Online Reporter
Sifelani Tsiko
Fact Check Editor
The SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre has hailed Zimbabwe as a centre of excellence in community seed banking and a leading force in efforts to safeguard crop biodiversity in southern Africa.
Tilabilenji Phiri, a Senior Programmes Officer at the SPGRC, told delegates at the opening of the Chivende Community Seed Bank in Hurungwe District recently that Zimbabwe was a shining example of community seed banking that other SADC countries should emulate.
“Zimbabwe has been doing a great job in terms of developing community seed banks and driving efforts to conserve indigenous seeds, which are disappearing at an alarming rate across our region,” she said.
“I am happy to say that Zimbabwe is leading the entire SADC region in plant genetic conservation. Zimbabwe has 34 community seed banks and is a shining model for the region.
“Zimbabwe is an important centre of excellence for community seed banking, and we want other countries in the region to learn from its experiences and initiate efforts to establish seed banks in their local communities.”
Zimbabwe has achieved a significant milestone in biodiversity conservation, with between 7 000 and 8 500 accessions of locally adapted farmers’ varieties, crop wild relatives and traditional food crops stored at the National Genebank of Zimbabwe, managed by the Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Institute (GRBI).
The country has one of the largest seed repositories in the SADC region.
These accessions provide a crucial safeguard against the global decline in crop biodiversity.
“Community seed banks are crucial in reducing the erosion of plant genetic resources. Indigenous varieties are key to food security and nutrition, as well as to building the region’s resilience to climate shocks,” said Phiri.
“We have to conserve our plant genetic resources for future generations. Zimbabwe is a great model for the entire region when it comes to community seed banking practices.”
To strengthen resilient seed systems, the Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO), with support from the OAK Foundation, Government and other multilateral partners, established the Chivende Community Seed Bank under the Community Seed Banks for Regenerative Agriculture Project.
The facility is one of 34 community seed banks established by CTDO in partnership with local communities across the country to conserve crop diversity.
The new facility will conserve accessions such as sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, bambara nuts, cowpeas, indigenous vegetables and locally adapted tree species, protecting agricultural biodiversity while strengthening farmers’ access to resilient seed varieties.
The seed bank is linked to national and regional genebanks, helping to safeguard locally adapted varieties and connect community conservation efforts with broader plant genetic resource networks.
With droughts becoming increasingly frequent and rainfall declining across arid and semi-arid parts of southern Africa, coupled with environmental degradation and the neglect of indigenous food plant species, a wide range of plants and food crops are under threat of extinction.
Southern Africa is rich in indigenous and introduced plant genetic resources, but these are increasingly threatened by genetic erosion.
Concerned about the potential loss of a wide range of plant genetic resources, SADC established the SPGRC to spearhead regional efforts to conserve and promote their sustainable use.
The regional seed bank coordinates the inventory, collection, characterisation, evaluation, regeneration, multiplication and documentation of indigenous and exotic plant genetic resources across southern Africa.
The SPGRC now holds more than 63 000 accessions of diverse crops and their wild relatives as the bloc intensifies long-term efforts to conserve germplasm collections and develop new varieties that are resilient to climate change and other threats.
The accessions are stored in various genebanks across the SADC region, with some duplicated at the regional genebank in Lusaka and at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic as a risk-mitigation measure for the region.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the diversity of cultivated crops declined by 75 percent during the 20th century, and a third of today’s crop diversity could disappear by 2050.
