Clashes between formal and informal seed systems: A case study of maize seed production in Eastern Java, Indonesia

For centuries, farmers have been seed producers and have been adapting seeds to new circumstances. This paper discusses the co-existence of informal farmers’ seed systems and the more recent commercially-oriented seed systems, which are based on legal property rights and formal procedures. This co-existence led to court cases in Kediri Regency in East Java and the imprisonment of maize seed farmers, who produced and sold composite maize seeds. The accusations and court verdicts are put in the context of the political-economic importance of the maize sector, company interests, the impact of the green revolution, farmers’ values and modern seed laws in East Java. The paper draws attention to the difference in technological cultures, and non-alignment of farmers’ values to formal seed laws and regulations (and vice versa). A better understanding of the characteristics, the power and the connection of these different technological cultures is fundamentally important for redefining seed rights, just practices and fair prices. A higher appreciation of farmers as seed innovators and multipliers would furthermore create potential for availing quality seeds at more affordable prices to farmers, who, in contrast to the seed companies, do not yet earn much from their maize production.