Navigating toward resilient and inclusive seed systems.

Food systems face new climatic and socioecological challenges and farmers need a diversity of new plant varieties to respond to these. While plant breeding is important, institutional innovations in seed systems are critical to ensure that new traits and varieties make their way into farmers' fields. This Perspective reviews the state of knowledge on seed system development, outlining insights emerging from the literature that can help navigate the way forward. We synthesize evidence on the contributions and limitations of the different actors, activities, and institutions pertaining to all seed systems smallholder farmers use, formal and informal. To do so, we structure our analysis on three functions-variety development and management, seed production, and seed dissemination-and two contextual factors-seed governance and food system drivers-that can be used to describe any seed system. Our review reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the activities of different actors along the entire chain of functions and demonstrates the multifaceted efforts to strengthen seed systems. We document that a new agenda for seed system development is taking root, based on the view that formal and farmers' seed systems are complementary. Because needs differ from crop to crop, farmer to farmer, and between agroecological and food system contexts, a variety of pathways are needed to ensure farmers' seed security. While the complexity of seed systems eludes a simple roadmap, we conclude by planting a "signpost" with principles to guide efforts to develop resilient and inclusive seed systems.

Balancing shifting cultivation and forest conservation: lessons from a "sustainable landscape" in southeastern Mexico.

Shifting cultivation is often perceived to be a threat to forests, but it is also central to the culture and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Balancing agriculture and forest conservation requires knowledge of how agricultural land uses evolve in landscapes with forest conservation initiatives. Based on a case study from Quintana Roo, Mexico, and remote sensing data, we investigated land use and land cover change (LUCC) in relation to accessibility (from main settlement and road) in search of evidence for agricultural expansion and/or intensification after the initiation of a community forestry program in 1986. Intensification was through a shortening of the fallow period. Defining the sampling space as a function of human needs and accessibility to agricultural resources was critical to ensure a user-centered perspective of the landscape. The composition of the accessible landscape changed substantially between 1976 and 1997. Over the 21-year period studied, the local population saw the accessible landscape transformed from a heterogeneous array of different successional stages including mature forests to a landscape dominated by young fallows. We detected a dynamic characterized by intensification of shifting cultivation in the most accessible areas with milpas being felled more and more from young fallows in spite of a preference for felling secondary forests. We argue that the resulting landscape provides a poorer resource base for sustaining agricultural livelihoods and discuss ways in which agricultural change could be better addressed through participatory land use planning. Balancing agricultural production and forest conservation will become even more important in a context of intense negotiations for carbon credits, an emerging market that is likely to drive future land changes worldwide.

Medicinal plant use in the practice of midwifery in rural Honduras.

Midwives in rural communities across the globe play an important role as primary health care providers, but few studies have documented the medicinal plants employed in this age-old practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 midwives in seven rural communities near La Ceiba, Honduras, regarding the plants they employ during the birthing process as well as their associated beliefs. Seventy-nine different plant species used to treat 15 conditions occurring during the pregnancy, birth and postpartum stages were recorded. Most plants and uses were reported by only one or two midwives, reflecting the fact that most midwives in this region had immigrated from different parts of the country. Almost all the midwives used or knew of plant remedies for treatment of miscarriages, postpartum abdominal pain and hemorrhages, retained placenta, and for speeding up contractions during labor. The most frequently cited plants as well as those for which there was greatest consensus tended to be widespread cultivated or weedy species. Although use of medicinal plants by midwives has decreased as a result of retraining programs by government health centers, midwives' knowledge of medicinal plants may provide an important resource for improving maternal-infant health in Honduras and elsewhere. Suggestions for future ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies on this topic are provided.