Aleppo, Syria. The first thing to do after a disaster, drought or famine is to make sure people's immediate needs - food, shelter, medical care - are met. The next, however, is to help people resume normal life, rather than just leaving them dependent on emergency aid. So they must be able to start growing food again as soon as possible - but they may have no seed. ICARDA is about to start an important project to make sure countries in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region can obtain appropriate seed after a drought or other disaster.
The project is called Strengthening Seed Availability for Disaster-Stricken Areas in West Asia and North Africa. It is receiving assistance from the Famine Mitigation Facility of of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Implementation will be both at ICARDA, and through the national programs in the region.
Food production in the affected area must recover as soon as possible. For this, seed must be available at once. However, during a famine or other disaster, farmers may have been forced to consume their planting seed stock. They need replacement seeds; and they must have varieties that are adapted for their area and conditions. And the disaster must not cause loss of biodiversity; their planting material should be retrieved if possible.
As a first step in the project, working with national staff in the countries involved, seed-production technicians will start by checking which varieties are produced by farmers, estimating current seed stocks, listing seed distributors, and checking on constraints to moving seed across borders, such as quarantine and trade regulations in each country.
As the project develops, it will:
As a further benefit, it's hoped that the project will introduce genetic material to areas which would otherwise have no access to improved varieties.
There will be a preparatory phase, involving Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, Yemen, Ethiopia and Eritrea; but ICARDA expects the project to be extended to Egypt and other countries within the WANA region later. This would be done through the WANA Seed Network. This organization has its coordination and secretariat at ICARDA, but is run through the efforts of national programs, each of which takes responsibility for a particular activityfor example, harmonization of standards and production of a seed catalog. The national representatives meet regularly to review progress and set priorities.
"A strong point of this project is that it's cost-effective," says Dr Tony van Gastel, Head of ICARDA's seed unit. "This is because of the way it's organized. What we are doing is working with colleagues in the national programs, rather than trying to do everything ourselves. There would be no sense in that anyway. In the event of a crisis, national agriculture officials on the ground will be making the decisions."
ICARDA has some experience in the area of emergency seed replacement. This is not restricted to major crises, such as war and famine; a country can need replacement seed simply because there has been an outbreak of crop disease - or a drought, such as that suffered by Morocco this year. As an example, ICARDA sent 9.5 tonnes of wheat seed of different varieties to Lebanon last year, to counter an epidemic of yellow rust.
The project will initiate a regional network that will allow individual countries to respond quickly to each other's needs. Damage caused by pest or disease outbreaks can be repaired more quickly.
And where there has been a major upheaval - such as the famine and civil war in the Horn of Africa in the 1980s - it will be possible to resettle people sooner, instead of keeping them in refugee camps or feeding centers where they may be exposed to disease or conflict. For this, seed of adapted varieties must be available.
This will also allow resources to be directed back towards long-term needs that much sooner.
"We need to ensure that the normal cycle of food and feed production does not collapse," says Dr van Gastel. "Immediate effects can be dealt with by short-term emergency relief. But what was intended as a short-term measure can go on for far too long. Anyway, prevention is better than cure! Access to quality seed, and preservation of biodiversity, are key elements in a resilient production base - and thus to the capacity to recover from disaster."