Unpacking the discursive construction of heirloom seeds: Discourses, contests, connections

Abstract

The 2006 Turkish Seed Law prohibited the selling of uncertified heirloom seeds, triggering heated debates on and around seeds. This paper examines the construction of discourses on heirloom seeds in Türkiye, focusing on the arguments of the key social actors in the field with a view to understand how knowledge production is taking place on seed. Conducting interviews with key state and non-state actors and analyzing their published documents related to heirloom seed through discourse-historical approach, we examined the argumentative perspectives shaping the discourse on seed. The results revealed a discursive dichotomy constructed between "heirloom seed" and "certified hybrid seeds." In particular, built on commercial and food security concerns, the state discourse frames heirloom seeds as low-yield and unable to feed the nation in comparison to certified hybrid seeds, whereas non-state discourse using the perspectives of agrobiodiversity and farmers’ sovereignty construct heirloom seeds with superior features, qualifying them as compatible with biodiversity and the current global and regional economic, environmental and climate problems. The study concludes that different perspectives and interests produced contradictory knowledge about seed (hence food) and caused different realities to exist simultaneously within this knowledge.