Over the past year, a quiet yet powerful convergence has been unfolding in the world of farmers’ seeds. Across regions, many initiatives, networks, and platforms have been working, often in parallel, to support farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity. While these efforts vary in scope and approach, there is growing recognition that better coordination is needed. A collective effort is now emerging to connect the dots, improve alignment, strengthen exchanges, and explore ways of working more effectively together.
From Shared Conversations to Shared Purpose
This process began in 2024, when ECLLD started facilitating conversations with partners from different regions working on farmers’ seeds. These early exchanges revealed a common challenge: while many collaborations already exist, we often lack visibility on each other’s work. We don’t always know which processes are underway, what strategies are being used, or how decisions made in different spaces might affect the work we are doing with our communities.
The 13th edition of the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum, held in Antibes in 2024, marked a turning point. It offered a concrete opportunity to bring together regional and international actors to explore how we might improve coordination and build more connected ways of working. It was also the starting point for imagining a shared ecosystem of collaboration—one that could support mutual learning, policy engagement, and joint action.
An informal group began to take shape following the workshop in Antibes. Since then, it has continued to grow, involving more actors and gaining wider recognition.
Antibes 2024 – First Workshop on Strenghtening Global Seed Networks
Strengthening the Ties: A Global Web in the Making
Today, the momentum continues to build. A growing number of organisations and platforms are actively engaged, including Oxfam’s Community of Practice on Farmers’ Seed Systems, the IFOAM Seed Platform, the Seed Library Network and Open Source Seed Initiative (North America), Farmers’ Seed Networks in China and Kenya, and COASP in West Africa.
Together, these actors are creating a space for dialogue and reflection. It is a space where diverse initiatives can come together to discuss opportunities and explore potential roadmaps for improving strategic coordination in support of farmers’ seeds and cultivated biodiversity.
As we look ahead, this emerging network aims to map who is working on farmers’ seeds worldwide and to create common spaces and shared infrastructure for exchange, coordination, learning, and mobilisation.
Launching the Survey at the LLD Forum 2025
The next milestone will be the launch of a global survey, designed to identify and map the wide range of actors engaged in farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity around the world. More than just a data collection tool, the survey is a first step in building the foundations for a co-owned global map and shared infrastructure to support the long-term coordination across different movements and initiatives.
The survey will be launched at the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum 2025, taking place in Luxembourg from 4–6 September 2025. As part of the Forum, we will host a hybrid workshop to present the survey, refine its dissemination strategy, and explore the next steps toward shared ways of working and the co-development of an ecosystem of collaboration.
Join Us: From Dialogue to Action
This is a unique moment to help shape the future of global collaboration on farmers’ seeds. Whether you are part of a network, an organisation working on seeds, a grassroots initiative, a seed-saving community, a research institution, or a policy platform, your perspective matters. We warmly invite you to join us in Luxembourg, or online, for the LLD Forum and hybrid workshop.
More information on registration, the programme, and participation options is available at:
https://liberatediversity.org/lld-forum-luxembourg-2025/
