ABSTRACT
Access to quality seed has become one of the underlying developmental needs of farming communities for achieving food security and sustainable development. The advent of the green revolution in Brazil heralded a massive loss of farmers’ varieties, which were replaced by a few high-yielding and hybrid varieties. Small-scale farmers in Guaraciaba, in the western part of the state of Santa Catarina (Figure 1.5.1), recall that up until as recently as the 1970s they were only growing their own local varieties of major staple crops. However, by the 1990s these had already vanished from most of their farms. The resulting dependency of farmers on the seed of external sources has been a burden for them, in terms of the high costs involved with such cultivation.
