General context

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 75% of cultivated biodiversity has disappeared in the last century. Today, 3/4 of the world's food supply is based on twelve plant species. The industrialisation of agriculture has encouraged the development of hybrid seed varieties designed and developed for high-yield, mechanised production over large areas. Their adoption by most farmers has displaced many of the traditional seeds used for thousands of years. The loss of associated knowledge, know-how, and restrictive legislation has also undermined their conservation and multiplication. Furthermore, the concentration of the seed market in the hands of a few multinational companies has encouraged economic dependence and indebtedness on the part of farmers toward seed companies.

For several years now, several voices around the world have been warning about the problems posed by hybrid varieties: homogeneity that ignores the diversity of contexts, the primacy of productivity over taste and nutritional value, the vulnerability of crops to disease, pests and climate change, the non-reproducibility of seeds, the use of chemical inputs, and so on.

The virtues of farmers' seeds, well known in the past, are now being rediscovered and reaffirmed, in a context where climate change is becoming increasingly frequent and food sovereignty is under threat. Farmers around the world must regain control of their own seeds and grow varieties adapted to their territories.

Preserving farmers' seeds is a key issue in the agro-ecological transition of our agricultural systems. Their conservation and multiplication represent major levers for adapting to climate change and for the food autonomy of populations and regions.

Faced with this situation, many civil society initiatives are emerging on the ground to propose an alternative to the agricultural system that no longer meets today's environmental and social challenges. It is essential to bring together these initiatives in favour of preserving cultivated biodiversity in order to convey a collective message in favour of a sustainable agricultural system that respects the environment and men and women, in opposition to the dominant agro-industrial model.