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New STEPS film 'Seeds and Sustainability' launched
5 April 2011
The ESRC STEPS Centre, based at the Institute of Development Studies, today launches a new film called 'Seeds and Sustainability: Maize pathways in Kenya'.
This short film brings together an engaging cast of characters including a farmer, a scientist, a regulator and a seed policy analyst. Each has a different view about how best to secure seeds for farmers growing maize - Kenya's key staple crop - in drought-prone regions of the country. The film shows the importance of informal seed systems, as well as formal ones, for food security in these areas. It shows how policy changes underway could have serious impacts on farmers struggling for sustainability in a changing climate.
Watch online at: www.steps-centre.org/films
John Thompson, Research fellow at IDS says: "This film highlights the fact that different pathways are possible for Africa's seed systems. Whether the pathways chosen acknowledge the importance of informal seed systems will have profound consequences for farmers struggling for sustainability in a changing climate".
The aim of the STEPS video project is to translate key development research messages into informative films to reach a variety of target audiences. Working with production company, Speak-it Films, and filmed on location in Kenya, this is the second of two films in the project.
Melissa Leach, Director of the STEPS Centre says: "Climate change is intensifying the struggles that farmers face in Africa's complex, risky dryland environments. Building sustainable food access, agriculture and livelihoods here is a crucial challenge."
Focusing on maize in Kenya's Sakai region, the area's highly-valued staple crop, this film draws on in-depth collaborative research by STEPS Centre members and partners to chart the multiple pathways through which seeds might contribute to sustainability. Beyond the formal seed system, the film shows the importance of informal seed systems, and knowledge, in meeting farmers' diverse needs. Revealing the diverse scientific, market and farmer interests at work in different seed systems, 'Seeds and Sustainability' shows that formal, informal and mixed pathways may all have roles to play, but that in choosing between them, we need to be much more aware that each will have winners and losers.
Image credit: STEPS Centre / Speak-it Films
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Related Projects
- Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre - The STEPS Centre is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement hub, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to develop a new approach to understanding, action and communication on sustainability and development. (Ongoing)
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