How Farmers’ Organizations Leverage Seed Banks to Combat Climate Uncertainty

Facing adversity as one

“Climate change has changed our farming practices. We have to endure dry seasons, but too much rain can also be problematic, causing cotton to fail to open. The variability of weather, from droughts to mudflows, threatens our crops and livelihoods,” says Nurbek Kannazarov, the 55-year-old director of BioFarmer, an agricultural cooperative in the Jalal-Abad region in southern Kyrgyzstan that specializes in organic cotton.

Over 500 million smallholder farms worldwide — typically defined as those with less than two hectares of land (or two and a half football fields) — face constant pressures like market volatility, pests and increasingly variable weather patterns. Coping with climate change alone requires investing, on average, between 20% and 40% of their annual income. This is where organizations like BioFarmer provide crucial support systems to help farmers withstand challenges.

Nurbek’s journey with BioFarmer began in 2007 when he joined the Organic Cotton Production and Trade Promotion Project (BCP), a collaborative initiative funded by the Swiss government via the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by Helvetas. What started as a small group of 38 farmers in 2004 grew into a movement with over 1,500 farmers cultivating organic cotton by the time the project wrapped up in 2016. But the real success wasn’t just in the numbers — it was in building a foundation for lasting resilience.

“We assumed a more facilitative role in the second phase of the project. Local groups such as BioFarmer had already been created. But there was still a lot of work to do to help them grow capacity and stand on their own,” says Damira Raeva, a Senior Value Chain and Rural Economy Advisor at Helvetas Kyrgyzstan.

In the decade since the project ended, BioFarmer has helped farmers navigate both market volatility and environmental challenges — whether dealing with soaring energy prices or coping with mudslides that destroyed entire harvests.

Increasingly frequent mudslides are one of the many consequences of climate change affecting the region. Average annual temperatures in Kyrgyzstan have risen approximately 1.1°C between 1960–2010, accelerating after 1990. Looking ahead, projections indicate that by the 2090s, the country could experience temperature rises up to 5.3°C above the average from 1986 to 2005, significantly higher than the global average.

This problem, too, the cooperative was able to address — with new seeds.

“Even if everything goes up in flames, our seed bank should stay safe”

Maintaining a seed bank is one of the key roles of the BioFarmer cooperative.  "Even if everything goes up in flames, our seed bank must stay safe," says Nurbek.

Seeds are the most valuable input for farming. Traditionally, farmers across the world save seeds from the last crop to use in the next one. But this approach based on individual seed handling bears risks. Crop failures due to floods, pests or even the need to consume seeds as food (e.g. rice, millet, wheat) can leave farmers without reserves. Even when seeds are set aside, keeping them safe from water, animals and mold can be challenging.

With storage facilities in place, the process for populating the seed banks begins with acquiring high-quality seeds, either purchased or produced by the farmers themselves. These valuable seeds are then carefully stored in secure spaces, safe from pests and weather damage. When planting season arrives, the farmers’ cooperative steps in, distributing the seeds to members at no upfront cost — a critical help for those who otherwise couldn’t afford them. After the harvest, farmers repay the cooperative using a portion of their earnings, ensuring the cycle continues.

It took Nurbek a full year to discover a drought-tolerant cotton variety that met his cooperative’s strict criteria. The challenge? Finding an organic option in a landscape where many farmers rely on genetically modified seeds imported from China. “But we produce organic cotton,” says Nurbek, proud of their commitment.

His team focused on key factors: yield, pest resistance, drought resilience and overall cotton quality. After much searching, they finally found the right seeds in Turkey. “They’re expensive — about three dollars per kilogram,” he says, pointing out the significance of this investment.

The test was successful. The maximum yield of this variety on the test plots was 54.28 centners (about 5.4 tons or 11,900 pounds) per hectare, which is 56% more than that of traditional varieties. “Even if you plant one single seed, it will grow. The farmers are benefiting: Less seed is lost, and the harvest is good”.

Before these seeds could be planted, however, BioFarmer had to navigate a rigorous testing process, pass a state examination, and enter the variety into the official national register. This is a challenge that would be impossible for individual farmers, but is achievable through the cooperative's collective strength.

But Nurbek isn’t resting on his laurels. “Now we are testing two new varieties,” he says, excited about the potential for even higher yields. “Higher yield means we can be more competitive and the farmers will earn more revenue.”

While BioFarmer achieved higher yields with an organic, drought-tolerant variety, currently the cooperative still purchases seeds every year from their supplier in Turkey due to limited land and insufficient technical resources for seed production.

Meanwhile, over 3,500 kilometers southeast in Myanmar, another farmers’ organization is also empowering local farmers to adapt to climate change — but they’re taking their efforts a step further.

Farmers taking charge of seed production

Farmers in the Gulf of Mottama region of Myanmar have taken matters into their own hands by locally producing quality seeds of climate-resilient and market-oriented seed varieties. This eliminates the need to purchase seeds and allows them to sell the surplus for profit.

“In the last decades, many farmers around the world have moved from using their own grown seeds to buying high-yielding hybrid seeds, often genetically modified varieties,” says Alexandra Rieder, an Advisor for Agriculture & Inclusive Food Systems at Helvetas. “Those seeds might seem very efficient due to high yields, but they bear a wide set of risks due to the high dependency of farmers on large multinational seed companies. Farmers using such hybrid seeds will have to buy them every year for the rest of their life since hybrid seeds cannot be reliably saved and replanted. This dependency, combined with crop failures from floods, pests, or drought, can cause debt cycles, leading to even more poverty.”

Again, a farmers’ organization is at the heart of the success in Myanmar. To kickstart the establishment of seed banks, local farmers initially formed groups at the village level, with support from the Gulf of Mottama Project. This initiative, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Helvetas, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Network Activities Group (NAG), laid the groundwork for collaboration.

Recognizing the need for long-term sustainability, the farmers understood the importance of amplifying their collective voice with key stakeholders — market players, development agencies, and national and local governments, including the national seed certification department. In 2019, they united on a regional level to establish the Coastal Area Farmers’ Development Association (CFDA). Helvetas and its partners prioritized support for this initiative, reaffirming their commitment to sustainable results that go beyond the project’s duration. Now, five years later, the CFDA represents 60 villages across eight townships, demonstrating the effectiveness of collective action in addressing climate challenges.

How does their seed production work? The association purchases seeds initially from government seed banks or private companies. Then, each village seed bank committee selects two or three champion farmers to multiply the quality seeds. These farmers carefully monitor growth, removing weaker plants at key stages — branching, flowering and ripening. The seeds from the strongest plants are then stored in the seed bank, which is designed to be rat- and bird-proof with good air circulation.

But that’s not all. To distribute and sell the seeds, farmers must first inform their local township agriculture officer, who oversees the field inspection, and send seed samples for testing. If the seeds pass, they receive a yellow label tag, certifying them for distribution and sale. Typically, farmers sell surplus seeds through the association, leveraging its trusted brand.

“The goodwill of the association is well recognized,” explains Rakesh Munankami, Helvetas’ Chief Technical Advisor based in Myanmar. “When a farmer buys from the association, they get a guarantee of good germination. And during the season, these seeds are selling like hotcakes.”

Why seed diversity matters

There is another success factor in the story of farmers in the Gulf of Mottama.

Local varieties of crops, which are rich in genetic diversity, are essential for adapting to climate change. According to the FAO’s "Community Seed Banks" publication, the widespread use of high-yielding varieties since the 1950s has led to the loss of around 75% of plant genetic diversity. This diversity is crucial for surviving unpredictable conditions like droughts, floods or new pests. In the 1840s, the Irish potato famine illustrated the danger of low genetic diversity: Ireland relied on genetically identical potato clones, so when potato blight struck nearly all crops were wiped out.

The Gulf of Mottama region is vulnerable to climate-induced hazards such as cyclones, tidal surges, floods, saline intrusion and droughts. It’s not possible to just use one variety that would be equally resilient to all of these threats.

“Farmers are very smart,” says Rakesh. “They know their fields, understand the problems and recognize the strengths of each variety. That’s why they grow multiple varieties — usually three to five.” Some varieties may excel in salinity, while others withstand floods or endure droughts. The use of certified rice seeds of locally adapted varieties, together with good farming practices, has helped the farmers increase their rice yield by 15-25%. 

By relying on diverse varieties rather than a monoculture, farmers enhance both climate and economic resilience. They might cultivate one variety for personal consumption, another for festivals, and yet another for market sales. For instance, local farmers may not prefer the taste of a flood-tolerant variety, but buyers in other markets value it. “This way, farmers don’t put all their eggs in one basket, which makes them more resilient,” Rakesh explains.

Spreading best practices

Seed banks alone are not sufficient to build true climate resilience. Effective water management, soil conservation and sustainable farming practices are equally vital in ensuring long-term positive outcomes. These techniques work hand-in-hand with farmer-led seed banks, embedding them into a broader strategy for sustainable farming. Farmers' organizations like BioFarmer and CFDA are instrumental in not only maintaining seed banks but also in sharing and scaling up these and other successful practices across communities.

“Farmers are quite conservative,” says Damira. “They’ve used certain practices for generations and aren’t easily persuaded to change. It’s crucial that they see results in their own region. If they see a neighbor adopt a method and it works, they’ll want to learn, too.”

BioFarmer’s success has inspired other cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan that support organic apricot, medicinal herb and vegetable production. In Myanmar, too, farmer-to-farmer learning is critical. “In each village, we organize field demonstrations so farmers can see for themselves what works in their location and what doesn’t,” says Rakesh.

The need for continued support

The examples Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar reinforce the idea that farmers' organizations must grow to be independent to ensure long-term sustainability. Yet they mustn’t stand against climate change alone.

Smallholder farmers are responsible for producing a third of the world’s food, positioning them as key players in climate change mitigation and adaptation — but they receive just 0.3% of international climate finance. Smallholder farmers’ organizations primarily fund their activities by selling seeds and services to some of the poorest people in the world. They may lack the means to survive economic downturns, adapt to new policies or invest in more advanced techniques for climate resilience.

To ensure that farmer organizations can continue to provide essential support, external backing — such as via climate finance — remains vital.

Helvetas is dedicated to strengthening the independence and resilience of farmers and their organizations. This commitment ensures they are well-prepared to address climate change challenges, while emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts.

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