The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that access to diverse seeds is a key strategy to ensure we are able to continue to produce the food we need as climate change impacts become more severe.
Over hundreds of years, small-scale farmers have developed a huge diversity of plant varieties that respond to their specific local climate and soil conditions. When they can freely access seeds and build on this diversity it means they develop resilience to climate change.
Any threat to seed sovereignty will mean we are less resilient to a changing climate which increases vulnerability in the food system in an age of extreme weather events.
Women account for almost half of the world’s small-scale farmers, and in Africa they produce 70% of the food eaten across the continent.
They often play a vital role when it comes to saving seeds. But when countries adopt new seed laws, women’s access to seeds is potentially reduced. In many countries, women may face cultural barriers stopping them going to markets where commercial varieties are sold. They also often have less access to finance to buy seeds in commercial markets, and commercial breeders often do not produce seeds for the crops that women grow for home consumption.
