At the Penowayan Purok Center in Don Salvador, Negros Occidental, Indigenous farmers gathered for a Community Learning Awareness on Seed Sovereignty (CLASS), a foundational activity leading up to our upcoming Seed Schools. In partnership with DSAC San Carlos, this session created space for community members to reflect on their farming journeys and explore what reclaiming seed sovereignty means for their land, culture, and future.
Many participants shared how, years ago, they were introduced to synthetic fertilizers and hybrid seeds through government programs that promised higher yields and greater income. The results were immediate, but the long-term consequences slowly revealed themselves. As one farmer recounted, the shift to commercial farming left them unable to replant saved seeds or grow crops without continued dependence on fertilizers. Government programs that pushed synthetic fertilizers and hybrid seeds once seemed like a solution, but became a cycle of reliance and loss.
And yet, despite these challenges, hope remains rooted in the soil. All participants expressed a strong desire to join Seed School 1 and 2, citing their lived experience with both traditional and commercial farming. Having once known the abundance and health of native seeds, they now see a path to return!
As one participant reflected, “Traditional farming brought joy, and food that made us feel alive. We want to go back to that.”
For Global Seed Savers, gatherings like this are a powerful reminder that the seed sovereignty movement is not about teaching communities something new, but about helping them remember. These farmers are living testimonies to both the promise of traditional practices and the consequences of industrial agriculture. Their stories speak to the urgency of our work and the strength already present in every community we serve across the Philippines.
With each seed shared, each story told, and each training held, we are helping restore not just food systems, but relationships to the land, to our culture, and to each other.
