CoEX

The CoEx project is a multidisciplinary project that brings together scientific, political and civil society actors, around the study of the seed system. The objectives of the project are :

• to understand the gap between regulations and laws on seeds and genetic resources and the reality on the ground in the diversity of cultivation practices and seed use in West Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) ;
• to propose governance mechanisms that better take into account the diversity of crop management practices and methods.

The CoEx project is structured in 3 work packages (WPs), the first WP1 being based on the analysis of regulations and modalities of seed governance systems (access and management). WP2 is analysing the diversity of cropping practices and seed use in the field. WP3 proposes seed management governance mechanisms. For this, the project implements up to 13 African and French Master’s courses and 2 co-financed theses.

The first year allowed us to refine the originality of the scientific project around the issues of scaling up and reflexivity on the practices of intermediary actors/institutions. This work required the development of a solid methodology based on : (1) the experiences of previous projects in the same areas and on related themes; (2) interdisciplinary collaboration to develop sampling strategies and appropriate statistical analysis methods.

In parallel, co-funding was obtained for two projects (SEARS and Dynaversity H2020), in addition to co-funding for a thesis in Economics.

Among the strong points of the project, highlighted at the mid-term meeting, are :

• scientific multidisciplinarity;
• the societal impact;
• the strengthening of the South-South partnership dynamic between scientific and professional actors.