Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
Our case study is centred on the Mkombezi Community Seed Bank (Image 1), one of four regional CSBs in Rumphi district supported by the national non-profit Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (BCI). The seed bank was built in 2010 and has since attracted 82 members, the majority of which live in villages within a 5 km radius. The seed bank has a room for group meetings, a library, and two seed storage rooms in which seeds are stored in cool, dark conditions. One such room is dedicated to germplasm storage, where local varieties of maize, beans, groundnuts, and other common crop seeds are stocked in small, labelled jars arranged on wooden shelves. The other room contains large bags of seed resting on wooden platforms; this bulk storage area contains repaid seed loans from the last growing season. Behind the building, seeds are planted for multiplication and demonstrative purposes in small plots (Image 2). The seed bank is funded by the Development Fund of Norway as part of a larger Community Based Agrobiodiversity Management project, within which BCI implements its activities (Hunduma & Ortiz, ).

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Research Council of Norway funded ACCESS project (RCN-288493). ECV was also funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 853222 FORESTDIET). We recognize Laifolo Dakishoni, Esther Lupafya, and Lizzie Shumba at the Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities organization for their logistical support in Ekwendeni. We also gratefully acknowledge Temwa Luhanga for her interpretation during interviews. Finally, we thank Geir Lieblein from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences for comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Funding Information:
Regardless of whether the CSB is directly engaged in food sovereignty activities, official recognition and legislative provisions that support farmers’ rights over seed are essential for the long-term survival of CSBs in any country. In Malawi, the 2018 National Seed Policy – with provisions that were later incorporated and passed in the Malawi Government’s 2022 Seed Bill – stopped short of declaring farmers’ varieties illegal but did not provide any support to farmers’ seed systems or the organizations that work within them (Government of Malawi, ). This policy poses a challenge to the longevity of CSBs in the Rumphi district. In an interview, the chairperson of the Mkombezi CSB cited maintaining institutional credibility as the biggest issue in the absence of external funding. Without the backing of an NGO (in this case, BCI with the Development Fund of Norway), he feared members would not feel obligated to pay back their loans. Indeed, our data reveals some access issues with local maize varieties at the CSB, potentially due to inadequate seed supplies. Greater policy and financial support from the government and other external agencies could bolster both seed production capacity at the CSB and the members’ ability to repay seed loans.

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