Seeds’ saving communities: the launch of Czech‐Moldovan seed libraries in Moldova
During the Soviet Union there was a centralized system of seed production which collapsed together with the USSR in 1991. Today there are few research institutes in Moldova which produce locally adapted seed varieties but the production of seeds of vegetables and greens is missing (97% of seeds for vegetables are imported).
The demand for local reproducible seeds is growing in Moldova while the offer is still modest because the farmers’ seed system in Moldova is not developed. Although there are informal networks and exchanges, there is no organized system fulfilling the needs of local communities.
Czech association Seminkovna together with their local partner Ao Gradina Moldovei aims to create a network of seed libraries which can be a starting point to address the issue of access to seeds at the local level. Here local people can get the basic set of a variety of seeds which they can reproduce to have their own seeds in the next season. The plan is to launch 3 to 5 seed libraries in different sub‐regions.
The focus will be on the most vulnerable groups in rural areas and help to improve the quality of their lives because they eat food of higher quality, aren’t exposed to agrochemicals and can sell the surplus of their production on the local market.
Final deliverables: