PLANET4B ideal seed system infographics Agrobiodiversity case study Budapest 2025

COMMUNITY SEED NETWORK Hubs for experimentation, knowledge exchange, and learning, constituting a decentralised network AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY (AGROBIODIVERSITY) The diversity of cultivated vegetable varieties INFORMAL SEED SYSTEM Self-organising and resilient networks with a self-regenerative potential, populated by a variety of actors of an equally important role WHAT IS YOUR RELATION TO SEED DIVERSITY? COMMUNITY SEED SWAPS Vivid spaces for local seed and knowledge exchange SEED BANKS Local and national seed banks, operating diverse organisational forms AGRI-CULTURE Life proliferating around seeds, an endless potential for learning and development SOCIAL INNOVATION Family-based, smalland medium-sized breeding and seed growing companies CULTURAL AND GASTRONOMIC HERITAGE Tastes, colours, scents and a rich source of creativity IN SITU SEED CONSERVATIONISTS Amateur gardeners, small-scale farmers and vegetable growers THE ECONOMIC LOGIC OF FOOD SYSTEM Free access, instead of intellectual property rights; reciprocity and cooperation, instead of competition A SUPPORTIVE LEGAL CONTEXT The rights to seeds for communities and farmers cannot be constrained by any monopolistic interests of the market or the state RECIPROCAL CARE PARADIGM The primary focus is on connectedness with each other, cooperation and the admiration for living beings Garden cressEggplant SEED The beautiful circulation of life that connects humans with nature and with other human beings Salad Beetroot Groundcherry Corn RadishBasil Common marigold Leaf chicory Chrysanthemum greens soy bean Parsley PLANET4B receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101082212. | This project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee. | This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). HOW WOULD A SEED SYSTEM LOOK LIKE IF THE PRIMARY AIM WOULD BE THE IMPROVEMENT OF AGROBIODIVERSITY? For centuries, seeds have been passed from hand to hand all over the world: farmers and gardeners have been cultivating, selecting, storing, exchanging, marketing, and caring for the seeds. However, in the currently dominant production-focused, profit-maximising agriculture seeds are treated solely as an input, among others, so as to maintain output growth. Our research in PLANET4B revealed an alternative vision for the seed system, one that, as opposed to the currently dominant growth-obsessed paradigm, puts reciprocal care (humans-care for seeds, seeds care for humans) into the focus of its operating logic. The character of the seed system also changes: it transforms into a self-organising and resilient network, with selfregenerative potential, populated by a variety of actors of equal status and with free access. Chickpea Common bean