A UN FAO news article tells of efforts to aid drought-affected Ethiopians. Drought isn't only the absence of rains, it can also be a problem when rains don't come at the right time... and any farmer will tell you that this happens so often that it can be fairly described as normal. Variation is normal. Sometimes the rain comes too early, before soils are warm enough to germinate seeds, and sometimes it comes too late, leaving insufficient days in the season for crop plants to grow to maturity.

The UN aid to Ethiopians, funded by Canada, consists of seeds for cultivars that can be planted later in the year than the long maturing maize and sorghum crops normally planted. Though the rains came late there can still be a harvest of chickpeas, lentils and vetch. Late-planting carrot, cabbage, tomato, onion, beetroot and spinach seeds are also being distributed.

Ethiopians are seed-savers. They hold back a portion of their crops from consumption and sale to use as seed for the next year. In developed countries seed saving is less common and always optional since there is a large and capable seed industry - farmers that specialize in producing abundant, high quality seeds for other farmers to grow. It's a more effective way to produce seed since seed farmers can focus on issues unique to their specialty and so do a better job of it. Farmers growing for consumer markets buy seed rather than holding back a portion of their crop, and so eliminate the need to select and store seed. They store money instead of seed.

As the situation in Ethiopia demonstrates, efficiency in seed production is not the only benefit of having a developed seed industry. Farmers can choose which cultivars to buy and plant in a given year and so adapt themselves to the weather rather than being limited to use of the cultivars they saved months ago, well before they had any idea of what the weather would be like at planting time.

In developed countries farmers select seeds that fit their judgment of current growing conditions. Some cultivars mature earlier, some have higher yields. In a year when rains are late it is better to plant an early maturing variety and so get a crop grown before winter when it can be too cool or the days too short to ripen the crop. They may even switch the type of crop, as the Ethiopians are doing with the help of the UN.

Many advocates have the mistaken notion that seed saving is somehow better, that it prevents dependence on the money economy and seed companies - assumed to be predatory - as well as preserving heritage varieties of food crops. All it really does is make seed-saving societies more fragile, more vulnerable to disaster and famine when the inevitable bad year comes. Preserving the DNA of legacy cultivars for possible future benefit is more properly done by germ banks. The ability to choose improved cultivars appropriate to agronomic practices and yearly variation increases food security by allowing better harvests in both good and bad years. The benefits compound year after year as increased food security and better nutrition leads to better health, better child development and better social development.

Mutuality is a better approach for humans. We do the best we can and when things go wrong we help one another. We share our discoveries rather than hoarding them and we listen and learn from others rather than retreating behind locked gates to cling to traditions. Listening to new ideas and choosing those that seem useful on a case by case basis allows each human to assemble a kit of techniques that in their judgement is useful. The composition of the kit is thoughtful and inventive, an idea in its own right.