SeedLinked reposted this
The Crop Diversity Dilemma: A Crucial Challenge for Climate Change Adaptation For the past six years, I have been deeply involved in addressing crop diversity, a passion that has driven my thinking for over 15 years in my breeding journey. Through SeedLinked, we have embarked on a journey to empower breeders and dealers, reducing R&D costs and accelerating adoption. Our results consistently demonstrate that collaborative breeding, supported by a digital ecosystem, is both efficient/accurate and very cost-effective. However, I see two main hurdles that institutions and policymakers need to prioritize: Business Model Innovation: A diverse seed ecosystem often results in low volume per variety, leading to low revenue and making it unsustainable for seed innovators and breeders. We need a supply chain approach that redistributes margins from consumers to breeders. This can be achieved through incentives, more economic and business research, and novel financing models. Emphasizing business research is crucial, potentially more so than novel statistical models, new gene editing processes, or cheaper sequencing. Narrative and Perception: Humans are driven by stories. Currently, the dominant narrative is technocratic, focused on control and homogeneity. In contrast, diversity is perceived as chaotic and less controlled. While SeedLinked has proven solutions, adoption remains slow because our narrative isn’t the mainstream. Technologies like drones, automation, and genomics are more appealing, despite promoting further homogeneity due to high capital needs and scalability requirements. (FYI this post was edited by AI 🤣) Where do we go from here?1/ We need more innovative investments (slow and new structure like work done by The Nest Family Office, Elemental Excelerator and Jordan Kraft Lambert) directed towards seed innovators like Adrien Pelletier and SeedLinked. What about a long term fund investing in a breeding project? 2/More communication to slowly change the story like Koen van Seijen work Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food. By shifting the focus and resources, we can enhance the adoption of diverse, sustainable agricultural practices essential for climate change adaptation.
The global seed & plant breeding scientific community has a dilemma. Crop genetic diversity is presented as a solution to climate change & food security. The argument being that biodiverse gene pools, when selected by farmers year after year, adapt & evolve with local conditions, the soil microbiome & micro-climate. By crossing, selecting & growing populations with no chemical inputs, genepools adapt through complex changes to deal with weeds, pests & disease. So, if there are agronomic advantages, why aren't there more breeders & gene bank curators doing more evolutionary breeding, composite populations or participatory plant breeding with farmers ? Why isn't this considered as the mainstream solution to crop diversity challenges ? Why are we putting all out investments on uniform & stable varieties, hybrids & biotech ? This is the dilemma for the breeding & seed sector : we have evidence a solution works, but we are not scaling it up. We are not making it the core, mainstream strategy to address societal issues. Social, economic & political forces aside, I'm genuinely curious how breeders & scientists navigate the science behind this dilemma. In the meantime, you will find more evidence & answers to those questions in a review of participatory plant breeding projects that have been documented in the Global North by Edith Lammerts van Buerent & colleagues. SeedChange / Sème l’avenir Organic Seed Alliance International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) International Seed Federation International Plant Treaty UN Biodiversity CGIAR Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada/ Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada RQRAD - Réseau québécois de recherche en agriculture durable LiveSeeding IFOAM - Organics International Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL FAO Isabelle GOLDRINGER Monika Messmer Louis Bolk Institute Peter Keijzer Panafrican Farmers Organisation World Farmers' Organisation World Vegetable Center