Being part of small-scale organic agriculture grass-roots organizations, the founder of Terrena realized that Bolivia has no access to organic seeds. The tradition of seed guarding is slowly disappearing. So a community seed bank was started.
Terrena gathered, cleaned, and kept seeds, and made them available to farmers communities through exchange. It saw a need for organic seed suppliers, and more structured and professional seed guarding, so producers can access high quality organic seeds.
It is running a pilot with three farmers, to establish three small seed gardens to produce nine different types of organic vegetable seeds. As it runs this pilot, it is developing a system that will train producers on the technical and management skills needed to organize a Bolivian organic seed guardian cooperative.
