Seeds and the Erosion of Smallholder Agriculture: A Path to Social Justice in the Post-Conflict Era Through the Solidarity Economy

This chapter argues that legal control over seeds in Colombia constitutes a form of biopolitical governance that works in tandem with physical violence to reshape the rural landscape. It examines how the regulatory framework —from the controversial Resolution 970 of 2010 to its successor, Resolution 3168 of 2015, as well as regulations on plant varieties— has functioned as a subtle mechanism of dispossession. This framework weakens peasant agriculture, grounded in the sovereignty of native seeds, and exposes it to violent land dispossession. It is argued that the law not only precedes violence but also subsequently legitimizes it by providing a legal framework for the agro-industrial models established in the “emptied” territories. Finally, the study analyzes practices of resistance, such as the Peasant Schools of Agroecology and the cooperatives that emerged in the post-conflict period, which propose an alternative model of peace based on the defense of seeds as a common good and the construction of lasting social justice.