Learning by Doing: Insights from Nout van der Vaart

Nout van der Vaart is the Policy Lead Food and Land at Oxfam Novib. He has worked with different stakeholders on policy issues that are related to the inclusion and sustainability of agricultural development, food and nutrition security. These stakeholders often are government officials, members of parliament and media. For this SeedNL article Nout tells us more about the Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security program (SD=HS). In this program, he has worked on supporting farmers’ seed systems and their rights at a local, national, and global level.

Picture by Oxfam Novib

Can you tell us more about the SD=HS program?

“The program sowing diversity is funded by SIDA, the Swedish international development agency. It all started nine years ago when we made a country selection for our project activities. In the SD=HS program we currently work in eight countries with partner organizations that have a very specific expertise in local genetic resources and agrobiodiversity. The objective of the program is to improve seed quality and seed access of smallholder farmers. 80% of the farmers in the countries where we work source their seeds from informal unregulated markets, and these are traded amongst themselves. We focus on strengthening farmers who operate predominantly in that informal sector, to improve their access to good and locally adapted seeds.”

“Our focus is to increase food security and conserve agrobiodiversity by strengthening farmers’ capacities to develop and improve their own farmer seed varieties, in close collaboration with national agricultural research centres and government seed quality and control departments. We aim for the conservation of local food crops and plant varieties, enabling farmers to develop and access the genetic materials they need to adapt to quickly changing climatic circumstances.”

What is the focus of the project?

“Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security (SD=HS) is a partnership between Oxfam Novib and civil society organizations who work in the field of plant genetic resources and agricultural development. The SD=HS program applies a three-fold implementation approach that seeks to: a) strengthen the rights of Indigenous Peoples and smallholder farmers, b) build their technical capacity in breeding processes; and c) influence policymaking in areas related to both access and use of plant genetic resources for food and nutrition security.”

“Smallholder farmers are in great need of support. They are often neglected by government policies  and are often not fully recognized as key stakeholders. As Oxfam Novib we believe that poverty is tackled most efficiently by investing significantly in agricultural development, in particular the business of smallholder farming. And that we need to work with farmers' organizations to increase their access to quality seeds.”

What is unique about your organization in how it contributes to seed sector development?

Oxfam Novib’s approach differs a bit from standard seed sector development projects. We tend to focus more on the development of local and informal seed systems and we work more with (improving and adapting) existing local plant varieties and land races. We also aim to increase the formal recognition of these local varieties.”

 We see that many farmers do not have the means to purchase improved seeds developed by big (international) private sector actors. We believe a bottom-up approach is needed to further strengthen farmers’ own capacities to develop and improve the genetic resources they have been conserving for generations. We see farmers as capable agents, capable of breeding and developing the plant varieties they need. Not as merely seed consumers. Our mission is to support indigenous people and smallholder farmers – men, women and youth to claim their rights and strengthen their access to resources, while adapting to climate change.”

What are some of your biggest successes so far? Can you give an example?

“At the national level we achieved many results in the eight countries the program is active in. We established many farmer field schools, in which our civil society partners work together with farmer to jointly select, develop and enhance genetic material. This is called the participatory plant breeding method. We also established collaborations with researchers from national agricultural research institutes and public breeders. And we implemented many awareness raising and capacity building activities with farmer groups. These activities included topics like gender, seed marketing, and farmer rights”.

“In Nepal for example, we strengthened the collaboration with government authorities and national agricultural research centers. A few years ago, the Nepalese Seed Law was amended to allow for registration of farmer varieties, in parallel with the formal variety registration system. In 2022, Nepalese farmers were able to register several farmer rice varieties. A Nepalese farmer, together with government representatives and SD=HS partner organization LI-BIRD, presented lessons learned from the process of registering farmer varieties to an international audience during the biannual meeting of the FAO Plant Treaty. In terms of policy achievements this is still modest. But at least a dialogue on this topic (farmer variety registration) has started in almost all countries. Our program has helped to put this topic on the agenda”.

How has the project contributed to SDG 5: Gender equality through seed interventions?

“In the implementation of the program we have a specific emphasis on working with women groups. We don’t just question the gender roles that are there. We have developed a specific gender learning module for this. As such, we try to be gender transformative in everything we do and monitor. In the farmer communities, it is often women who are responsible for growing the crops.”

What would you have done differently in retrospect / if you could start all over again?

“We would probably focus a bit more on the wider farmer livelihood aspect and integrate seed development work as part of that. There is fundamental demand with farmers to get support on a wider range of rural development and livelihood topics such as access to credit, markets and inputs. For example, how to ensure that farmers can make a living while multiplying seeds and working on participatory plant breeding. “

“We also gained lessons learned from our work on farmer seed enterprises. These enterprises sometimes have difficulty generating sufficient revenue and reaching more markets. As such, we want to link them more to the formal seed sector, especially for the distribution system. We want to create a bridge between the formal and the informal seed sector. The Dutch private sector can be of good help here. They can support farmers in getting access to finance and increase farmers’ access to improved varieties.”

For you personally, what are some of the reasons that you like working in the seed sector?

I want to put my efforts into contributing to a more just and sustainable world.  To me, this starts with improving people’s access to, use of, and control over resources, like land and genetic resources.  There are still too many places in the world where people do not have access to good and sufficient  food. With climate change, humanity is being faced with increasingly complex and intertwined challenges. At the same time, the concentration and consolidation of power and market shares in the hands of only a few big actors in most parts of the food system is worrying me. The appropriation of (genetic) resources is one example hereof. People need to be able to improve their conditions, without depending on those few major actors. Working with farming communities on the ground and breeding and developing local plant varieties, is one way to improve this.