A new Indigenous community seedbank for everyone in Cumbal, Colombia   

In the lush highlands of southern Colombia, farmers face pressing challenges in seed and food security, compounded by falling crop diversity and limited seed exchange between farmers. In response, a new community seedbank aims to conserve local seeds, enrich agrobiodiversity and foster seed and knowledge exchange among local farmers. With a focus on Indigenous culture and education, the seedbank will support healthy and diverse food production, local food sovereignty, and increase the next generation’s understanding of the importance of agrobiodiversity.

Seed and food security challenges

When traveling to the town of Cumbal in southern Colombia – through green pastures and hedgerows of trees of the high mountainous area – one might think that there are no, or few food crops grown. It takes a sharp eye to discover the small diverse cropfields, locally known as ‘chagras’. Crops cultivated on these fields include beans; faba beans; grains (barley, maize, quinoa, wheat); livestock forages; fruits such as the Andean papaya (Vasconcellea pubescens), golden berry (Physalis peruvianum), lulo (Solanum quitoense), raspberry and tree tomato; herbs and spices; lupine (Lupinus mutabilis); roots and tubers such as oca, olluco, majua and potatoes; vegetables such as cabbage, onions, Peruvian parsnip and rapeseed; and medicinal plants.