Seeds and survival: crop genetic resources in war and reconstruction in Africa   Pdf version

by Paul Richards and Guido Ruivenkamp

with contributions from Roy van der Drift, Mulbah Gonowolo, Malcolm S. Jusu, Catherine Longley and Shawn McGuire

A report commissioned by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the Joint Working Group on Technology and Agrarian Development, Agricultural University, Wageningen

This report considers the impact of war, civil strife, and low-intensity conflict (LIC) on plant genetic resources management, where crop plant genetic resources are still partly (or mainly) conserved in situ by small-scale agriculturalists. The following sets of issues are covered: war and LIC and erosion of plant genetic resources; relief, rehabilitation and management of plant genetic resources; policy and practical options to link effectively the fields of relief, rehabilitation and plant genetic resource management.

The impact of war and LIC on the management of plant genetic resources is traced through linked case studies of rice genetic resources in the ecoregion of the upper West African coastal zone from Senegal to Liberia. This zone has been affected by three major conflicts: the war of independence in Guinea-Bissau, 1962-75, the civil war in Liberia 1989-1996, and the insurgency of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, 1991-97.

The cases are rendered more significant, from the perspective of managing genetic resources, by the possible importance of long-term geneflow between the local African species of cultivated rice and West African cultivars of Asian rice. LIC has had a doubly disruptive effect on the management of plant genetic resource in the West African rice zone. It has damaged formal-sector (state-run) genetic resource management facilities, and equally importantly, has brought about major changes in the patterns of social cooperation through which local seed systems are managed. The impact on the flows and distribution of crop genetic diversity is likely to be considerable but as yet is unquantified.

In seeking to understand war damage to seed systems it is stressed that plant genetic resource management is social as well as technical work. Change in the interaction of social and technical factors must be taken into account when seeking to rehabilitate seed systems in the aftermath of war. Although seeds sometimes survive conflict, there may be major shifts in patterns of labour mobilization or in commercial relations of agricultural production. These changes in agrarian social relations are liable to profoundly affect the working of seed systems. Rehabilitation solely directed towards the restoration of the status quo may be misplaced effort. The report considers some of the ways in which seed issues might be effectively addressed in relief and rehabilitation activity. Where informal seed systems have collapsed, new alliances linking refugee/displaced farmer groups, relief agencies and specialists in managing genetic resources are needed.

The report suggests some ways in which these new actor-networks might be fostered, while avoiding dependency implications associated with conventional relief. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other relief and rehabilitation agencies operating in war zones address seed issues, and have some desire to further improve their sociotechnical capacity in this area. Some agencies would welcome better briefing on both technical and social dimensions of seed-relief activity, including some background on the implications for the management of plant genetic resources. Institutions managing plant genetic resources must themselves change to meet the needs of these new client groups.

The report discusses how genebank facilities might open their doors to NGOs and refugee and displaced farmer client groups in war-torn regions. Some suggestions include improving the socioeconomic passport data for accessions, ascertaining what relief and rehabilitation agencies need to know about seed issues, reorganizing genebank information systems to meet these needs, and developing the disaster preparedness of genebank facilities through joint exercises involving NGO personnel.

Recent work on humanitarian assistance in African war zones makes clear that relief aid must be designed against a sound background analysis of the causes of conflict, to guard against the danger of relief aid fuelling further conflict. The report ends with an overview of a model scheme that seeks to address some of the basic food-security needs of war-affected rural communities in the West African rice zone while taking account of local conflict dynamics.