WE applaud the efforts and priorities set by the government to strengthen and revive the agriculture sector, particularly the food farming sub-sector.

However, it is important not to be carried away by sophisticated or high-tech strategies that will be costly to maintain.

The seed banks that are run by agribusiness corporations would be a costly pursuit for the government and farmers.

Seeds, or plant genetic resources, are the fundamental element of farming, translating to the very basis of farmers' livelihoods.

Having access and the capacity to continue farming plant genetic resources is the key feature to becoming a farmer.
In pushing for corporate control on seeds and their production, it is feared that farmers will eventually lose their rights through patent claims over seeds, without properly addressing the issues of access and benefit-sharing for farming communities.

It is also feared that agri-business corporations have the tendency to promote the propagation and cultivation of hybrid or genetically-modified seeds. This threatens the future of traditional varieties.

Moreover, the strategy of having corporate seed banks means farmers would have to buy seeds, with prices controlled by the company. The government would have to partly subsidise them through public funds (which will go to the company's profits).

This will contribute towards creating a gap in economic control between the powerful and the powerless.

As mentioned by the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, during the Conference on World Food Security in Rome in June, "small and unorganised farmers in particular, facing large corporations as buyers of their produce are in such a weak bargaining position that they may hardly benefit from the increase of prices on the global markets".

"This only underscores the importance of supporting smallholder farmers and their organisations, including the poorest and most remote areas, to enable them to play an effective role in meeting the rising demand for food..."

We have to bear in mind that 70 to 80 per cent of food supply in developing countries is being met through small-scale farm production.

The alternative to empowering farmers or farming communities must be looked into to ensure long-term food security in this country.

Farmers must be trained and exposed to technologies to maintain and propagate their seeds.

In situ conservation and a community registry must be included into the National Food Security Policy to ensure continuation of our heritage and culture through conservation of food sovereignty.