Seed Programs International

Sow Seeds To Fight Hunger. We provide quality vegetable seed, expertise, and resources that local people deploy to boost nutrition and income.

Vegetable gardens give quicker food from a local source when main-crop harvests are lost to a disaster. When other types of aid are giving only starchy foods to fill bellies, vegetables give needed micronutrients. When men are displaced or distracted by crisis, vegetable gardens may grow in importance as a food source – they are traditionally grown in small plots close to the home, easily accessible by women while completing other tasks.

Vegetable seeds give food and livelihood together. As anyone knows who has grown a garden, it can be hard to get past diseases, pests, and weather to harvest time, but once you do, it’s easy to end up with excess.

Even in remote, impoverished areas, we hear again and again that some vegetables are sold as soon as they are produced—even by those facing hunger and malnutrition. These sales pay for school fees, medicines, tools, and more seeds.

One shipment of SPI seeds can sow hundreds or thousands of gardens – and such large-scale efforts will give rise to even more micro-businesses. Some may start to save vegetable seeds for resale. Others will help with harvest, storage, or taking vegetables to market.

Female farmers produce more than half the developing world's food - yet own less than 2% of land and have limited access to resources such as seeds, tools, and information. By providing top-quality vegetable seeds and locally-driven support, Seed Programs gives women a path to empowerment, income, and nutrition. Enabling women to grow their own food in an under-resourced area can change the lives in an entire community.