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Small-scale farmers must be able to multiply, exchange, save and sell seeds. The involvement of these traditional players and the valorization of their traditional knowledge are crucial to the maintenance and sustainable use of seed diversity and genetic resources. International agreements such as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGRFA) and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) guarantee peasants their right to seeds. SWISSAID is committed to ensuring that these instruments are strengthened, better known and implemented.

Many countries flout the rights enshrined in these declarations. In the South, they often give in to pressure from industrialized countries and seed companies. Strict laws that exclude local seeds from trade have been approved in many countries. Patents or strict variety protection, such as the UPOV91 system, are used to maintain a monopoly on seeds and deprive families of free access to this essential product. As a member of the “Swiss Coalition for Seed Rights”, SWISSAID is campaigning for Switzerland to abandon the UPOV91 plant variety protection requirement in free trade agreements.

Seed systems and UPOV91:

The importance of farmers’ seed systems, the source of all seed diversity and guarantors of food sovereignty, is often misunderstood and the necessary support lacking. To counter these shortcomings, SWISSAID brings together seed custodians and networks them. In seed banks, they collect, preserve and share seeds and associated knowledge. Participatory guarantee systems are used to maintain the quality of traditional seeds and thus increase yields. The sale of seeds through seed banks provides additional income for farming families. The selection of new varieties gives young people prospects in the countryside.

The problems caused by industrial agriculture worldwide are becoming increasingly obvious. Instead of tackling them by fundamentally altering food systems, some circles propose solving them through new genetic technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas. These technologies promise to make plants more resistant to pests and more economical in their use of fertilizers. However, these technologies have long been patented and are in the hands of multinational agricultural corporations. As we have seen with the “old” genetic technology, companies are more interested in developing plants they can sell with the appropriate pesticides than in promoting more ecological agriculture. For farmers in the South, genetic engineering methods are neither accessible nor promising. In fact, they already have a range of farmer varieties that are naturally resistant to pests, can cope with poor soils, and are drought-resistant. Instead of new genetic technologies, what is needed are global solutions and the protection of the rights of farmers who preserve the diversity of varieties and are committed to sustainable food production on a daily basis.

A particularly dangerous application of new genetic technologies is the so-called “gene drives,” aimed at eradicating pests. Find out more in the video:

Multinational agribusinesses are patenting traditionally grown fruit, vegetables and cereals, such as malting barley, even though this is prohibited under European patent law. This gives them a stranglehold on an ever-growing number of products. More than 1,000 plant varieties are already patented in Switzerland and Europe. Similar patent applications have also been filed for animals.

But conventionally grown plants and animals are not inventions! SWISSAID, together with other organizations from all over Europe, is involved in the “No-Patents-on Seeds” network, challenging illegally granted patents and campaigning for a change in patent law.