Seed security is a domain of food security that refers to a situation in which farmers have sustainable access, at the time of planting, to a sufficient quantity of high-quality seeds that are suited to their preferences. Households that are seed secure know that they will have the seed or planting material needed to cultivate their fields. This includes their ability to respond to potential disruptions such as droughts and floods, supply chain disturbances, economic instability, or war.
According to the definition established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), seed security exists when "men and women within the household have sufficient access to adequate quantities of good quality seed and planting materials of preferred crop varieties at all times in both good and bad cropping seasons." The four key parameters of seed security are availability, accessibility, quality and suitability.
Louise Sperling, research director of SeedSystem LLC, offers another definition of being seed secure: “Farm families are ‘seed secure’ when they have access to seed of adequate quantity, of acceptable quality, and in time for planting… So fostering seed security contributes to food and livelihood security more generally.”
Seed security depends of the success of local farmers and indigenous peoples being able to support crop biodiversity, which begins with seed availability. Emergency seed — seed resources for survival or self-sufficiency, contributes to the definition of seed security — where support and access is available during emergencies of natural causes or otherwise.
History One year after the 1996 World Food Summit, the FAO organized an International Workshop on Seed Security for Food Security. During this workshop, it was formally recognized that farmers' ability to safeguard and secure their seed stocks and different plant varieties is of critical importance to food security. The connection between seed security and food security was highlighted, particularly in countries where subsistence agriculture predominates.
The seed security framework was later designed by Tom Remington, based on the food security framework parallel, and submitted in 1998 in a report to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This work was further refined and published in 2002 in a refereed article by Catholic Relief Services. The objective was to develop an assessment methodology to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian aid. The seed security framework was designed to help humanitarian actors—including donors, aid agencies, and other stakeholders—diagnose and evaluate the seed requirements of farming communities affected by disasters.
The work on the seed security framework was notably extended by Louise Sperling and H. David Cooper in a reference document published in 2004 for a FAO workshop on improving the effectiveness and sustainability of seed aid. In this report, the authors reflect on the advantages and limitations of the framework in facilitating appropriate seed assistance interventions. They also distinguish between acute and chronic seed insecurity.
Louise Sperling and Shawn McGuire have practically used this seed security framework in a score of assessments to identify specific constraints on the ground in high stress situations.
The seed market today is largely controlled by major petrochemical companies. Corteva and Bayer are two companies that “provided more than half the U.S. retail seed sails of corn, soybean, and cotton” between 2018 and 2020. Recently, the crop seed industry has been concentrated, which the USDA attributes to the expansions of intellectual property rights in the 1970s and 1980s, which incentivized new biotechnology on seed traits and varieties. Companies created herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant varieties of corn, soybeans, and cotton through genetic modification, and those companies later merged with pesticide and seed treatment producers. The four firms that control the majority of crop seed and agricultural chemical sales are Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina’s Syngenta, and BASF.
According to climate reporter Anna Guth, this corporate consolidation means that “for the modern farmer, seeds are easy to come by.” However, Guth points out, “depending on the crop, finding seeds that are not genetically engineered can be quite difficult.” Independent seed companies, which are gradually disappearing as seed corporations, typically do not patent their seeds, which allows customers to have the autonomy to save those seeds and breed plant varieties of their own. Large seed corporations force farmers to buy new genetically engineered seeds every year. For example, Dr. Vandana Shiva, an environmental scholar who works with famers in India, said, “Monsanto is killing the freedom of farmers of the world." Susan K. Sell, a scholar of intellectual property and international political economy says that the seed industry is “at the center of a complex political dynamic between stakeholders."
Parameters The seed security framework consists of four key parameters: availability, accessibility, quality and suitability. These parameters evolve over time and are interconnected.
Availability Seed availability refers to the quantity of seeds in a given area, within a reasonable distance from farms, and available at critical times for sowing periods. This parameter encompasses both the spatial availability of seeds and their temporal availability, in line with the planting schedule (before, at the start of, during, or late in the planting season).
Accessibility Seed accessibility is defined as the ability to acquire seeds through cash purchase, exchange, barter, loans, or by leveraging one's status or influence within a social network. It depends on whether individuals or groups have adequate income or other resources to obtain appropriate seeds and whether they have physical access to diverse seed sources.
Quality Seed quality is evaluated through several attributes, including germination rate, physical purity, moisture content, and overall seed health. While seed quality can be assessed objectively, it also depends on farmers' perceptions and experiences. High-quality seeds must be physically sound, physiologically viable, and free from pests and diseases.
Varietal suitability Suitability refers to the ability to obtain seeds of adapted and preferred varieties that align with the needs of all farmers. The desired characteristics may vary from one household to another or from one locality to another, but they often relate to aspects such as appearance, taste, aroma, cooking quality, and the economic return from the associated crop.
Causes of seed insecurity Seed insecurity can be caused by natural disasters such as droughts, floods, earthquakes and typhoons, which destroy farmers' fields as well as their other sources of seed supply. The consequences of these disasters are particularly severe in developing countries, where a significant portion of the population conserves part of their harvest to ensure their seed supply for the next planting season. In these countries, many farmers cannot afford to buy commercial seeds on the official market, due to factors such as high seed prices, limited access to markets, and a reliance on traditional seed-saving practices.
Seed insecurity can also result from wars and civil conflicts. Although international humanitarian law prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of war—including the deliberate destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population—such violations are common. As a result, farming communities are looted, their fields destroyed, and they face critical seed shortages as the planting season approaches, jeopardizing future harvests.
Climate change is an important cause of seed insecurity. Scholars such as Richard Ellis, a professor of Crop Production at the University of Reading, offer seed saving as an imperative measure to produce seeds that can adapt to climate changes. In addition to affecting the amount of food that can be produced, seed quality has been affected mainly by temperature changes. He argues that the future of farming depends on the ability of farmers to be able to select and breed the right varieties of seeds as climate change unfolds. This is especially a concern in the global south, where the supply of good quality and affordable seed are limited. The response to this includes a worldwide system of “seed libraries”, or genebanks, holding vast varieties of plants to “safeguard genetic diversity”. These are the resources that are conserved for future use, like “libraries of seeds”.
Climate change in the global south is exacerbated by factors like “security challenges, political upheaval, and displacement,” and the Covid-19 pandemic that make protective measures like seed security more difficult. Diffa, the southeast region of Niger, is home to farming communities that are confronting insecurity, conflict, and food supply shortages due to climate change. The International Rescue Committee Airbel Impact Lab’s research (2023) in the region found that “the unavailability and inaccessibility of high-quality climate-smart seed deteriorates the security of the seed system in Niger,” and has created significant problems such as “limited seed multiplication at the community level, post-harvest loss, a high rate of dependency on NGOs for seeds, and limited market access." These factors are compounded by erratic hydrological patterns, among other climate related phenomena. So, this case finds that this inaccessibility of improved seed varieties is an example of seed insecurity that is further exacerbated by environmental shocks.
Emergency seed aid Today, seeds represent a significant portion of humanitarian aid provided in emergency contexts. In addition to food aid, emergency seed aid helps restore the livelihoods of populations affected by disasters or conflicts and supports the recovery of agricultural systems in affected areas.
To effectively intervene in fragile states, donors, humanitarian agencies, and other stakeholders strive to assess seed systems holistically. Emergency seed aid relies on a structured evaluation method known as the Seed Systems Security Assessment (SSSA), developed by experts to ensure a comprehensive understanding of seed system vulnerabilities and needs,.
Moreover, decades of practical experience with seed security interventions have led to the emergence of Ten Guiding Principles for Good Seed Aid. These principles shape best practices across diverse contexts, providing essential guidance from assessment to implementation and evaluation to ensure interventions are both effective and contextually appropriate.
Ideally, seed aid should be gender-responsive and involve agricultural communities in decision-making. The needs and preferences of individuals, as well as barriers to market access, are carefully analyzed to design appropriate interventions. Farmers should have the freedom to choose between local or modern varieties, including indigenous, intermediate, and commercial crops.