2020 Volume 15 Issue 1 Pages 165-172
Recently, in many regions of Japan, the significance of open-pollinated seeds gathered from traditional local vegetables has been more widely recognized, and seed exchange events are being held to ensure and conserve species variety. This article reports the features of a vegetable seed exchange event organized by the Tanenowa farmers’ network in the city of Hidaka, Saitama prefecture, and discusses the potential and challenges associated with such events. The participants came from various regions including mountains and plains in the area. Approximately half of the attendees were noncommercial farmers. This suggests that various plant species are collected and that the production of low-profit species is being protected. The vegetable species at the exchange originated from the open-pollinated seeds of traditional local vegetables. They are maintained for their advantageous characteristics, which include ease in planting, cuttage, and in-house seed saving. Moreover, I discovered several local vegetable species from the mountainous regions of the area which were previously unknown to me. It is concluded that vegetable seed exchange events make important, positive contributions to the protection and discovery of open-pollinated seeds of traditional local vegetables.
