Community Seed Banks in Practice - CSB Lab Workshop 1 | Seeds of Growth

The first of three Community Seed Bank Labs run by the Erasmus+ project Seeds of Growth, recorded on 11 March 2026 with live English–Czech interpretation. Three practitioners describe how community seed banks and seed networks actually work in their countries: Klára Hrdá on the Czech seed library network and what separates a seed library from a community seed bank; Tea Chitadze on Elkana's Seed Ark farm in Georgia and the recovery of indigenous varieties; and Borbála Lipka on Magház, a distributed seed network in Hungary. The session was designed on the findings of the project's Capacity Gap Analysis, which surveyed 140 seed savers, seed librarians and CSB managers across Europe. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome 00:59 How the interpretation works 02:28 The Seeds of Growth project 04:54 EC-LLD — the European network 06:08 SEED Luxembourg 08:42 The three CSB Labs, field visits and the Prague conference 11:10 Semínkovna — Klára Hrdá (Czech Republic) 12:10 What a seed library is 14:42 Why Czechia has seed libraries but few seed banks 17:32 What is a community seed bank? 20:42 Why community seed banks emerged 26:42 Where a seed library ends and a seed bank begins 31:44 Discussion 41:30 Elkana — Tea Chitadze (Georgia) 44:42 Elkana's activities and reach 47:42 How local varieties were lost 53:42 Seed quality management at the Seed Ark farm 59:42 Seed libraries in Georgia 1:04:16 Discussion 1:20:32 Magház — Borbála Lipka (Hungary) 1:22:24 Seed swaps 1:26:42 Traditional knowledge as part of agrobiodiversity 1:29:42 How Magház operates as a distributed network 1:38:42 Translating seed-saving knowledge into Hungarian 1:44:28 Advocacy and policy work 1:46:18 Discussion 1:47:42 Working with the national gene bank 1:53:20 The PRM regulation and gene bank exemptions 1:55:02 Closing SLIDES AND RESOURCES — all free to download Klára Hrdá, Semínkovna: https://liberatediversity.org/communi... Tea Chitadze, Elkana: https://liberatediversity.org/biologi... Borbála Lipka, Magház: https://liberatediversity.org/maghaz-... Capacity Gap Analysis: https://liberatediversity.org/seeds-o... Seed Knowledge Hub: https://liberatediversity.org/categor... ABOUT THE PROJECT Seeds of Growth: Strengthening Community Seed Banks and Sustainable Seed-Saving Practices in Europe is an Erasmus+ KA210-ADU project (2025-1-CZ01-KA210-ADU-000358754) run by Semínkovna (Czech Republic), European Coordination Let's Liberate Diversity! (Belgium) and SEED (Luxembourg). Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Dům zahraniční spolupráce (DZS). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.