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Rastaseed Saving in Shashemene Ethiopia
By ras | December 2, 2007
Browse the magical posters of Ethiopia like this one
Anteneh Fantaye from Ethiopia is man on a mission. I first made contact with him through the Seed Saving NGO that I work for in Australia. Unfortunately we do not encourage the passage of vegetable seed internationally due to many quarantine risks and also due to the fact that our seeds are not localised to their climatic conditions and we want people to locate their own locally adapted seed races of vegetables within their own regions, as well as their own specialised local knowledge that has been gathered over sometimes scores of generations.
My job has entailed helping to set up Local Seed Networks in Australia.
As he was very short of money or hope I used my initiative with support from my colleagues in this case and gave him a two year international subscription to The Seed Savers network bi-annual newsletter. He was travelling 1000 miles to the University to study and work and making huge sacrifices with very little resources. He requested seed from me and so I went to my collegues and with resources pushed to the limit, they thought it better not. Unfortunately Anteneh was very upset and begged me to send seed as I had promised. I sent him a few of my own seeds and suggested he connect with one of the Seed Savers Network students who had studied Seed Saving at the seed bank in Byron Bay and was working in an Aids Clinic for Women in Shashemane Ethiopia.
They connected. From the photographs enclosed you can see they got to work. Now he is the chairman of Woreda Development Association and has access to multiply, save and distribute the seeds to the farmers.
The Zone administration gave him a hectare of farm land to multiply and save Australian seed varieties. Near the rivers.
From small things big things grow. Sending seed may seem like a good way to help people however it is a very delicate and sensitive issue and it takes profound knowledge and years of experience as well as time in the country you are sending the seeds to. We don’t want anymore super weeds or diseases causing more damage to our already stressed environment and threatened food security.
An excerpt from a communication he sent to us.
“First of all I want to thank you for every thing you have done am.
I am very much interested in the information you sent me including photos. Now I understood the objective of Rasta Families. Emperor Haile Selassie was a famous leader of
Topics: Seed Vegetables |