Safeguarding Indigenous Seeds in Southwest Morocco

We continue working on safeguarding the seeds.  Few the past three months, all the seeds gathered from the local traditional farmers have been planted in our Agdal farm where they are "adjusting" to local conditions.  Given this is a semi-dry to dry region, the seeds have to grow, be replanted and then following these many cycles is when the seeds are ready to be distributed and shared with all the farmers.  The community of the farmers of two Oases we support, have trusted us with their heirloom seeds and we, in our turn, will give them what we have gathered and  adapted so far.  We are the proud to say we have over 120 varieties gathered so far. We could not have done this without the support of the GlobalGiving community.  Thank you all 

We've had a few debates at the office about the name of this initiative at its launching, we used to call it the "seedbank." However, and with our new consultant Saloua Cherkaoui and our volunteers, our thinking shifted and we want to use a different concept, one that is alive, one that generates the real wealth:  sustainability and food security. 

The choice fell then on "living library" and we love such a concept.  How does it work?  It works when our consultant volunteers visit surrounding villages, and then sitting, talking and exchanging with the villagers, they ask questions and answer also questions: what used to be the practices for grain-variety, storage and distribution?  What type of grains are they still reproducing and why? what event has marked one specific grain in the villagers' memory? Each grain we gather comes with a story that tells not only the event, but a tale of social relations, of community cohesion and future projections. 

At this moment, we are still in the beginning phases of the project, we have gathered just few old local grains, we are planting them in our didactic farm Brahim Id Aachour, so we have new, adapted grains to share and exchange in the future.  This is how a living library is born, we exchange with engaged traditional farmers wether they be locally, regionally or even internationally based. The first experience we had so far in two Oases of Southwest Morocco, Ougoug and Tighmert, have been the most inspiring and we are looking forward to continuing the work. Thank you Donors for making this possible.