Responding to new technologies

International Seed Treaty safeguards the world's crops

A new international treaty that aims to safeguard food security, Farmers’ Rights and international agricultural research has now come into force.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IT PGRFA) - in shorthand, the International Seed Treaty - will ensure the conservation of the seed varieties of most of the world's major food crops that have been developed over millennia by smallholder farmers but are now rapidly being lost. Without these seed varieties the threat of hunger grows.

Practical Action with other NGOs advocated for the Treaty with governments, and shared information worldwide through the internet and the media during the seven years of complex negotiations. This effort was recognised by the Director General of FAO at the World Food Summit in June 2002 and he described NGOs as the "conscience of humanity".

The Treaty is a breakthrough in international governance. It stands at the crossroads of global Agriculture, Environment and Trade agreements. The Treaty will outlaw patents on these seeds and it will implement Farmers' Rights to save, use, exchange and sell seeds. It is the first new Treaty of the 21st century but it is overdue. It is urgently needed to counter the rapid loss of crop varieties from farmers' fields - more than 90 per cent in the past century - and to protect the seeds stored in public gene banks.

Practical Action continued its involvement in the issue by campaigning for ratification of the Treaty by UN member states. Following the ratification by EU members, the Treaty finally came into force in June 2004. Find out more about Practical Action's campaigning work on food and farmers' rights.

Communication - the key to success

One of Peru’s poorest areas, Cajamarca province, has keyed into the benefits of becoming computer-savvy and wising up to the World Wide Web.

Through Practical Action’s InfoDes service, small-scale producers have been able to use computers at a central co-ordinating unit to access a customised database with details of locally appropriate technology, trade and business issues. An internet link provides opportunities to gain information on subjects including better crop production and processing methods.

Remote access points linked to the central unit were established to serve the widely spread rural communities where most of the province’s inhabitants live. A touring mobile information unit containing video links introduces village residents to the service.

Bernado Parades regularly uses the Cajamarca facility: "It shows how the information potential of the internet can really improve our livelihoods."

Women's Voices

A self-made film on life in Mathare 3B and Redeemed Village, two of Kenyan capital Nairobi’s worst slums, helped illiterate women expose the poverty and other problems in the settlements.

The videoed experiences, which have seen been transferred to CDs and shown around the world, led to the women’s organisations having direct and sustained contact with local political representatives and civil service controllers. The two 15-minute documentaries have been broadcast on Kenyan TV and helped fuel a national debate on slum dwellers’ rights.

Part of the Practical Action gender and technology programme work Women's Voices, it also won the prestigious 2001 Betinho Communications Prize which recognises outstanding use of information and communication technologies in social justice and development work.