Conserving seeds is about more than just bringing food to the table. It’s about conserving biodiversity, conserving traditional knowledge, and conserving people’s capacity to take their future into their own hands. We call this food sovereignty and it starts with the conservation of native seeds.

In Guatemala, a very small number of giant corporations have been aggressively promoting fast-maturing hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds are extremely vulnerable because their genetic pool is small and poor, confined to high-production genetic traits. Traditional native seeds naturally have a wide gene pool, which makes them more robust and resilient to disease and varying climactic conditions. Small farmers in Guatemala are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because of their low income, their reliance on agriculture and their geographic location.

Native seed sources are urgently needed. There is no government effort and very little NGO-based efforts to promote native seeds in Guatemala. Because of modern agriculture practices, traditional knowledge regarding the use of native seeds for food production is in the process of disappearing. This has a tremendous impact on family farming communities, where there is limited capacity to seek alternative livelihoods and a high incidence of poverty – 75% in the Sololá department, with an Indigenous population of 96%[1].

The Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura - IMAP (Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute) is a Mayan-run, Mayan owned non-profit organization in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, that has spent the last 12 years empowering Indigenous farmers to combat poverty and malnutrition through permaculture education and by offering training to small farmers on ways to produce and conserve traditional native seeds.

If you don’t know about IMAP, you can check out our website.

The Indiegogo site is linked directly to our PayPal account, and all funds will go directly to us. The goal is to reach $10,000 in order to:

1)    promote and give out native seeds
2)    offer workshops to farmers on seed conservation and
3)    build a community seed bank where farmers can receive and exchange native seeds.

Here’s where your money goes:

• $5 will give 1 farmer a package of native seeds
• $10 will cover a 1-day workshop for a farmer on seed conservation
• $25 will cover a 3-day workshop for a farmer on community seed bank management
• $100 will help establish a community seed bank

In addition to this Indiegogo fundraising effort, IMAP has launched its Seed Guardian Campaign at the local and national levels in order to encourage farmers to preserve native seeds. More details about the Seed Guardian Campaign can be found here.