Nearly 150 Indigenous seed collectors from the Amazonian Bioeconomic Seed Network, the first of its kind in the state of Rondônia, traveled to neighboring Mato Grosso state to meet with Brazil’s oldest network of seed collectors, the Xingu Seed Network.
NOVA XAVANTINA, Brazil — This past July, 15 Indigenous women made the thousand-mile journey from their home of Rolim de Moura, in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Rondônia, east to Nova Xavantina, in the state of Mato Grosso. They went as representatives of the 146 seed collectors from Reseba, the Amazonian Bioeconomic Seed Network, an organization founded in mid-2021 by members of the Aikanã, Gavião, Sabanê, Suruí, Tupari and Zoró Indigenous peoples.
Rubithem, 27, is a leader among the women of her village of Gamir, whose previous knowledge of the economic potential of seeds was limited to the species used for making handicrafts, such as tucumã . This changed when members of the group Guaporé Ecological Action proposed the creation of the state of Rondônia’s first network of seed collectors.
On the edge of one property, the Indigenous members of Reseba were taught how to properly select fruit from the baru tree that had fallen to the ground. On the roadside, they collected jatobás-do-cerrado using a bamboo pole with an iron hook at the end. On the way back to the city, the group stopped at a square to look for caroba, or Brazilian jacaranda , one of the 150 species collected by the Xingu Seed Network in Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso state. Image by Kevin Damasio.
The Xingu Seed Network was founded in 2007 and today is made up of some 600 members spread across 25 Indigenous groups as well as family farmers and urban inhabitants. From its inception until 2022, the network collected 294 metric tons of seeds, contributing to the restoration of 7,400 hectares of land in the Amazon and the Cerrado. In that 15-year period, the network’s collectors have earned a cumulative total of 5.3 million reais .
This experience discouraged many of the village’s 26 families from becoming Reseba members, but Dorvalina was excited to return to the community and get her relatives involved. “This time around, we learned a lot and could contribute in the village, so that we didn’t hand over seeds that were all spoiled full of bugs, and we learned how to take care of things.”
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