Contrasting Narratives of Change? Recent Approaches in Seed System Development.

This study critically examines the narratives driving seed system development within two large-scale research programs: Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Africa and the NL-CGIAR Research Program. Seeds hold the potential to make significant contributions to enhance the resilience of farming systems, mitigate and adapt to climate change, provide nutritious diets, and reduce poverty, making seed system development a central aspect of agricultural development. In pursuit of this multitude of goals the environmental and participation agendas have been evoked. However, this often means that trade-off have to be made, resulting in the prioritization of different goals and varying approaches to seed system development. We question the extent to which the environmental and participation agendas have actually changed framings and priorities, or to what extend the neoliberal discourse still dominates this field. We start our analysis by identifying ‘memes’—the basic units of meaning in stories, narratives, and discourses—based on their recurrence in discussions during the concluding conferences of both research programs. We identified seven key pairs of, seemingly contrasting, memes central to seed system development. Through analysis of written synthesis documents we describe how these memes are given meaning within stories and how they are woven together in a narrative. At each pair of memes, our findings show that there is agreement on overarching objectives, while differences arise regarding the problems and solutions. However, when closely examining the meaning of key memes within different narratives, we find that they are locked in the neoliberal discourse. These finding suggest that, despite the apparent diversity of narratives, the participation and environmental agendas are often leveraged to optimize and reinforce the neoliberal discourse rather than to foster narratives embedded in alternative discourses. Our findings provide a critical reflection on seed system transformation and contribute to the wider debate of sustainable and inclusive agricultural development.