Many farmers, especially in Indonesia, defend genetic resources by breeding and cultivating local seeds as a step toward farmers’ sovereignty on seeds. This is contrary to Indonesian government’s position. From the very beginning, the government have established many instruments that regulate plants breeding, including Law no. 12 Year 1992 on Plant Cultivation System and Law no. 29 Year 2000 on Plants Variety Protection, and Law no. 4 Year 2006 on the promulgation of International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. All these regulation and policies are motivated by similar interest that is to provide market for commercial seed corporation, criminalization on farmers who manage seeds system and prohibit farmer from using, exchanging and distributing varieties owned by seed corporations “protected” by PVP Law.

These facts drove API, SPI and WAMTI – as part of MTCP-2 Indonesia platform – to organize Farmer Breeder Workshop, themed “Maintaining Tradition, Nurturing Earth” held on 21 to 23 December 2015 in  Hotel Sofyan Jakarta. The activity was attended by 25 farmer breeders, members of Indonesian Peasant Alliance (API), Indonesian Peasant Unions (SPI), At Thariq Ecological Islamic Boarding School in Garut, and IPPHTI.