Community Seed Bank Chikankata In Zimbabwe, CTDT Zimbabwe implemented the establishment of eight CSBs including the Murehwa seed bank funded by the Vivace Foundation in 2018/2019. To expand our program outreach, SD=HS proposes to establish a CSB in the Mamvule community in the Shibuyunji distict (in 2019 or 2020) and in the Nadezwe community in Chikankata district (in 2020) of Zambia. To facilitate the establishment of these two community seed banks in Zambia, and to reduce costs and increase impact, we propose to pool together funding secured through the Hans Geveling Foundation  with funding from the Vivace foundation.

The communities in Nadezwe and Mamvule currently make use ofprivate household spaces functioning as temporary community seed banks. Over the years this has demanded increased management attention within the community. Within each of these communities a management committee is therefore already in place, which is ready to manage a permanent community seed bank that will store local seed supplies and also serve as acentre for sharing knowledge around issues of seed in their communities. The CSBs will be constructed with the active participation of community members who will contribute to the cost of construction, whereas establishment of the CSBs will involve the purchase of locally produced building materials and contracting of local builders.
In collaboration with the SD=HS project, the CSB initiative in Zambia will reach beyond the work previously carried out in Zimbabwe, and include empowering community members to make use of local food plants and neglected and underutilized species  of plants within the community to support community food security in scarcity periods. Making use of traditional food resources which are increasingly neglected has proven to be an important element of improved dietary nutrition for communities and hence food and nutrition security. Concretely, five FFS will be established around each constructed CSB to provide the communities with the much needed information on how to best establish and use local seed sources. There will be a strong focus on women as thecustodians of seeds and those responsible for household nutrition. Per FFS approximately 25 farmers will be trained, 50 % of them women, who in turn will be able to share their newly acquired knowledge with other farmers in the wider community.

As was the case with the CSBs in Zimbabwe, focus group discussions on the conditions for the proper functioning of the CSBs and for priority setting will be held in the communities, andtrainings and strengthening of the CSB governance structures will be undertaken. Through the trainings sustainability of the CSB will be ensured and proper seed storage conditions providing protection from pest and diseases and preventing high humidity and temperature will be established. Moreover, attention will be given to the identification of local food plants and to the seed collection, cultivation, and preparation of these species, in addition to collecting and storing seeds for major food crops. Communities will establish plots for demonstration, crop development and seed multiplication, organising seed fairs,sales and exchanges as well as serving as a meeting and learning space around the CSB. These activities will result in CSBs as the centre of all seed-related activities in the community and hence the sustainability of local crop diversity.

The funding of the Vivace Foundation will be used for the establishment of one community seed bank in Nadezwe (Chikankata), Zambia,