Seeds of doubt over Scariff project

Irish Seed Savers’ Association’s project manager has warned that the national charity will struggle to stay open if proposed cuts are made by the Department of Agriculture.

 

The Scariff-based group’s centre, which houses Ireland’s most sophisticated seed bank, receives approximately one fifth of its funding from the Department of Agriculture and Seed Savers project manager, Lisa Duncan said cuts to this funding are proposed this year.
“We’ve been told that they would like to continue a relationship with us but in terms of funding us on a year to year basis that is looking very dicey. We don’t know to what extent they will continue to fund us. We would receive a fifth of our complete overheads from them, but it keeps us going and keeps us open. Our concern is when we lose a chunk then we’re not in a position to survive, there’s no fat there. It is a terribly lean organisation so that would just pull us under if any funding is pulled,” she said.

Ms Duncan highlighted that the department has been funding Seed Savers “very generously” as it has an interest in the Irish collection of vegetables, potatoes and apple trees that the organisation has.
“We are the only place in the country dedicated particularly to Irish vegetables. The department has their own seed bank, which is basically a couple of freezers; ours is much more central to being there for the public and visitors. We’re there to educate the public on what we do. We are growing those seeds. We’re not putting them in a freezer, we’re growing them out every year so that each year they can be seen and survive and can adapt to the soil and to whatever the weather throws at us. Year on year it’s totally different so it is very important that there is an organisation keeping those seeds alive because they will become extinct otherwise,” she explained.

Ms Duncan added that the department acknowledges the work Seed Savers does as very important but believes cutbacks are foreseeable.
“It is the same everywhere, the cuts are coming left, right and centre and they are taking a cut themselves and they are passing those cuts down. But ultimately when we receive cuts, we’re such a bare roots organisation that it’s a massive deal. We’re living in a real poverty struck situation. People are sharing desks, we don’t have a phone system that works and our computers fail us every day. We genuinely don’t have enough staff on the ground. We are constantly struggling. The department have lovely offices, but when they take a cut it’s not such a big deal because they can afford to take the cuts, but we really can’t take those cut.

“We are at the stage where our work is what is most important and we are being pulled away from the work to fundraise and the work does suffer. The emphasis of the work changes to fundraising to keep the place open as opposed to working to do the genuine work you need to do,” she said.

Funding cuts will not only impact the work but it will also make it difficult to hold onto the specialised staff with the necessary expertise.  
“We have a hard core of 10 volunteers that come weekly and others come intermittently. We need the core workers that have the right knowledge, and that is what we are concerned about losing.

“Once that knowledge is gone it’s gone. More than anything we would need extra supporters. By becoming one of the supporters that is the most important thing the public can do for us at Seed Savers and for the future,” she said.
She stressed it is “ludicrous” that Ireland relies so heavily on importing vegetables, when it is so ideally suited to growing these products. She said the association has saved tasty varieties of crops that were sown for generations in Ireland and the seeds are very accessible.

“It takes people a little while to understand that we are not actually growing the vegetables we are growing them until they have completed their cycle until they produce seeds and then we harvest those seeds and conserve those seeds and trying to get them out there.

“They are no good stored in a freezer; they have to be grown out. We all have to take responsibility that they don’t become extinct.
“So many people come to us and say I remember a variety my grandfather used to grow, would you have it? As if by magic we do have it. It’s so lovely to be able to hand that back and say this is the variety, go home and grow it yourself and take these others too, try them out,” Ms Duncan said.

From September 12 to 18 Irish Seed Savers will hold their annual apple week where the public is invited to take a tour of their grounds and taste some of the native apple varieties they grow. Staff will also share their expertise on apple trees and growing native varieties.