| Cover | 1
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| Contents | 2-3
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| Securing seed supply - Editorial | 4-5
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| ILEIA editorial team |
| Seed is the future of agriculture. For farmers it is the most essential input: without good seed they have no chance of a good harvest. This is a simple truth but the implications are far reaching. Fo... |  |
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| The role of trust in the acquisition of seeds | 6-8
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| Lone Badstue |
| As seeds are one of the most important inputs in agriculture, farmers require them to be of good quality and with the characteristics they need for their particular conditions and objectives. However,... | |
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| Local multiplication to ensure timely planting | 9
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| Hideliza de Chavez, Lorna Sister, Irene Adion, Rizalina Tablarin, Dindo Campilan |
| As sweet potato is a major cash crop in Central Luzon, the Philippines, demand for planting material is always high. In the lowland plains of the Tarlac province, however, most fields become flooded d... | |
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| Selecting the best plants to improve seed potato | 10-11
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| Peter Gildemacher, Demo, Paul, Peter Kinyae, Moses Nyongesa, Pauline Mundia |
| The low quality of seed potato is a major problem for small scale potato producers in Kenya. Interventions to tackle this problem have mainly focused on specialised seed multipliers, but the results d... | |
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| Higher yields and income with disease resistant coffee clones | 12-13
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| Lebi Gabriel Hudson |
| The lowlands of the Isangati division, in southern Tanzania, enjoy ideal climatic conditions for theproduction of coffee. Yields, however, are low: one of the main reasons is the high incidence of two... | |
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| New bean seeds and the struggle for their dissemination | 14-16
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| Conny Almekinders, Eduardo Aguilar, Rolando Herrera |
| The northern region of Nicaragua has always been an important bean and maize producing area. But a widespread presence of the Golden Mosaic Virus made it impossible to grow beans in the last years. A ... | |
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| Conserving the plant genetic resources of southern Africa | 17
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| Barnabas Kapange |
| Based in Lusaka, Zambia, and working with other national centres, the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC) co-ordinates the conservation activities for the whole region, and stores a collection... | |
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| Community based seed supply in Sudan | 18-19
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| Abdelrahman Khidir Osman |
| Between 2002 and 2005, CARE International in Sudan implemented a project to enhance the food security status of approximately 65 000 rural families in Sheikan and Enhoud, two localities in North Kordo... | |
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| Community seed banks for maintaining genetic diversity | 20-21
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| Vanaja Ramprasad |
| A community seed bank functions very much like a commercial bank. The transfers are, however, not in money but in seeds. Any inhabitant of the villages that a seed bank serves can become a member of t... | |
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| Increasing the availability of traditional seeds in Sri Lanka | 22-23
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| Alex Thanthriarachchi, Samantha Green, Julia Wright |
| The Movement for the Protection of Indigenous Seeds, MPIS, in Sri Lanka, started in 1986. Its aim is to breed and propagate local rice varieties and provide seeds and ecological awareness to farmers. ... | |
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| Good quality seeds from farmers' seed clubs | 24-26
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| SEARICE |
| The Mekong Delta region is the biggest commercial rice production area in Vietnam. To cope with the growing demands for commercial seeds in the region, farmers organised themselves into Farmer Seed Cl... | |
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| Rehabilitating prefered rice varieties | 25-26
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| Nico Vromant |
| Many farmers in the Mekong Delta region complained that the seeds which they liked showed strong varietal degeneration: their stand and performance were no longer uniform, resulting in poor rice harve... | |
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| A new approach for facilitating farmers' access to bean seed | 27-29
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| Rubyogo Jean Claude, Louise Sperling, Teshale Assefa |
| Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are an important crop for food, cash and agro-ecosystem improvement in many countries in eastern, central and southern Africa. But because of different problems, s... | |
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| Towards self-sufficiency in groundnut seed | 30-31
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| K. Suresh Kanna |
| Farmers in the village of Odugampatti, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, have been implementing a multiplication and exchange system for groundnut seeds since 2001. This was developed in res... | |
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| The development of farmer managed natural regeneration | 32-34
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| Tony Rinaudo |
| Conventional methods of reforestation in Africa have often failed. The obstacles working against reforestation are enormous. But a new method of reforestation called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneratio... | |
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| Experimenting with the System of Rice Intensification in Iraq | 35
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| Khidhir Abbas Hameed |
Iraqi farmers usually cultivate rice according to cultural practices learnt from their parents. They use a large amount of seed (about
160 kg/ha) and dry cultivation methods. Organic matter is ... | |
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| Sources | 36-37
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| Networking | 38
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| New books | 39
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| The global LEISA network | 40
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| Themes and Call for articles | |
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