For more than 15 years, Aïssata Ongoiba has taken care of the community seed bank in Badiari village, Mali. Her neighbours save seeds from each harvest and deposit them in this storage facility, built to keep seeds healthy and useful when disaster strikes.

Aïssata’s passion and belief in the enterprise is impressive. “My work with USC,” Aïssata says, “has had a profound impact on my community and my own life.” Under her guidance, the bank has built a collection of 136 varieties of 11 different plant species – all locally adapted and ideal for growing on parched West African soils.

The Agricultural biodiversity maintained here – both in the seed bank and in farmer’s fields – is like an insurance policy, broadening options and a farm family’s chances for success. Farmers plant many different seed and crop types so at least part of a harvest will survive and there will be food on the table.

USC Mali has been working for more than two decades in this part of Mali, where droughts often result in devastating crop losses. It can sometimes take three plantings to yield just one crop! And when the rains do come, they can come all at once. It’s tough going.

But, through careful crop selection and breeding, the local seeds collected here are simply more resistant to the regions challenges: drought, diseases, and pests. By conserving and sharing these local seeds, through seed banks and seed exchanges, farmers have reserves if a natural disaster destroys a harvest.

Aïssata is now grooming another young farmer to run the bank at Badiari, and she is starting a new phase of community outreach. Her skills are much in demand. She is now working with 10 other villages to enhance diversity in the region. Thanks to her ongoing work, the people in Badiari will have crops to grow well into the future.