These "seed savers" are growing climate resilience, food security, and gender equality

Maasai lovegrass, African foxtail grass, creeping bluegrass, sandhill millet. 

These are among Tanzania's native grasses, and Magreth Petro, a farmer and pastoralist, has been collecting and processing the plants' seeds by hand since May.

Women "seed savers" are reviving traditional practices to restore native crops and pasturelands around the world and to help sustain livelihoods as climate pressures grow. And Petro is one of them, working in Arkaria village in the Monduli Hills, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) west of Arusha, where one of the program sites for the Native Seeds Initiative is based.

While extreme weather threatens all plant life, native seeds and the plants they become are generally well adapted to an area's rainfall, drought, soils, and temperatures. As such, they can offer a potential buffer against changing conditions and promote healthy, balanced, resilient ecosystems while providing a source of much-needed income for cash-strapped families.

Just a few years ago, Petro's family alalili — or pastureland — had become so deteriorated under the strain of invasive plants, erosion, and overgrazing that livestock struggled to find enough food and sometimes died or fell sick. Now, Petro is one of 100 women and youth participating in the Native Seeds Initiative, one of many such efforts worldwide aiming to restore degraded pasturelands and strengthen agriculture by cultivating native grasses, legumes, and wildflowers. 

"You see that these areas used to have grasses and plants, but they're almost completely bare now," Nai-nancy Laizer, who leads the initiative at Savannas Forever Tanzania, told CG. "The goal is for the [seed savers] to have good forage for their cattle but also earn income from selling the forage and native seeds. So it addresses the effects of climate but also generates income to these communities."

Land degradation is a challenge shared by farmers across Tanzania, where nearly 70% of the workforce depends on agriculture, according to U.N. Women. Women make up the majority of smallholder farmers, yet many lack the formal land rights that could strengthen their livelihoods while supporting the long-term stewardship of resilient ecosystems. 

In August, Tanzanian stakeholders called for greater attention to the importance of sustainable land management at the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification in Mongolia. Last month, the U.N.'s new Gender Snapshot documented that closing gender gaps in agricultural productivity could lift 45 million people out of food insecurity.

Now, as the short rainy season approaches, set to stretch from about October to December, Petro and other women seed savers — also known as seed keepers, guardians, and champions — are preparing to sow their carefully collected and cleaned seeds. In the meantime, Petro has been using the sunny, dry weather to cut, bale, and store harvested grasses. If there is enough to spare, she may be able to sell some of the forage and seeds at market, bringing in income for her household. 

The Native Seeds Initiative grew from nearly two decades of work by Savannas Forever Tanzania — or SFTZ — a nonprofit research and development organization based in Arusha that has worked with pastoralists in Maasai communities since 2006. Laizer, SFTZ's Assistant Director who leads the seed-saving initiative, told CG that over the years, as the group's research took the team to different communities, SFTZ became increasingly aware of the worsening degradation of rangelands and the need for restoration. 

In 2023, SFTZ launched its seed-saving program, which began by listening to communities. Holding focus group discussions, SFTZ learned which plants people needed for livestock forage, thatching, medicine, and other uses. The team worked with a Maasai botanist to identify preferred plants in the field, then consulted a seed phenologist on seed maturity and sustainable collection practices. 

The initiative remains driven by community demand. "The seed champions are working closely with the village leaders and SFTZ team," Laizer said. 

After seeing results in the individual alalili, community members proposed restoring degraded areas in their communal grazing lands. Last year, Mswakini Juu village provided 16 acres for restoration and selected 10 young people to manage the land, including preparing, planting, weeding, repairing fences, and maintaining the site.

What's happening in this corner of Tanzania is part of a bigger story unfolding around the world. As human-induced climate change makes growing conditions less predictable, native seed saving and agricultural biodiversity are taking on greater significance — and so are the women who steward them. 

And biodiversity loss — the decline in the variety of life across species, genetics, and ecosystems — is no longer just an environmental concern. It is increasingly recognized as essential to national security, financial markets, resilient food systems, and food sovereignty — and, increasingly, it is being reflected in climate policy and finance. 

June analysis of Nationally Determined Contributions — the climate action plans countries develop to reduce harmful emissions and adapt to climate change under the Paris Agreement — finds a growing focus on climate-smart farming practices and explicitly identifies Indigenous Peoples and smallholder farmers as key to climate adaptation. The focus was echoed by representatives of farmer organizations at the U.N.'s June Climate Meetings in Bonn, who called for more direct access to climate finance for farmers already on the frontlines of climate change and developing solutions in their communities.

The concerted effort to protect crop diversity is also playing out in seed banks. 

In 2026, Norway's Svalbard Global Seed Vault saw record growth in deposits, with some countries sending their first-ever seed samples as part of a global effort to safeguard crop genetic diversity.

In some Himalayan communities, where researcher Nilakshi Moran has written that national agricultural policies and programs may not consistently reach women in remote areas "because of bureaucratic gaps and the absence of gender-sensitive design," local seed libraries also help sustain food sovereignty.

Seed banks around the world serve as a kind of insurance policy for the future of food, protecting crops against threats including war, climate change, and the loss of diversity associated with monoculture and increasingly commercialized seed systems.

Yet protecting crop diversity involves more than storing seeds for safekeeping. Farmers' rights to save and share seeds are also gaining attention, including through the Fair Seeds for Farmers Act, a U.S. bill introduced in July that would strengthen farmers' ability to save, reuse, and breed seeds from their own harvests, pushing back against corporate control over seed patents 

From seed banks to farmers' rights, endeavors to conserve biodiversity, restore ecosystems, feed families, and create economic opportunities are gaining momentum. Yet women farmers have long been doing this work in their own communities, preserving seeds and the knowledge that surrounds them and playing an invaluable role in climate adaptation and resilience. 

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., women make up about 41% of the global agrifood workforce and as much as 70% in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In 2026, the U.N. has put that contribution in the spotlight by designating it the International Year of the Woman Farmer, a campaign to drive policy reform, investment, and awareness for gender equality in agriculture.

Women farmers and seed keepers are already putting solutions into practice. The challenge now is ensuring they have the resources and recognition to expand them, particularly as this year's Super El Niño weather pattern threatens harvests and food supplies from Somalia to Fiji and the U.S. 

In Tanzania, Laizer has seen firsthand how the benefits of seed saving and land restoration extend beyond the pasturelands themselves. The Native Seeds Initiative pays seed champions about $6 USD per day during the collection period and purchases the native seeds they collect, providing a source of income in communities where paid work, particularly for women, is limited.

"Some have been able to buy goats and food but also pay for their children's school supplies. Some bought gas cylinders so they are no longer relying on using firewood for most of the cooking," Laizer said.

She told CG her goal for the program is not simply to restore degraded land, but to help communities build livelihoods that can endure as the climate changes. The program is developing a financial literacy component and exploring microfinance groups in the village. 

"The idea is they'll be able to have money even if the project phases out. This is something that can continue being sustainable," Laizer said. 

Just as the women are saving seeds for the next planting season, they are preserving the knowledge, livelihoods, and resources needed to sustain their communities — and the landscapes they depend on — for generations to come.

Gracie Leavitt contributed to the editing of this article.