PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
SEED SOVEREIGNTY (4 November 2014)

That this House notes that access to seed resources is central to small-scale farmers' ability to maintain resilient and productive livelihoods; further notes that, in facing the effects of climate change and changing global market forces, it is essential that poor farmers in Africa and elsewhere are supported to access and develop sustainable, productive and affordable seed resources through community-controlled initiatives; further notes that just three corporations now control 53 per cent of the global seed market, whilst farmers are experiencing dangerous levels of the debt and vulnerability as such corporations come to control their seed supply; further notes that UK aid is currently supporting initiatives such as the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition that promote plant variety protection laws such as in Ghana that fail to protect poor and indigenous farmers and are likely to increase the market dominance of transnational seed corporations; further notes that the Department for International Development committed in 2005 to end policy conditionality for UK aid recipients, yet seed policy reforms required from some recipient states as part of aid commitments under the New Alliance appear in practice to undermine this commitment; and calls on the Government to support community-controlled initiatives to assist farmers to access sustainable, affordable and productive seed varieties instead of initiatives that increase corporate control of seed markets.

Sponsored by:
Ms Diane Abbott (Labour)