ABSTRACT
In Honduras, community seed banks are closely related to the local agricultural research committees (CIALs), which were introduced by the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). A CIAL is a group of men and women who are interested in engaging in collaborative research to improve crop management and productivity and to find solutions to the general challenges surrounding agricultural activities in their communities. By the end of the 1990s, the CIALs began to get involved in a participatory bean-breeding programme, evaluating improved lines obtained from Escuela Agricola Panamericana (EAP)-Zamorano and CIAT. Community seed banks in the CIALs maintain a simple documentation system on sheets of paper on which they record the site where each material was collected or obtained. Both Fundacion para la Investigacion Participativa con Agricultores de Honduras (FIPAH) and Programa de Reconstruccion Rural (PRR) regularly organize agro-biodiversity fairs where seed bank members present their collections, exchange seeds and offer typical dishes prepared with the conserved materials.
