The Virtual Farmers’ Lab presented Mr Peter Silinda and Ms Makosazana Mhlongo who Farms at Aurora High School in Soweto.
Mr Silinda has created a seed library that he fills with seeds from all over the region, and he talked about his own experience in building up his own seed library. He will be setting up this Library at Lovell High School in Zola, Soweto. In his library he has seeds from all over the region, and he mostly receives seeds from farmers who brings it to him.
Mr Silinda grows the seeds himself and builds up his library in this way. He carefully curates his collection and this is one way to set up a seed library.
Seed libraries can best be set up between or amongst a larger group of farmers, and they can collectively manage and organise the collection amongst themselves. We recommend that farmers and others form groups and collectively pool their seed and store it at a convenient location.
In this report on the lab, I will go through all the key things a group of people need to do to set up a seed library amongst themselves. Please also see my previous blog on the Seed Libraries, where I give links to organisations active in this endeavour. This could strengthen the group and also lower the cost of farming and production, as seeds are becoming expensive, and they are being controlled by companies. The state often fails to see that these seeds can in fact be developed by people and that there is a moral right of authorship inherent in seeds that people actively select and breed for themselves. All commercial seeds drew on the labour done by our ancestors in saving and developing them to Heirlooms, and this is conveniently forgotten when liberal seed regimes are promoted. There is much to be said about the ways we administer seeds, and the recommendations developed in this report draw on the Convention for Biological Diversity and the moral right we all have to express ourselves in cultural, technical, artistic and scientific ways. Building up a seed library and actively selecting and developing sees is part of the rights we as human have as we live on this earth.
It is necessary to first of all understand the kinds of seeds that you are working with. It is only worthwhile to “save” seeds that reproduces themselves in predictable and regular ways. You need seeds where the children look like the parents, and for that you need open pollinated seeds, and preferably add Heirlooms or Landraces in the mix. Hybrid seeds will not work well when you save them, as the children will not look like the parents. It is recommended that you use a specific open-pollinated strain in your seed saving. Some people say that you start developing your own strains after three years and this means the seeds are becoming suited and appropriate to your own farm and the very specific climatic conditions on the farm. So, the first thing you need to do is to ensure your seeds are open pollinated and have been bred in this way for at least a few generations. That means the seeds that you save will follow on the parents and if you select the best seeds, you may be improving your strains. Note however that things like wind pollination etc will dilute your own genetic base and link it to the neighbours’ seeds and under these conditions developing your own strains will take longer.
Once you know what is growing, you need to take care when you select the best seeds. Select the seeds for the characteristics that you want. For some, say tomatoes (for which it would be difficult to find open pollinated varieties as tomatoes are highly hybridised due to their commercial importance), you may want to select early flowering strains so that produce quicker. If you are growing Coriander or Dhania herb for leaves, you may want to select those that flower later so they produce more leaves. You need to be clear what you are selecting for, and you need to monitor and cultivate your plants carefully. Note conditions and growth and other factors and select the one that is strongest and most robust as you want to develop a strong strain on your farm.
Also take a look at the plant itself and do some research on how the plant reproduces. Some plants have male and female flowers on different plants, some on different flowers and some on the same flower. This will affect how they breed and combine, and you need to know how this occurs in the plant that you are selecting from. It may be that you cannot really influence pollination and then you would select only the strongest phenotypes (that what you see) in order to influence the genotype (that which is in the genes or “blood”). You want the right genotype at the end.
Once you have selected seeds you need to prepare the seeds for storage. Seeds must always be clean and devoid of any plant residue, as pests can lurk in these residues. The seeds must be dry and clean. Some recommend washing the seeds in water up to 50 degrees Celsius (use a double boiler) and this could clean them for storage for longer than one year. Some soak the seeds in a liquid manure solution which coats the seed in a bacterial film that also protects them.
Once the seeds are clean and dry, store them in an airtight container if very dry, or in a container that can breathe in order to keep the seeds dry. Some put silicon sachets in the jar to dry them out completely. Once in the jar, store it in a cool dry and dark cupboard.
Once you have seeds in storage, you can start “lending” them. To do so sustainably, you need to ensure that you receive more seeds from lenders than you borrow or give to them. I would recommend recording how many seeds you lend to each person and then ask for 50 – 100% more seeds in return. This will ensure you have enough seeds and that the seed library becomes a resource for the community.
Keep good records when seeds come in and good records when seeds go out. Keep a WhatsApp group for the seed library and regularly communicate with the members. You can even start a Facebook or other page for the seed library, and this will also help. Blend the seed library with other activities on the farm. You could start a recycling enterprise with the library members, a food waste harvesting system, a spaza selling everyone’s produce and other activities. A seed library will thus build your community and become a platform to achieve bigger things!
Please contact Mr Peter Silinda on 0729483044 or 0844247742.
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