Within the framework of the approval of peasant rights by the UN

Three years after its approval: The seed law in Venezuela is implemented from below

Within the framework of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas by the UN, after 17 years of support from the international organization La Via Campesina and multiple allied organizations, on the 23rd of December Venezuela celebrated the third anniversary of the approval of the Venezuelan seeds law, recognized internationally for its contributions in the recognition of the rights of peasants.

This anniversary occurred in a context marked by a food war that has greatly impacted access to certified seed. These seeds are bachaqueadas in the fields and are only available at inflated prices which are a way of limiting access to essentially poor quality seeds. The National Assembly enacted a law of seeds in the likeness of the global agribusiness: transgenics and patents are its poor innovative proposals.

Despite this, the seed law is being implemented from below and with force. Thus, one of the keys to peasant resistance to the crisis has been the recovery of varieties of criollo seeds and the creation of multiple strategies to reproduce hybrid commercial seeds. These practices, which in other countries are considered as infringing on seed laws, in Venezuela are recognized as fundamental for the conservation, improvement and multiplication of peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendant seeds.

Three years after the law, the balance we can make is its implementation from social organizations, networks and productive initiatives. In October and December the 13th edition of the Peasant Seed Day was celebrated in Montecarmelo Lara State and the 7th edition of the Ecofestival of the native potato in Gavidia state Merida, both spaces for recognition, exchange and celebration of the seeds conserved by farmers. Native potatoes were recognized as “Well of Cultural Interest of the Nation” in 2015.

In terms of production, two important deployments are taking place in the west and east of the country. The articulation between the Pueblo to Pueblo plan and the Proinpa organization (Integral Producers of the Páramo) has allowed the establishment of 5 potato seed production centers with the networks of free and associated producers of the Pueblo to Pueblo Plan in Trujillo.

The Pueblo to Pueblo Plan has managed to distribute more than one and a half million vegetables, tubers, musaceas, fruits, grains, sugar and fish through a popular organization network that goes from the countryside to the city. Proinpa has consolidated the highest production capacity of potato seed nationwide through various partnerships with the Ministry of Science and Technology, through technological innovation programs. Today these two efforts converge in the production and reproduction of potato seed, which makes the law of seeds a living letter in the hands of people with the capacity to cover the need for potatoes of 20% of the country. In addition to the potato seed, the producers from Pueblo to Pueblo rescue and recover seeds of corn, legumes, tubers that had been left aside by the commercial seeds now disappeared from the peasant plots.

Likewise, in Lara a seed protection center was set up, El conuquito del Barranco, which houses more than 50 varieties of different crops such as cereals, legumes, tubers, vegetables, among others; and in the Andes, the experience of women organized in the Piedra de Mubay collective has achieved important advances in the production and adaptation of seeds to high mountain conditions under agroecological management.

In the east of the country, from August to December, 9 training centers were established in Anzoátegui, Bolívar and Sucre, where 120 families are multiplying the Guanape MFE yellow corn variety under peasant management, with the accompaniment of rural teacher Pablo Characo and with the support of the Bank of Women. The objective is to produce 200 kilos of seed per core, which will cover 90 hectares of corn production for the next crop cycle. This variety is the product of a process of participatory improvement among three communities that managed to obtain one that produces up to 7,000 kilos per hectare with support from INSAI and INIA.

Finally, another expression of the implementation of the seed law is the creation of a communal information system for local seeds, peasants and Afro-descendants that will be called “Sistema Conuco”, through which any farmer, seed or center nucleus of shelter can share information about their seed varieties, contact other producers, socialize and exchange knowledge about their agrodiversity practices, and access a route for the creation of collective seed brands for free use.

Likewise, it will be a consultation portal for any user who wishes to access training materials and news about processes related to food sovereignty in Venezuela and other countries around the world. www.elconuco.com.ve

ALBA TV