An Analysis of Social Seed Network and Its Contribution to On-Farm Conservation of Crop Genetic Diversity in Nepal

Social seed systems are important for the maintenance of crop genetic diversity on farm. This is governed by local and informalsystem in the community through a farmers’ network. This paper analyses these local seed systems through application of socialnetwork analysis tools and mappings and examines the network member and its stability over space and time in a small rice farmingcommunity in Nepal. NetDraw software is used for data analysis and network mapping. We found that the dynamic networkstructure had key role in provisioning of traditional varieties and maintaining of crop genetic diversity on farm. We identify andascertain the key network members, constituted either as nodal or bridging (connector) farmers, occupying central position in thenetwork who promote seed flow of local crop diversity, thus strengthening crop genetic resource diversity on farm