Welcome to the Organic Growers Alliance, and to the first issue of The Organic Grower – its magazine.
For many years, Cuban agriculture received extensive support from the Soviet Union, which provided cheap supplies of petroleum and agrochemicals. This all changed in the 1990’s with the collapse of the Soviet empire. Cuba was left to fend for itself, providing food for its people with little access to inputs. Dr. Humberto Ríos Labrada of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Havana, has pioneered decentralisation and participation in the breeding and selection process, facilitating biodiversity events and seed saving networks throughout the country. He has termed such networks ‘participatory seed diffusion’ and they have turned the conventional model of plant breeding on its head by putting farmers in charge of selection of seeds and plant material. Throughout this process, Dr Labrada made some key observations: “A key finding was that farmers’ preferences for varieties differed widely even within a small region. Therefore it is vital that a wide range of varieties and genetic diversity is maintained and made accessible so that the growers can choose for themselves the varieties best suited to the conditions on their farms.” In doing so, the role of plant breeders changes to one of facilitation of the process.
An evaluation of the process showed that both the yield and quality of former high input systems could be achieved through access to and management of more appropriate germplasm at a fraction of the financial or energy cost. As well as the financial gains, farmers gained a sense of ownership and involvement in the breeding process. In the field, it was important to recognise that there are other ways of knowledge transfer other than written material. “Many of these growers are illiterate, but still hold the knowledge for the breeding and selection process in their heads”. Therefore the use of grower groups, and cultural activities including songs were widely used. Dr Labrada reiterates this point: “If I publish something in an international journal, 150 people in the world read it over a period of a few years. If I make a CD of songs about agriculture, then 300 local people take it up in just one day”
The cultivation of a few varieties of each crop in the UK has led to a massive erosion of genetic diversity reducing our ability to cope with potential adversity. This, coupled with the increasing agro-climatic variability induced by climate change, and the growing consumer interest in regional tastes and foods, would suggest that more localised, participatory selection and adaptation of crops may be of benefit. At the January Soil Association’s organic conference, for example, several farmers indicated their interest in saving and developing their own seeds and varieties in line with ecological principles.
However, several obstacles may need to be overcome in the UK or European context. EU seed laws prohibit the commercial use of non-registered seed and there are cases of growers being prosecuted for the commercial production of unregistered varieties. In Cuba and Latin America, such laws also exist, but with the higher degree of self-provisioning and the larger numbers of small farmers, these laws are less effective and are impossible to police; it is estimated that more than 95% of maize grown in the region is from unregistered varieties. In the EU, attitudes are not so lax In the UK, the Biodynamic Seed Movement attempts to register new conservation varieties each year, but the high cost of registration severely limits the rate at which new varieties can be introduced and excludes small growers.
In the UK, farmers do experiment with the selection of varieties on an informal basis, using their own observations to judge performance. However, in developed countries where labour contributes by far the largest cost of growing, farmers may not consider the extra work of saving and selecting seed a viable proposition. In Cuba, labour is cheaper and often sourced from within the farming family.
Overall, the innovations emerging from Cuba were instigated by the sudden withdrawal of inputs and fuel. It may take a similar crisis situation for such approaches to be adopted in the UK. Climate change and steep rises in the price of oil could kick start such a change…
Anton Rosenfeld