The Seed Knowledge Hub was built to keep the answers in one place. It is an open online repository hosted on the EC-LLD website, developed within Seeds ofGrowth, an Erasmus+ small-scale partnership in adult education (KA210), coordinated bySemínkovna (Czech Republic) with EC-LLD and SEED Luxembourg as partners.
The Hub brings together guides, technical manuals, case studies and policy materials on seed saving and cultivated diversity. What was included into it was decided on the basis of a capacity gap analysis that reached 868 people across Europe and collected 140 responses from seed savers, community seed bank managers and seed librarians.
The collection now holds over 80 resources and its growing thanks to the contributions of EC-LLD Members and the broader community. In the Seed Knowledge Hub you can also find the material from the LLD forums. The Hub grows with what the community puts into it. If your organisation has produced a guide, a manual, a template, a study or a policy briefing that others could use, write to info@liberatediversity.org and we will add it. Material in any European language is welcome.
Practical guide to EU seed policy (May 2023): institutions, legal instruments, GMO and plant health rules, biodiversity, intellectual property and seed marketing, aimed at seed savers, NGOs and citizens.
Briefing paper showing how UNDROP strengthens and clarifies Farmers’ Rights under the ITPGRFA, affirms human-rights primacy over conflicting laws, and defines State and UN agency obligations for seed policy and governance.
ARCHE NOAH (May 2025) finds the proposed EU PRM Regulation would impose disproportionate administrative and testing burdens on small seed producers, risking loss of varieties and business closures; calls for exemptions and proportional rules.
Examines how CSA, LSPA and PGS strengthen producer-consumer ties to support on-farm seed production, agroecological practices and cultivated biodiversity, linking seed sovereignty to food sovereignty.
Systematic review of 27 community seed banks in China (2020), expanding the conceptual framework with two new functions, presenting three cases, and giving practical policy recommendations to strengthen seed systems.
Survey and climate-data analysis in Malawi (688 households, 1,600 plots) finds CSBs supply ~1/3 of seeds for participants, are linked to better household food security, show mixed effects on crop yields, and correlate with climate-shock exposure.
Practical manual offering step‑by‑step guidance on establishing, managing and governing community seed banks in Europe, covering technical, organisational and outreach aspects.
Practical manual for Community Seed Banks on setting up documentation systems: descriptors, forms, databases, data exchange, management, software and a European case example (Pro Specie Rara).
Manual explaining international and EU frameworks (CBD/Nagoya, ITPGRFA), practical ABS tools (SMTA/Easy-SMTA) and scenarios for how Community Seed Banks and farmers can access, share and manage germplasm.
Discusses how community seed banks can conserve local varieties and improve agrobiodiversity by enhancing economic sustainability through legal recognition, market integration, partnerships and financing models.
Technical booklet describing experimental designs, statistical methods and the PPBstats R tools for decentralized on‑farm breeding and participatory plant breeding.
Report of a DIVERSIFOOD survey and Rome workshop (Sept 2017) mapping 84 European community seed banks: their diversity, activities (conservation, seed exchange, training, PPB), challenges (funding, capacity, regulation) and strategies (networking, advocacy).
Policy recommendations from the DIVERSIFOOD project to embed crop genetic diversity in food value chains, covering legal status of heterogeneous cultivars, CAP coherence, value chains, awareness and multi-actor research.
Practical guide (DIVERSIFOOD Booklet #2, 2019) for participatory evaluation, multiplication and on‑farm testing of underutilised genetic resources, covering seed sourcing, phenotypic assessment, performance, quality and trial organisation.
Report of a 22 Sept 2017 FAO workshop (DIVERSIFOOD/Bioversity/ITPGRFA) summarising CSB roles, case studies and a SWOT: CSBs are vital for dynamic conservation, access to local seed and participatory breeding but need policy recognition, funding and capacity.
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The Seed Knowledge Hub has been developed within the context of the Erasmus+ project Seeds of Growth: Strengthening Community Seed Banks and Sustainable Seed-Saving Practices in Europe (Project ID: KA210-ADU-1727BE52)
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Dům zahraniční spolupráce (DZS). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
