Practicality of Seed Saving (publication)

Date interview: February 12 2016
Name interviewer: Janka Horváth
Name interviewee: Senior member of Magház
Position interviewee: Senior member of Magház

Re-invigoration Identity Values Motivation Expertise Providing alternatives to institutions New Knowing New Doing Social-ecological relations Social movements

This is a CTP of initiative: Magház ‐ Seed House (Hungary)

The “Practicality of Seed Saving” was firstly published under the Green Source programme of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2014 and compiled by the interviewee together with Renáta Bócsó, Orsolya Kiss-Kovács, Judit Fehér and Csilla Kiss. It fulfilled a niche as this was the very first publication in this area. Because it is downloadable from the website of Magház, it provides free access to useful tips and advice on picking, breeding, drying and storage of seeds. "It promotes agricultural diversity around the globe and explains the history of the Hungarian seed maintaining efforts. It also encourages novice gardeners to try themselves as breeders."

Co-production

They were really enthusiastic to work with each other and realised that even people with other professional background sympathised with the activities of Magház (e.g.: editor, graphic designer). Basically a handful of concerned and enthusiastic people are actively involved in this work together with some other supportive persons. Their international partner organisation such as Arche Noah (Austria), Reseau Semences Paysannes (France) and Eco Ruralis (Romania) were also promoted in the publication. The authors applied for a NEA (National Cooperation Fund) tender for developing the website and a database, but currently they are not able to implement any kind of large-scale project. They have a lot of work with the website and are lack of time. "We would like to continue the publication of the “Practicality of Seed Saving” with thematic issues for specific species (e.g.: beans, peas)."

Related events

They were actively involved in organising the seed-swapping in Szeged and also in Miskolc. The “Practicality of Seed Saving” was introduced there and used as a tool for demonstrating and popularising all of the activities of Magház.

Contestation

According to the interviewee there was no contestation or dispute around creating the “Practicality of Seed Saving”. "Everybody worked on this project on a voluntary basis and with full agreement."

Anticipation

As previously this type of publication did not exist in Hungary, all of the authors had the same idea about creating it.

Learning

The most important learning for them relates to how to deal with the problem of voluntary work. Due to the lack of capacity they need to expand their network and involve more people into their active work.