The floods in Tabasco are causing enormous human suffering and extensive damage to crops, homes and infrastructure, but one of their impacts has not been mentioned. Of course, crops in the field have been lost, which is bad enough, but it is likely that farmers’ stores of seed are also gone, as was the case in Bangladesh during recent flooding there. That probably means that farmers in flood-affected areas have lost much of the agricultural biodiversity which they will need to rebuild their livelihoods — and lives. Will they get it back?
Unfortunately, seed relief efforts — focused on the immediate emergency — have sometimes not taken a long-term view of the problem, introducing the wrong varieties in the wrong way, and thus making a sustainable recovery that much harder. In the words of a recent paper commenting on the seed relief effort after Hurricane Mitch: “Providing seed in the wake of a disaster can seem both appropriate and simple. Often, it is neither.” Advice on agrobiodiversity-friendly, sustainable seed relief is available, but whether it is followed or not in Tabasco we shall see. ((See also Richards and Ruivenkamp’s Seeds and Survival for a review of the role of crop genetic resources in reconstruction after wars in Africa.)) In any case, we can probably add some measure of genetic erosion to the horrors the Mexican flooding has wrought.
Later: As chance would have it, the day after I posted the above Eldis summarized a review of seed aid interventions.
There’s also a piece on the CGIAR’s news site about some of the work on emergency seed relief by Louise Sperling. The real problem is how to convince donors large and small that although sending seeds — any seeds — seems like a really good idea, in reality it is often better to try and make it easier for farmers to gain access to the seeds that are already there. Even floods on a wide scale do not usually destroy all the local seed supplies.