Notes to broadcasters
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The following script provides information about replenishing seed stocks that are destroyed or lost due to armed conflict. While listeners in your audience may not be affected by armed conflict, the information also applies to other emergency situations, such as natural disasters. Adapt the script to suit your local situation. You may want to do a follow-up radio program about a seed fair, or even to help organize one and advertise it. A seed fair is another way for communities to rebuild seed supplies. Help from a larger organization (government or non-government) is often needed to hold a seed fair. The organization distributes seed vouchers to farmers who need seed. Those farmers can exchange the vouchers for seed at the seed fair. And farmers who have seed can sell it in return for the seed vouchers. After the fair, seed sellers give the voucher to the sponsoring agency in exchange for cash. The seed fair benefits both farmers who want to buy seed and farmers who want to sell seed. For more information, see Seeds for Survival – Supplying Seeds in an Emergency, listed in the Information sources at the end of the script.
Script
BRING UP MUSIC AND HOLD UNDER INTRO.– END –
Acknowledgements
- Contributed by Vijay Cuddeford, North Vancouver, Canada.
- Reviewed by Dr. Kate Longley, Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute, and Special Project Scientist, International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Nairobi, Kenya.
Information Sources
- “Supporting community seed multiplication: The ‘Rescue from the Pot’ project“, by Ivan Kent and Samuel P. Mokuwa. ILEIA, 17-1.
- “The silent causalities of war,” Paul Richards. The UNESCO Courier, July/August 1999.
- “Farmers Seed Systems and Disasters,” prepared by Catherine Longley. In Proceedings of an International Workshop on Developing Institutional Agreements and Capacity to Assist Farmers in Disaster Situations to Restore Agricultural Systems and Seed Security Activities, in Rome, Italy, 3-5 November, 1998.
- “War and Crop Diversity,” AgREN Network Paper No. 75, edited by Louise Sperling.
- Seeds and Survival: Crop Genetic Resources in War and Reconstruction in Africa, by Paul Richards and Guido Ruivenkamp. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the Joint Working Group on Technology and Agrarian Development, Wageningen University.
- “Supporting Local Seed Systems in Southern Somalia: A Developmental Approach to Agricultural Rehabilitation in Emergency Situations,” by Catherine Longley, Richard Jones, Mohamed Hussein Ahmed and Patrick Audi. AgREN Network Paper No. 115.
- Seeds for Survival – Supplying Seeds in an Emergency, by Catherine Longley and Elizabeth Cromwell. Overseas Development Institute.