Preserving the Roots of Resilience: The Critical Role of Indigenous Seeds and Community Seed Banks in Safeguarding Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty in Ghana

Across the savannah landscapes of Ghana’s Upper East Region and beyond, a quiet transformation is unfolding—one that poses existential threats to the region’s agricultural identity, ecological diversity, and cultural heritage. Indigenous crop varieties such as millet (naara, zɛ/za), sorghum (ki/kɛ, kɛ molga), Bambara beans (suma/sumkpila), and local groundnuts (sikaam/suma) are slowly vanishing, displaced by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and hybrid seed varieties. Touted for their high yields and climate adaptability, these modern alternatives are reshaping farming practices—but at a cost that extends beyond the farm gate.

The loss of indigenous seeds is not simply about biodiversity; it is about the erosion of food sovereignty, the marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems, and the commodification of agriculture. In the face of this silent crisis, community seed banks have emerged as a vital bulwark against genetic erosion, offering a path toward agroecological resilience, cultural preservation, and farmer autonomy.

The Rise of GMOs and Hybrid Seeds: A Double-Edged Sword

The agricultural modernization agenda promoted by state and donor-funded programs in Ghana emphasizes increased productivity, often through monoculture farming systems reliant on hybrid and GMO seeds. Accompanied by subsidies for chemical fertilizers and market incentives for uniform crops, this model has rapidly expanded across rural communities.

While high-yielding seed varieties offer short-term gains, their widespread adoption introduces long-term vulnerabilities. Unlike indigenous varieties, which have been selected and adapted over generations to thrive in marginal conditions, modern seeds often require external inputs—chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and consistent irrigation—to reach their yield potential. This deepens farmer dependency on commercial seed companies and input suppliers, weakening local seed systems and reducing resilience to market and climate shocks.

Moreover, hybrid and GMO varieties must often be repurchased each season, whereas traditional seeds are typically saved, exchanged, and replanted year after year. This shift transforms the very essence of seed from a shared communal resource into a proprietary commodity, inaccessible to the poorest farmers and disruptive to communal agricultural practices.

Indigenous Seeds: Custodians of Culture, Nutrition, and Ecological Balance

Indigenous seeds are more than biological entities—they are vessels of culture, identity, and knowledge. In communities across northern Ghana, seeds are intimately tied to rituals, medicinal practices, nutritional health, and spiritual life. Their cultivation embodies centuries of adaptation, enabling smallholder farmers to feed their families under challenging ecological conditions, with minimal reliance on external inputs.

These crops are naturally drought-tolerant, pest-resistant, and nutritionally superior in many cases. For example, traditional millet and sorghum varieties offer vital micronutrients and energy density essential to rural diets. Bambara beans enrich soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, enhancing the productivity of mixed cropping systems. Yet these benefits are often undervalued in national policies that prioritize export-oriented and high-input crops.

The Erosion of Food Sovereignty and Indigenous Knowledge

Food sovereignty—the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems—is at risk. As traditional seeds disappear, so too do the farming practices, stories, and community relationships that are cultivated alongside them. The shift toward corporate-controlled seeds accelerates the marginalization of local knowledge, replacing farmer-led innovation with dependence on agribusiness.

In this context, smallholder farmers—especially women, who are often the custodians of seeds and farming knowledge—face mounting pressures. Without access to their traditional seeds, they lose the ability to make choices about what to plant, how to farm, and how to feed their families. The loss of seed sovereignty is therefore a loss of agency and cultural autonomy.

Community Seed Banks: Guardians of Agroecological Resilience

Community seed banks (CSBs) have emerged as transformative grassroots institutions that counter the erosion of seed diversity. These banks act as repositories of indigenous crop varieties, maintained collectively by local communities and governed by their own norms. They ensure that farmers can access locally adapted seeds that are suited to their unique environments.

In addition to conserving genetic material, CSBs foster community education, seed exchange networks, and collaborative learning. They encourage seed saving and participatory plant breeding, enabling farmers to enhance crop resilience in response to evolving climatic conditions. By keeping seeds within the hands of the community, CSBs reaffirm food sovereignty and reduce the costs associated with commercial seed dependency.

Importantly, CSBs also revitalize cultural practices and indigenous ecological knowledge. They are spaces where elders share wisdom with youth, where women reclaim leadership in seed stewardship, and where agricultural biodiversity is celebrated as a foundation for resilience.

ActionAid Ghana and the Movement for Seed Sovereignty

As a leading advocate for climate justice and food sovereignty, ActionAid Ghana has played a pivotal role in resisting the industrialization of agriculture and championing agroecological alternatives. Working closely with smallholder farmers—particularly women—ActionAid supports the establishment and strengthening of community seed banks across the Upper East Region and other rural areas.

Through participatory research, policy advocacy, and grassroots mobilization, ActionAid is advancing a farmer-led vision of agriculture that respects biodiversity, cultural heritage, and ecological balance. Key initiatives include:

• Training farmers on indigenous seed saving, multiplication, and agroecological practices.
• Supporting seed fairs and farmer exchanges to foster knowledge sharing.
• Advocating for inclusive seed policies that recognize farmers' rights to save, use, exchange, and sell their seeds.
• Collaborating with other CSOs to challenge policies that favor commercial seeds and agrochemical-intensive farming.

These efforts underscore a broader vision: that development must be grounded in community resilience, not dependency; in ecological harmony, not extraction.

 Reclaiming the Future Through Seeds

The displacement of indigenous seeds by GMO and hybrid varieties is not merely a technical evolution—it is a political and cultural contest over the future of agriculture in Ghana. What is at stake is the power to define what is grown, how it is grown, and who benefits. It is a struggle over autonomy, sustainability, and identity.

Community seed banks, supported by organizations like ActionAid Ghana, are vital to reversing this trend. They restore agency to farmers, protect biodiversity, and build climate-resilient food systems rooted in local realities. The path forward lies not in abandoning tradition for technology, but in integrating indigenous knowledge with innovation to co-create a just and sustainable food future.

“The survival of our food systems and the sovereignty of our communities depend on the seeds we choose to protect today. Indigenous seeds are more than agricultural inputs—they are lifelines to our culture, resilience, and independence. ActionAid Ghana stands firmly with farmers in reclaiming their right to seed, to land, and to a dignified livelihood rooted in agroecology and justice.”
— John Nkaw, Country Director, ActionAid Ghana

To secure that future, we must invest in indigenous seed systems, amplify the voices of smallholder farmers, and uphold the right of communities to cultivate their own destiny—from seed to harvest, from soil to sovereignty.