Community Seed Banks in Zambia A community seed bank to safeguard genetic diversity of local crops including NUS and to increase utilization by the community for food and nutrition security in the face of climate change
Background and Justification
Over the past seven years, CTDT Zambia has been working with rural communities on measures to enhance genetic diversity and reverse the rapid genetic erosion that has led to a reduction of available varieties necessary to achieve household food and nutrition security while having to deal with the threat of climate change. This work has involved measures to restore some of the lost farmer varieties and to introduce new ones and make improvements to them and to existing ones. This increase in diversity has been necessitated by the threat ofclimate change where inadequate diversity has led to reduced capacity to adapt, leading to reduced harvests due to drought and inconsistent rainfall patterns. This work has involved community multiplication of diverse varieties of diverse crops to increase seed availability in the target communities.
In order to have a viable, perpetual and sustainable system of community seed multiplication and distribution, communities agreed to utilize volunteer household spaces as temporary community seed banks, where incoming seed due for multiplication could be stored and where harvested seed was re-distributed from. Over the years, the increasing number of crops and varieties has caused an increase in the quantities of seed and samples passing through the seed bank with some of them requiring to be kept longer than one season. This has necessitated increased management attention to deal with effects of pests and diseases and the storage environment in general. Thus, community seed bank committees have been established to manage the systems and to lead the development of rules and guidelines for seed bank operations. These communities are now ready to have permanent purpose-built structures for use as community seed banks and centres for sharing knowledge around issues of seed in their communities.
Planned activities
In this pilot project, it is planned to construct one community seed bank with the active participation of community members and their contribution to the cost of construction through utilization oflocally produced bricks and use of local artisan skills and bricklaying. It is planned that the community seed bank will form the centre around which all the activities around seed in the community will revolve including farmer field schools and adequateland for purposes of establishing demonstration plots for farmer learnings. Adequate land will also be reserved for characterization of the germplasm in the seed bank and for crop development and seed multiplication  .
The community seed bank will focuson all the crops that contribute to household food and nutrition security ensuring that neglected and underutilized species (NUS) that contribute to nutrition and which are important during the hunger period thus contributing to food security during thisperiod are given special attention.  To achieve this, the main planned activities in addition to seed bank construction,   include:
1. To organize focus group discussions (FGDs) within the target community to identify crops  , both staple food crops andNUS  including wild and weedy species that contribute to food and nutrition security and that contribute to the diet during the hunger period between planting and before the main crop is harvested.
2. To carry out a literature review and study to compile reliable information about the NUS identified in the FGDs including their nutrition values and agronomic information for use in propagating these crops. Correct scientific names   tied to local names will be achieved through use of herbaria and taxonomists.
3. To establish three women and two youth farmer field schools (FFSs) on NUS. Women are more knowledgeable about NUS and have more interest in these crops/plants as they play the role of ensuring nutritious food for the household. Female and male youth will also be deliberately targeted to participate in the FFSs and in the management of the community seed bank as a way of contributing to sustainability of community programmes.
4. To use the biodiversity registers to assess the status of major staple field crops   and NUS in the community and surrounding area.
5. To organize food processing and preparation training sessions for NUS. These sessions are intended to provide women a forum for cross learnings about methods and recipes to increase the value and appeal of NUS food items.
6. To conduct targeted NUS seed collecting missions   for the seed bank. This will be done to avoid the dangers of leaving out NUS during more general collecting missions.
Key considerations
Ownership of the communityseed bank and the surrounding land for demonstration plots and other seed bank activities will be for the community in perpetuity. To ensure and safeguard this arrangement, the traditional leadership will be involved in securing the land and local government for formalities including the approval and permits for construction of the seed bank. The contribution of the community to construction costs and its commitments will be established prior to actual construction. In keeping with CTDT gender principles, the mechanisms for empowering women and ensuring their active role in the whole project will be clearly outlined and the youth deliberately targeted including in the governance structures of the seed bank.
Expected results
One purpose-built community seed bank will be established of a quality that is conducive for good seed storage providing security from pest and diseases, and preventing high humidity and temperature thereby ensuring longevity of seed viability.  Theseed bank will ensure that the diversityfound in the area including NUS is represented by seed samples and adequate documentation to facilitate utilisation of the seed by the community for food and nutrition and to safeguard against negative effects of climate change.
The seed bank will serveas a centre for all activities around seed including seed fairs, seed sales and exchange and generallyas a meeting and learning place including demo plots and farmer field schools around it. Processing and food preparations will be regularly donefor sharing of recipes for NUS.