'Free Seeds'

[PatrickW]

Via my blog from time to time I get open requests for 'free seeds'. Usually someone who lives in a poor part of the world, and wants some free vegetable seeds to feed themselves. Recently these requests have been coming from Pakistan, which has had a lot of problems recently from Taliban insurgents, flooding and bad governance.

In the past I've had requests from the US and UK too.

I believe these requests are genuine, but I don't really know what to do with them. I don't really have the right kinds of seeds for someone to grow in a climate very different from mine and expect to feed themselves. My community garden is also limited in the volume of seeds I can produce for something like that, and I can really only send out samples for people to regrow for more seeds.

I think as a world we do okay when it comes to supporting organizations like the Red Cross or others that help out in times of crisis, but we fail completely when it comes to helping individuals in need. I can imagine in the coming years this problem is only going to get worse.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to address this?

Is there anyone here who would like to get forwarded emails from me with these kinds of requests, and would like to send seeds to people like these?

[PapaVic]

Patrick, I cannot answer your question about how to effectively address the issue.

And I don't grow much but tomatoes, so I don't really have a lot of seeds for staple crops. Also, I do not know what particular crops are highly valued in Pakistan. But I do have quite a lot of seed for tomatoes directly from India or for varieties typically grown in India. These are the Pusa Ruby type varieties used for sauce mainly, like red curry sauce, and other cooking sauces. Tart, acid tomatoes.

If they can be of use to your requests in Pakistan, let me know.

[garnetmoth]

I posted about a project through Kitchen Gardeners International sending seeds to Pakistan. There is a woman in Islamabad named Salma who is a farmer, and still has access to a vehicle and has been distributing seed around when it is shipped to her. She posted a "wants list" of vegetable seed.

I sent her a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and greens at harvest time. I then applied to SSE for their Hermans Garden donations, and they sent tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, okra, etc, and Alan sent some extra seed with my FOTE order (i selected sunflowers, dry patch acorn squash, peppers, okra) and his and SSEs just went over last week.

I really dont know what would help as far as staple/calorie crops, but she and the other recipients are grateful for veg seeds. kitchengardeners.org/user/38

[johno]

Patrick, you can forward emails like this to me. Sometimes I can help, depending on their climate. I usually have corn, cowpeas, and okra to spare.

[PatrickW]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Salma sent me an email too a few months ago. I'm glad she found people to help her out.

I've now had more of an email exchange from the latest person from Pakistan, and I realize he's more of a hobby grower than someone really trying to feed himself. I'll find some things to send him, and not bother you guys this time. I'll tell him about this forum so he can introduce himself if he wants.

I'll keep Johno and PV in mind next time, as well as anyone one else who steps forward. Thank you both, it's nice to know there are people willing to help out, as I'm sure there will be more requests like this.