Category: Policy

We’ve briefly blogged some of the coverage received by a recent paper showing that in an emergency giving farmers seeds to plant may not be as effective as giving them vouchers or even money to exchange for seeds to plant. But in our never-ending quest to give voice to the people who really know their stuff, here’s the experience of Maylee Thavat about a project intended to give Cambodian farmers access to high-quality rice seed. It’s a fascinating, albeit somewhat worrying, read.

What I’d really like to know is what the experts with experience think of the FAO’s recently announced plan for $1.7 billion to give seeds (and fertilizer) to poor countries’ farmers. Is that really what those farmers need?