Seeds are essential not only for all human beings in
general to produce food, but also for farmers as the main food producers in
order to retain their livelihoods. They are vital parts of environmental
conservation for maintaining global biodiversity. A wide range of plants is
also crucial for conserving life in all ecosystems over the earth. Then a mutual
symbiosis occurs between humans and nature, which is in this case between farmers
and agricultural environment. Throughout the world today, however, there is a
lack of variety in seeds. In Indonesia this problem not only induces natural
degradation, it also affects farmers. The break of food chains due to the loss
of one or more kinds of plants will disturb an ecosystem with farther result
that is small farmers especially are losing their livelihoods. They are used to
live their life by researching and reserving various strains of seeds
traditionally in their farms. This causes a heavy dependence on the surrounding environment where farmers live. One of the direct effects of this is that
high-priced seeds are not affordable to small farmers. Another effect is the
reduction of seed varieties, since the companies purely develop few types of
seeds massively for broad farming areas. A method where farmers are the leader in
the agricultural research, called Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB), could be
used to resolve both the ecological and economic problems related to the
increasingly lack of seed diversity.
Big Business
The development of seed industry has become the
business of big companies up until farmers as the genuine plant breeders are eliminated.
This trend results from the Green Revolution that was employed in the agricultural
sector by Indonesian government in 1970s. A few varieties of major crops
produced abundant yields and required high inputs of production that pioneered
by scientists at the international agricultural research was become the basic
principle of the emergence of the Green Revolution (Vernooy, 2003). Big companies then take advantages of this
opportunity from this continuation of the Industrial Revolution to develop
seeds. In this era, agricultural sector has begun to alter from traditional to
modern practices through industrial agriculture, where researchers and big
corporations cooperate in plant breeding and seed production. The corporations can
guarantee the production of high quality seeds, through the use of high-technological
machines and current-modern research. With their larger amount of capital,
technology, and human resources, they act as giant seed producers who
incline to be oligopolistic and control seed industry (Sayaka, 2005). In addition, from the
beginning, the establishment of several multinational companies on seed production
in Indonesia has been marked by the high prices of hybrid seeds. These kinds of
seed took no longer time to dominate seed market and be preferred by farmers
because of their high yield and quality. High selling prices of the companies
exposed that they were competent to control the seed market and were likely to
be oligopolistic (Y. Chiffoleau, D. Desclaux,
2006). The seed companies then become a number of oligopolists who are
ready to endanger seed farmers’ livelihoods. From now on, much profit in seed
industry has gone to the companies as opposed to farmers. Also, from the legal perspective the companies can use their money to
provide related resources to attain all requirements as seed producers. “All
the seed companies have exclusive rights to produce labeled-commercial corn
seeds” (Sayaka, 2003). And they are furthermore
capable of distributing the seed and reaching even remote areas where
agricultural fields are often located.
Despite giving more attention to those effects so as
not to be worsening, the government still entrusts big companies with the
development of seed production than giving farmers more opportunity to
participate in this industry. The main reason is that the government considers
the companies capable of providing a big amount of capital without any
interventions from other parties including farmers. This following example has
shown the government’s relation with the companies as the primary seed
producers at the moment. A research describes a fact that on doing their
business, the seed producers did not sell directly to the consumers or farmers,
but coursed their sales through the projects of the government agencies (Sayaka, 2005). One of the projects is
renowned as the seed subsidy that is intended for hybrid rice and corn seeds. Through
this project, the government has positioned farmers not only being the targets
and subjects, but also being victims as they lost in profits and dignity.
Farmers’ seeds selling was hampered by the subsidize seeds produced by the
companies. On the other hand, as the project was over consumers have already
depended on hybrid seeds that become more expensive then. Illogically, the
government does not take any significant actions to reduce the high price of
hybrid seeds. This cannot be justified since a research shows a possibility
that the government confines maximum retail price of hybrid varieties made by
the multinationals because it is considered overpriced (Sayaka, 2005). The high-priced seeds will further offer much more
benefits to the companies instead of farmers. Thereby, those facts indicate the
government has no concern on farmers’ right to produce seeds. As the result,
farmers have lost their pride as seed producers.
PPB Exclusively for
Farmers’ Wealth
When analyzing participation in relation
to the role in PPB, “farmers play a key role in providing germplasm to the
breeding process” (L. Sperling, J.A. Ashby, M.E.
Smith, E. Weltzien, S. McGuire, 2001). They have been evolving various
plant varieties for centuries. Especially small farmers still maintain
specifically extinct seed varieties which are usually low-priced using when
planting in limited resources. In other words, “farmers have become custodians
of diversity for maintaining the genetic variation that is essential to the
continue evolution and adaptation of plant genotypes” (Vernooy, 2003). One of the main purposes in PPB is to
alleviate poverty among agriculture workers by giving farmers a bigger role in
the development of farming technology. Researchers who currently dominate plant
breeding activities can build an equal partnership with farmers so that it can
restore farmers to be the original breeders. So, placing farmers as the subject
in agricultural research is crucial for certain objectives. The first is to
meet farmer’s need on particular seed varieties with lowest external inputs and
highly local preferences as possible. This will be successful if farmers can choose
the genetic materials by themselves in accordance with their knowledge and
skill on farming in their own land which they have mastered to date. Secondly, it
is to give a fair benefit sharing to farmers “for their role in conserving and
improving plant genetic resources” (Vernooy,
2003). An equitable sharing will improve farmers’ income by giving them
control over basic means of productions and access to advanced information in
agriculture, and eventually they can be lifted out of poverty.
The
implementation of PBB based on a fact that a number of farmers can produce
their own seeds independently. This survival practice has lived for years so as
not to pay expensive seeds to cut the production cost of farming. On the
contrary, certain policies applied in the last decades that have made farmers
depend heavily on external inputs of production should be revised. One of them
is in the form of Farming Intensification implemented in the New Order Era as a
replication of the Green Revolution. The Farming Intensification was conducted through The Five Farm
Enterprises, which consisted of the use of superior seeds, land cultivation
techniques, irrigation system or water management, fertilization, and pests and
diseases control. Their main objective focused primarily on high external
inputs of agriculture. The program was dominated by the consumption of
chemicals, and the use of superior hybrid seeds and high-technological tools as
the inputs. Those chemical inputs not only bring on an environmental
degradation, but also the dependency of farmers. To overcome the second problem
in particular, the concept of PPB issues an excellent opportunity for farmers
to be independent again, in addition to fight for their rights as the focal
seed producers, rather than multinational companies (Y. Chiffoleau, D.
Desclaux, 2006). In
fact, a large number of farmers from widespread areas of the world master
various plant breeding techniques until now. This can be a valuable asset to
start applying PPB, purposely in areas where are loaded with genetic resources
but the people work mostly in agriculture and still live in poverty. Furthermore,
it is essential to improve farmers’ natural skill combined with advanced
technology so that farmers can produce high-quality seeds to fulfill their
needs. As a consequence, when many
farmers can produce their own seeds, their price will be cheaper which is good to
lessen the cost of production in the farm business and to increase the quality
of farming products.
Locality is Valuable
Locality is
accounted an important principle in PPB. It focuses on the individuality of the
subject and object, which are farmers and the varieties respectively, so both
of them have to be originated from the same area. Based on several studies in
different region, it can be concluded that “farmers can take a major role in
matching specific varieties to specific environmental niches and uses” (L. Sperling, J.A. Ashby, M.E. Smith, E. Weltzien, S.
McGuire, 2001). Every farm land has a compatibility with specific plant
varieties according to their localities. For two different areas, high land and
low land for instance, there will be at least two plant varieties with significant
dissimilarities of their physical characteristics. Hence, “PPB and the in situ conservation of agro
biodiversity – which means maintaining the diversity of plant species on farms
in the habitats where they originated and continue to evolve – are two
complementary methodologies” (Vernooy, 2003).
Ordinarily, locality of plants is developed in an area with strong and
maintained agricultural culture by the inhabitants who rely on farm. The
practice of locality can bring back local people’s livelihoods and preserve
biodiversity as well. Moreover, it can be reduced seed’s price since the
distance between producers and consumers is closer. This is because a special
plant variety can only be grown in a limited area which is not far from where
the plant originally comes from or was firstly invented. So, PPB employs
locality for restoring and improving local people’s basic skill in agriculture
so that they can produce seeds.
Plant breeding
which is developed by farmers brings some environmental advantages. Farmers are
used to conserve biodiversity in their daily farming unconsciously. For their
struggle simply to survive on poor soils with limited resources, small farmers
continue to allow plant varieties to evolve and select plant types (rather than
varieties) based on their own observations and according to their specific
needs. The result is that to a surprising extent these farmers have become
custodians of diversity. Through their skills as plant breeders, “they are
maintaining the genetic variation that is essential to the continued evolution
and adaptation of plant genotype” (Vernooy,
2003). This is the first benefit. Then within the limited source of production,
farmers implement natural practices in plant breeding that can prevent
environmental destruction as the second one. On the other hand, the seed
industry that promoted modern plant breeding included some bad effects on agro
biodiversity in particular (Smolders, 2006).
The main cause is that the industrial agriculture focused widely on developing
a small number of major crops. In the future, various kinds of plants that have
a huge contribution to maintain biodiversity will vanish gradually in the
development of the seed industry. To prevent this situation to happen further, PPB
is highly recommendation to be employed.
Seeds can be
yielded in an environmentally and economically way to maintain biodiversity by
involving farmers in the implementation of plant breeding program accordingly.
The program, which is Participatory Plant Breeding, concentrates on improving
farmers’ potency as plant breeders while conserving agro biodiversity. The
implementation also can bring prosperity to farmers. They can be more skilful
as the main producers or breeders and they can develop their farming system
comprehensively. In the long term, the development of seeds can alleviate
famine in the world.
Bibliography
L. Sperling, J.A. Ashby, M.E. Smith, E.
Weltzien, S. McGuire. (2001). A Framework for Analyzing Participatory Plant
Breeding Approaches and Results. Euphytica 122: 439–450, 2001 , 447.
Pribadi, D. P. (2011, May 11). From
Green to Gene Revolution. Retrieved July 4, 2011, from Kibar Kediri Blog:
www.kibar-kediri.blogspot.com
Sayaka, B. (2005). Market Conduct of the
Corn Seed Producers: Multinationals verses Local Companies. Jurnal Agro
Ekonomi , 23, 101-132.
Sayaka, B. (2003). Market Perfomance of the
Corn Seed Industry in East Java. Jurnal Agro Ekonomi , 21, 26-49.
Smolders, H. (2006, April). Enhancing
Farmers' Role in Crop Development: Framework Information for Participatory
Plant Breeding in Farmer Field Schools. PEDIGREA . (H. Smolders, Ed.)
Wageningen, the Netherlands: Centre for Genetic Resources.
Vernooy, R. (2003). Seeds That Give:
Participatory Plant Breeding. Ottawa, ON, Canada: the International Development
Research Centre.
Y. Chiffoleau, D. Desclaux. (2006).
Participatory Plant Breeding: the Best Way to Breed for Sustainable
Agriculture. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability , 4,
119-130.
Dian Pratiwi Pribadi - Maastricht, July 22, 2011
