Seed Systems Resilience—An Overview

Seeds are a basic input for all crop production. Good seed is crucial for the global food and nutrition security, for rural development and farmers’ livelihoods and for all green value chains. What “good seed” is depends on individual farmer’s needs. The sustainable availability of seed and seed choice is thus an essential issue for every farmer. Farmers access seeds from multiple sources. Different seed systems have their strengths and vulnerabilities. With changing farming conditions around the world due to climate change, soil degradation and market demands, an analysis of possible disruptions and general future-proofing appears necessary. Such analysis also informs the kinds of support that different seed systems may need to be optimally resilient. Given the very limited studies on resilience of current seed systems, we performed a literature review on the opportunities and vulnerabilities of seed systems to identify possible resilience challenges. Seed system resilience in terms of future-proofing is closely linked with “seed security”, the secured access to preferred seeds by farmers. Such resilience depends on the functioning of each of the formal and farmers’ seed systems and how these two systems complement each other, particularly when one falters. In this paper, we describe the major characteristics of seed systems, analyze their strength and vulnerabilities, and describe support functions toward future-proofing them. Both the farmers’ and the formal seed systems are increasingly facing varying forms and degrees of sustainability challenges. These require various types of support. Farmers’ seed systems may find it hard to respond to radically changing conditions without support. Commercial formal seed systems are less vulnerable, as they generally are better equipped to respond to the (changing) needs of their customers. Commercial formal seed systems, however, only serve those farmers that are able and willing to pay for quality seeds. This immediately indicates a significant limitation. A common feature of both formal and farmers’ systems is their dependence on the continuous flow and capacity to use a diversity of plant genetic resources. In conclusion, no single seed system can be considered totally resilient and thus future-proof without specific external support.