The world faces an unprecedented crisis with COVID-19. While the pandemic has put many countries under lockdown and brought normal activities to a halt, essential services like health care, food, infrastructure, finance and public administration continue. Key workers in essential services are those whose activities are vital to public health and wellbeing during the crisis.
Those in the seed sector belong to this category and continue their work as part of essential services to sustain the delivery of seed to farmers. Seed companies are allowed to carry out all essential services such as seed production, cleaning, packing and distribution of seed including lab services. Especially in the hardest hit countries, their work is critical to ensure that farmers can grow crops during the coming planting season, preventing any food shortages in the long run.
Farmers need continued access to seeds and other essential agriculture inputs. In a previous statement, the International Seed Federation (ISF) stated: “ISF believes that the world’s long-term stability rests on several pillars, one of which is food security. Seed is the starting point of the food system. Farmers everywhere depend on access to quality seed in order to grow healthy crops.”
Working together with national governments, representatives of the seed sector in different parts of the world are doing their best to ensure that seed workers can continue their activities in order to mitigate the impact on farming. Seed is a globally traded agricultural product, therefore, unrestricted international movement of seed is critical to ensure food security.
Source: World Seed