005, the CIAL initiated a process for training in bean seed production – drawing on traditional knowledge and getting some help from the agronomists that work with FIPAH about the best methods to produce quality seed. After the training, CIAL members were producing higher quality seed that they could share in the community.