3. Régimen de competencia desleal
3.2. Actos de competencia desleal
Upadhyay
Community biodiversity management is an integrated approach that contributes to both the conservation of local crop genetic diversity and community development. Even though it is ‘conservation oriented’, it incorporates many features that are relevant to supporting the informal seed system, the topic of this book. A project in Nepal studied farmers’ practices in maintaining and utilizing agricultural biodiversity, and went on to use participatory approaches to develop and test a set of tools for supporting community management: tools which are geared to conservation or diversity, and contribute to the maintenance of crop genetic diversity on-farm. Community capacities to manage and mobilize agricultural biodiversity are recognized as the basis for these tools, which we briefly describe in this section.
Tool 1: Community awareness
Community sensitization is essential to understanding farmer management and developing local strategies for the conservation and sustainable utilization of biodiversity. It raises awareness among farming communities, who learn about the value of local crop diversity. It strengthens community-based organizations’ capacity and shifts behaviour towards conservation and diversity. Farmers’ sense of pride in their cultural heritage is fostered as well. Various tools can be used, including the biodiversity and seed fair, the teej geet (folk song) competition, the rural poetry journey, the traditional food fair and rural roadside drama. These tools are people friendly and effective in giving rural people access to the required information. The choice of tools depends upon the cultural context of the community.
Tool 2: Biodiversity and seed fairs
The biodiversity fair is a popular tool for raising public awareness on the value of conserving local landraces. During a fair, farmers from different communities are brought together to exhibit a range of landraces; this continues the traditional system of exchange of seeds and knowledge. This participatory tool has been used for various objectives by a range of organizations.78 In Nepal, biodiversity fairs are not only
organized for promoting the exchange of knowledge and germplasm; they are also organized to explore diversity-rich areas and to recognize communities as custodians of traditional knowledge and biodiversity.79 Participation in biodiversity fairs has
become a matter of pride for the farming communities as they display their rich genetic resources and indigenous knowledge to visitors. It is one of the best forums for creating awareness and interest on the importance and value of local genetic resources amongst diverse stakeholders. Besides, it facilitates scientists, researchers, private entrepreneurs and policy makers to interact with communities and learn from
them. For genetic resource professionals and researchers, the fairs provide opportunities for collecting germplasm with communities’ prior informed consent. The main steps in organizing the fairs include (i) participatory planning with key stakeholders; (ii) setting norms and procedures for the diversity fair; (iii) planning for implementation of the event; and (iv) participatory evaluation of the contest during which participants’ displays are evaluated.80 Diversity fairs organized by local
institutions create ownership and develop local capacity to coordinate events involving various stakeholders; they also promote social interactions and awareness on the importance of biodiversity conservation.
Tool 3: Diversity blocks
A diversity block is an experimental block of farmers’ varieties for research and development purposes managed by local institutions. The block is used for measuring and analysing agro-morphological characteristics but also for validating farmers’ descriptors. A group of knowledgeable farmers is invited to observe the diversity block during cultivation. In this manner, researcher can observe whether farmers are consistent in naming and describing local varieties by farmer descriptors. This step is often ignored when assessing community level biodiversity richness. The block can also be used for the multiplication of planting materials, following cultivation of rare germplasm in the block. Samples multiplied can be shared in the community. Materials can also be supplied to ex situ collections, individual plants can be provided for parent selection in participatory plant breeding, and seed lots can be regenerated for community seedbanks. The diversity block has as an additional advantage of raising public awareness. A functional diversity block is established using the following steps:
1. Collect seed samples (50-200 g seed per variety’ depending upon the crop) during for example a diversity fair; include essential passport data, e.g. variety name, farmers’ descriptors, name of farmers, original habitat, name of locality and special use value.
2. Reiterate objectives and potential benefits from the diversity block and discuss with the community which local institutions would be interested to grow and maintain the block at a strategic and representative public place.
3. Orient community members to a simple field layout, planting and labelling, and identify a focal person for block management. It is essential to provide a conceptual and practical training to ensure proper handling and storage of seeds. 4. Use the farmers’ management system for the block. If many entries are proposed,
prioritize seed of rare, unique and threatened varieties for seed multiplication. The inclusion of these entries also serves to raise awareness of their potential values. The varieties with inconsistent names can be included in order to measure their distinct morphological traits and validate the names.
5. Install display boards with the purpose of the exercise and name of each individual variety.
6. Conduct a farm walk with interested and knowledgeable farmers, researchers and schoolchildren in order to:
• recognize a variety through farmer descriptors;
• test consistency of farmer-named varieties within and between communities and villages;
• collect the seed potentially demanded for future planting (5-10 kg); • collect rare and unique seed for inclusion in ex situ collections; • regenerate seed for the community seedbank;
• identify plants for participatory plant breeding; and • promote agro-ecotourism.
7. Harvest and store seed for the community seedbank. Distribute surplus seed for diversity kits and research, and to interested farmers who have expressed interest in multiplying and sharing seed with at least five neighbours. In addition, maintain seed for a diversity block of each crop as a field genebank. The next year’s block can be used for further demonstration and evaluation and will increase the quantity of ‘basic’ seeds for subsequent years. This exercise can be sustainable if the community recognizes its value and links the block with the community seedbank or community-based seed production activities.
8. Update the database of the community biodiversity register to encourage participants to engage in on-farm conservation and landrace enhancement.
Tool 4: Community biodiversity registers
A community biodiversity register (CBR) refers to ‘a record, kept in a register by community
members, of the genetic resources in a community, including information on their custodians, passport data, agro-ecology, cultural and use values’. CBR is basically a community effort to
document and conserve the biodiversity used and its associated ‘traditional’ knowledge. In Nepal, the use of CBRs has been under development since 1998, with the aim of strengthening in situ on-farm conservation of crop diversity. Several institutions have started to promote CBRs for various purposes, and as a consequence, different methodologies for CBRs have evolved. These are of two distinct types: (i) an inventory of economically valuable biodiversity at the local level; and (ii) an account of local community capacity to document important genetic resources and traditional knowledge for conservation and development purposes. The CBR answers key basic questions like (a) What materials do we have? (b) How do we use them? (c) What do we value most? (d) Who are the custodians of knowledge and materials? (e) Why do we need to conserve them? The CBR methodology is best explained with reference to the following 11 steps:81
1. Share its rationale and purpose with the community and form a committee; 2. Organize a biodiversity fair for locating diversity hotspots and custodians; 3. Identify biodiversity-rich communities and their institutions;
4. Develop a working modality;
5. Provide training, orientation and exposure visits on the method to interested communities;
6. Prepare a minimum dataset for the register;
7. Start documenting traditional knowledge in an agreed format (register, video, tape, digital image) and validate information;
8. Build community capacity to analyse information and share key findings with the community;
9. Develop a code of conduct for access to materials and sharing the benefits arising from the commercial use of materials;
10. Support the committee in developing livelihood strategies and conservation actions based on information generated in the register;
11. Register and maintain economically and culturally valuable biodiversity at a village level office register in order to claim ownership.
The CBR method is still evolving and research teams are further developing it as an empowerment tool for managing biodiversity at the community level. However, the impact of the exercise in the project has been significant; during a national workshop on biodiversity registration, the Nepal Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, IUCN, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and several NGOs asked the project staff to train their employees and seek technical inputs.
Tool 5: Community seedbanks
A community seedbank is a community-managed ex situ collection designed to enhance access to local varieties and associated knowledge for the benefit of the community. Local crop germplasm, information and associated knowledge are collected from within the community, markets and neighbouring villages. The germplasm is stored, regenerated or multiplied, and distributed to fulfil the seed requirements of farmers for their diverse agro-ecologies and to promote on-farm conservation. Community seedbanks are emerging as a reliable tool for supporting on- farm conservation in high-technological interventions and high input farming systems (‘resource rich production environments’), as well as in communities within largely marginal (‘resource-poor’) environments. The community seedbank established in Kachorwa* (a ‘resource-rich’ rice production environment) in Nepal proved to be a sustainable contribution to enhancing local seed security, responding to local seed demands, enhancing farmers’ access to quality seeds, and promoting on-farm conservation of local crop diversity.57 Since the establishment of the community
seedbank, the number of rice landraces has increased and local seed security in terms of availability and access has improved considerably. It is important to note that community seedbanks are not designed to supply communities with their total seed requirement. Their key objective is to ensure access to local crop diversity by serving as a source of varieties for multiplication. They still allow a decentralized crop and seed production, and selection and storage of farmer-saved seeds. Following encouraging results from community seedbanks in Nepal in the context of on-farm conservation, a partnership with plant breeding programmes and agriculture development agencies has been stimulated to promote the utilization of the local varieties maintained. The next step in community biodiversity management should be research and development efforts to ensure conservation and use, with the consequent income generation improving the farmers socio-economic position.
Tool 6: Diversity kits
The diversity kit is a set of small quantities of seeds of various varieties, and sometimes of various crops. The kit is made available to farmers for informal research and development. It consists of seeds harvested from diversity blocks, collected from community seedbanks, research farms, or farmers’ fields. Community-based organizations regularly distribute kits to farmers. (The tool is similar to the informal research and development approach developed by Lumle Agricultural Research Centre,82 and later scaled up by the project of the Centre for Arid Zone Studies
Natural Resources in South Asia,83 as a component of a strategy for disseminating and
testing pre-released varieties with a scheme for participatory varietal selection. The diversity kit differs from this approach, since it aims to deploy a diversity of cultivars and crop species with the objectives of promoting local innovation, augmenting community access to diversity and increasing resilience in the context of integrated pest and disease management.) Diversity kits require few resources, and have a big impact. They promote farmers’ evaluation of materials, and farmer-to-farmer seed and knowledge dissemination. No rigid procedures for diversity kits exist, which makes the approach very user-friendly. The steps for applying the tool are as follows:
1. Conduct diversity fairs at a regular interval of 2-3 years;
2. Identify unique, rare and useful diversity using PRA or participatory four-cell analysis;
3. Grow local varieties in diversity blocks for characterization and seed multiplication;
4. Ensure quality of seed by testing germination, viability and health of freshly harvested seeds;
5. Store 5-10 kg of seed in the community seedbanks (optional) and prepare diversity kits from the rest of the seeds (ranging from 100 g to 2 kg depending upon the nature of the crops);
6. Identify local institutions for the distribution and monitoring of the spread at community level;
7. Distribute diversity kits of rare or unique landraces and notify passport data of the recipient farmers for future impact monitoring;
Diversity kits are more successful if attention is paid to the following: (i) identifying genetic resources for food and agriculture that are valued by resource-poor farmers; (ii) linking diversity kits with community seed production groups, community seedbanks and ex situ collections; (iii) linking diversity kits with farmers’ field schools and participatory plant breeding programmes; and (iv) training farmers for selection and maintenance within grassroots or farmer breeding.
In Nepal, formal research organizations take a critical approach to the tool as they consider kits a potential source of new pests and diseases in farmers’ fields. This concern should be taken into consideration because pests and diseases can easily spread along the crop diversity. However, such concerns should be addressed at the source itself by producing quality seed for the kits.
It is preferable to use locally available valuable seed and plant materials in diversity kits, as they will generate immediate income for the custodians and will help to other farmers to obtain new materials. The availability of genetic materials,
including products of landrace enhancement, pre-breeding and participatory plant breeding, are important for its success as they will motivate community participation. Most importantly, diversity kits improve access to germplasm and encourage farmers to search for to use for selection, exchange and maintenance of preferred seeds/plants; in fact the kit is inserted into and stimulates existing social seed networks. One of the essential steps is to monitor the rate of varietal spread among households within and between communities through diversity kits. Researchers and development workers will be able to learn about the factors affecting farmers’ decisions about starting and continuing to cultivate the varieties disseminated. The tool has potential for scaling up in wider geographical, institutional and socio-cultural contexts. Many development and research institutions have the mandate to improve access to locally adapted materials that generate social, economic and environmental benefits.
Tools promoting use as a means of conservation
Experiences from Nepal and on-farm conservation projects in other countries demonstrate that the above mentioned community tools are effective for empowering communities in the conservation and use of crop genetic diversity. More importantly, as collective actions, they raise awareness of the value of local genetic diversity and strengthen the informal seed system with a focus on conservation and use. Over time, these community actions will build farmers’ and their grassroots institutions’ capacity and potential for plant breeding. Participatory breeding programmes that adopt the principles of empowerment, social inclusion and biodiversity enhancement are crucial for supporting farmers’ livelihoods and the continuation of farming as a rural activity. The participatory tools described here enhance farmers’ and grassroots institutions’ capacities to assess existing diversity, select niche-specific locally adapted materials, multiply selected populations, and distribute diversity within and among communities through social networks. The set of tools constitutes a simple approach that maximizes use of the crop diversity upon which farmers depend for their livelihoods. The tools may well become a core strategy for responding rapidly to the new demands of farmers facing climate change. The aim of the tools is the one that is at the heart of this book: to enhance our understanding of seed systems and to support them.