![\"Shanggula](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Shanggula-village-was-the-first-to-join-the-participatory-seed-breeding-project-e1634651053651.jpg\")
<\/div>For decades, government policy has been promoting high-yield hybrid crops. There are now more commercial varieties of maize available but the number of local varieties has plummeted. An ongoing national survey<\/a> of China\u2019s crop resources found the country has over 20,000 cultivars to choose from, up from 2,400 in 1956. But 70% of landraces have been lost \u2013 down from 10,000 to 3,000. The problem with maize epitomises the general situation of China\u2019s agrobiodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 75%<\/p> of global crop diversity has been lost since the start of the last century<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n This issue is not limited to China. Globally, landraces have been abandoned in favour of high-yield alternatives. The FAO estimated that 75%<\/a> of global crop diversity has been lost since the start of the last century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cAichi Targets\u201d, set under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity at the 2010 UN biodiversity conference held in Nagoya, Japan, proposed maintaining the genetic diversity of species, including cultivated plants and their wild relatives, by 2020. This goal has not been achieved<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High-yield crops have increased output, but the associated loss of landraces has eroded the diversity available to crop-breeders. This is set to become a major food security threat. Crop breeding is not sustainable without the diversity of its genetic resources \u2013 the farmers\u2019 seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following on from the Shanggula project, scientists, farmers and NGOs working to preserve landraces have set up community seed banks elsewhere in China. Thanks to efforts over the past two decades from NGOs, local governments and numerous individuals, there are now 40 banks spread across 14 provinces. These collect, conserve and make use of local landraces, and exchange seeds among themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2013, based on the work of a series of participatory seed-breeding projects, scientists from public institutions such as Zhang Shihuang\u2019s and the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences worked together to establish the Farmers\u2019 Seed Network<\/a>, to support breeding, sharing and advocacy. The farmers involved have a range of motives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lu Ruixiang, from Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, owns a small seed company and has collected over 100 landrace varieties. She told China Dialogue that as a child her parents took her with them as they pollinated their maize crops and pulled weaker seedlings of sorghum from the ground to ensure the strength of the variety. Her mother would also tie a piece of string around larger and healthier tomatoes, as a sign they were not to be eaten, but to be kept for their seeds. Lu still saves seeds from that variety called \u201cApple Green\u201d. Seeing how many people missed old flavours such as these, she saw a market opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Partnerships for Community Development (PCD) is a Hong Kong NGO that has worked in Chinese villages for two decades. In 2006, it started to promote the conservation of landraces in southwest China and has become a long-term partner of Farmers\u2019 Seed Network. Angus Lam, chief representative of PCD\u2019s Beijing office, told China Dialogue that older villagers have been noticing how the climate has changed. While landrace yields may be lower per square metre than commercial alternatives, they are more reliable and so an increasing number of farmers are considering using them. The Covid-19 pandemic and a drop in exports has also seen many young people return to the countryside and attempt to sell local products through online marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Lam stresses that the seeds have cultural worth alongside commercial and genetic value. In the indigenous communities of the southwest, seeds can be passed down through countless generations. In some villages, seeds are given as dowries or as gifts at weddings, funerals and the birth of a child. This itself is a social mechanism for keeping vital resources safe. If those seeds are lost, the associated social relationships, collective memories and cultural traditions may also die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The system of \u201cimportant agricultural heritage\u201d provides some opportunity for better conserving local varieties. In 2014, the then Ministry of Agriculture designated the dryland stone terraces in Shexian county, Hebei province as a site of nationally important agricultural heritage. One important criterion for winning this status is richness of germplasm resources. In 2018, He Xianlin, the Shexian agricultural bureau\u2019s senior horticulturist, started work with local farmers to gather and catalogue seeds of 170 local varieties, including millet, maize, beans, sorghum and various vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He Xianlin says in-situ conservation of seeds \u2013 keeping them in use and in the ground \u2013 is more important than simply storing them. Constant planting allows varieties to adapt to changes in the climate and remain vital. \u201cWe need landraces to be valued for in-situ conservation to happen, and in-situ conservation is essential to better protect the vitality of germplasm resources,\u201d he told China Dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the 1980s, He Xianlin has worked on introducing new agricultural technologies and has a great deal of experience in crop breeding. Since 2019, he has been helping local farmers to improve local millet and bean varieties, with the aim of producing superior varieties to sell commercially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Field genebank<\/p> An artificial ecosystem for the conservation of genes.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n He Xianlin\u2019s efforts were mentioned in a policy suggestion<\/a> submitted to this year\u2019s Two Sessions meetings by Min Qingwen, a member of the People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences\u2019 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources. Min, who has dedicated himself to the preservation of agricultural heritage, told China Dialogue that China currently protects germplasm mainly through public gene banks. This is important but, like He Xianlin, he says storing seeds in freezers will not help them adapt to the changing climate and environment. He thinks \u201cimportant agricultural heritage sites\u201d should be used for in-situ conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his suggetion, Min said: \u201cUnlike ex-situ conservation, the use of agricultural heritage sites to protect germplasm resources would continue the dynamic processes of natural and human selection, increasing adaptation to environmental changes, diseases and pests. These are advantages the public gene banks, protected areas and germplasm nurseries cannot provide. The in-situ approach will also provide an extra reserve and source for gene banks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2020, the State Council issued guidance<\/a> on protecting germplasm, stressing their strategic importance for food security and supply of key agricultural products. It also declared these resources as essential for agricultural innovation and developing a modern seed industry \u2013 and that all seeds which should be conserved would be conserved. At the end of 2020, the Central Economic Work Conference identified \u201cresolving seed and arable land issues\u201d as one of eight major economic tasks to be completed in 2021. Meanwhile, descriptions of seeds as the \u201csilicon chips\u201d of agriculture started to appear in government and media language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This July, the 12th meeting of the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission passed an action plan for developing the seed industry, which says: \u201cSeed security should be regarded as of strategic importance and linked with national security… China\u2019s seed industry should be self-reliant and self-strengthening, with independent and controllable seed sources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A new spring would seem to be on the way for China\u2019s seed industry, but Min Qingwen says this is targeted mainly at crop breeding tech and industrialisation. \u201cWe still need to take germplasm protection seriously, particularly of those traditional varieties with local characteristics. But that often gets overlooked.\u201d Several questions stand out for him: \u201cDo we know what germplasm exist in farms around the country? Do we know where to find them? Could they be used in crop-growing? What threats do they face? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s time to start talking about spring. At best, this is early spring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Min says germplasm resources in urgent need of protection can be divided into two categories. The first are landraces and wild relatives<\/a> of crop plants which do not have much commercial value, yet are valuable for their genes. These need to be protected by the government through reserves, much like those established for endangered animals. The second are landraces that have the potential to be commercialised. These are often low-yielding but tasty and could meet niche market demands. Markets could be fostered for these, and supportive policies put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As things stand, the government is spending very little on the kind of germplasm reserves Min wants to see. The community seed bank in Shexian county gets no government funding, despite being a designated agricultural heritage site, and having been nominated as a \u201cglobally important agriculture heritage system\u201d by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the past, China had limited funds and focused on protection of wild animals such as the giant panda. We need to take things step by step. But I think now we have the financial resources needed to protect traditional germplasm resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To others, simply letting the government and the market each do what they do best is not enough to solve the conundrum. China\u2019s seed system is split. There are the \u201cfarmer seed systems\u201d, where farmers protect and utilise local varieties, and there is the \u201cformal seed system\u201d, composed of public research institutions and seed companies. This split was noted in an impact assessment report of China\u2019s seed policy<\/a> published last year by Farmers\u2019 Seed Network in partnership with research institutions and NGOs. According to the report, the disconnect has resulted in seeds cultivated by the formal system failing to meet the needs of farmers, while the rapid loss of local varieties has narrowed the germplasm available for formal seed breeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report proposes promoting cooperation between the farmer and formal seed systems, and among the peasants, public research institutions and seed companies within them. It also proposes supporting farmers to protect and utilise germplasm through benefit-sharing mechanisms, and strengthening the complementarity between farmers\u2019 seed systems and the public gene banks. The collaboration around Guinuo 2006 mentioned above provides a model for this kind of programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When China\u2019s seed law was revised in 2016, it did, after some controversy, protect farmers’ rights to breed, use and exchange conventional seeds. But new commercial crops must be tested to confirm their \u201cdistinctness, uniformity and stability\u201d before they can enter the market. Most ordinary farmers don\u2019t have the tech to do this and only seed companies can make the application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why the Guinuo 2006 partnership went far beyond developing a single new type of maize. It also helped local farmers commercialise their preferred landrace varieties, pass through the approvals process and sell the results, sharing in the profits with their partner in the project \u2013 Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Farmers could also sell the seeds and use them for further breeding of hybrids. In contrast, the current system is different and unfair to farmers. When seed companies develop new varieties, they often use the seeds bred by generations of farmers as their raw material, then keep all the profit. Partnerships like Shanggula are an active step toward one of the three objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), namely \u201cthe fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2013, the Guinuo 2006 maize variety was given for free by Shanggula to the villagers of Shitoucheng in Lijiang, Yunnan province. As part of a Farmers\u2019 Seed Network trial, a Shitoucheng farmer, Zhang Xiuyun, improved the variety, producing Xiuyun 1 and Xiuyun 2 strains adapted to the drier conditions that climate change is bringing to the surrounding Jinsha River basin. But as she is not eligible to apply for the regulatory approval to sell them, she is only able to pass the seeds around locally \u2013 they cannot be sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This predicament arises from the lack of an institutional framework to ensure farmers\u2019 right to benefit sharing, as agreed under the CBD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, as a supplementary agreement to the CBD, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing entered into force. The document<\/a> requires parties to ensure that the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources and related traditional knowledge owned by indigenous peoples and local communities are shared fairly with them. Each party should also obtain prior and informed consent before accessing the genetic resources belonging to these communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\nConserving seeds through planting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"China](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ENG_China-seeds-map.svg\")
<\/div>![\"The](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-dryland-stone-terraces-in-Shexian-county-in-Hebei.jpg\")
<\/div>A new spring?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Rongyan-farming-cooperative-in-Shanggula-village-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>Benefit sharing awaits a breakthrough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/A-community-seed-bank-in-Shitoucheng-village-scaled.jpeg\")
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