
Policy
The policy implementation strategy’s focus is to bring change to seed policy and legislation towards an ‘integrated seed system’.
Implementation Strategy
The project’s policy part works on two interconnected systems: seed systems and food systems in general. CROPS4HD’s policy addresses all levels – from local, to national, to subregional, and to international arenas. Again, these different levels are closely interlinked allowing CROPS4HD e.g., to deploy studies showing the importance of Peasants’ Seed System in one country as advocacy instruments at international level.
The project will use a human rights-based approach, which develops the capacity of duty bearers to meet their obligations and encourages rights holders to claim their rights. Governments will be made aware that they have three levels of obligation: to respect, protect and fulfil right. To respect a right means refraining from interfering with the enjoyment of the right. To protect a right means to prevent other parties from interfering with the enjoyment of rights. To fulfil a right means to take active steps to put in place, laws, policies, institutions and procedures, including the allocation of resources, to enable people to enjoy their rights.
For CROPS4HD this is a two-way street: Peasants, but as well consumers and their organizations need to be fully informed about their rights and be capacitated to participate in decisions that affect them. On the other hand, duty bearers such as governments, often lack the knowledge of the reality of peasants as well as the capacity to fulfill their duty to protect the rights of peasants. Therefore, the project collects evidence for better policy decisions and helps the peasants and their organizations to enter into a dialogue with the policy makers to help them to become actors in their own development, rather than passive recipients of services.
CROPS4HD deploys an advocacy theory of change for its policy, which encompasses four key activities, which build on each other and can run as well in parallel on the different implementation levels:
- evidence gathering,
- public awareness creation,
- movement building and
- engaging policy spaces.
Those steps will be interlinked with activities of the other implementation strategies and CROPS4HD will seek to harness synergies and integrate advocacy work with awareness raising for advantages of traditional crops and varieties and improvement of their cultivation techniques.
Key Outcomes
- Effectiveness of sub‐national policies and legal frameworks in A+FS for small holder farmers is increased.
- 100 key policy makers and shapers are contacted.
- Effectiveness of sub‐national policies and legal frameworks in A+FS for small holder farmers is increased.
- Effectiveness of sub‐national policies and legal frameworks in A+FS for small holder farmers is increased.
- Effectiveness of sub‐national policies and legal frameworks in A+FS for small holder farmers is increased.
Recent News
First seed fair in Chad: A way to bring the Peasant Seed System forward
It is in Pala that the CROPS4HD team in Chad demonstrated our project as an initiative to show case the importance of peasant seeds in food security and biodiversity preservation. This was done through a two-day fair, on the 20 and 21 December 2022, with the theme “Seed systems, biodiversity and resilience of rural households…
Full articleLinks between gender and varietal selection: the case study in Orissa
In September 2022, Bhittibhumi carried out a participatory Variety Selection (PVS) exercise in Orissa with the support and guidance of FiBL. The exercise involved farmers as key stakeholders to seek and determine the most preferred lines of green gram and sesame for further advancement. Discussions with the farmers (both genders) showed differences and some similarities…
Full articleVisit in Colombia : knowledge exchange
Community seed banks are a central pillar of the project CROPS4HD to increase accessibility of neglected and underutilised crops as well as farmers’ varieties. In Latin America, SWISSAID has been working with community seed banks for 15 years. Therefore, the project decided to capitalise this experience in a South-South exchange
Full article