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Ebola hemorrhagic fever destroyed more than human lives when it first appeared in Guinea a few years ago. It also eroded agriculture in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Food shortages, trade restrictions, border controls and rising food prices have forced many farmers to resort to desperate measures and use the seeds they were saving for the next growing season for their own consumption. "We had to stop farming and rarely visited our farms. We ate all our rice seeds," explains Henry Koroma.

Fortunately, CORAF had anticipated the situation. "Famine was imminent, so CORAF's response came at just the right time," recalls Dr Ernest Asiedu, Head of the West African Seed Program (WASP) to Food Tank. We established links with all the countries in the region and mapped out the route for transporting these seeds from AfricaRice. CORAF and a number of regional partners have developed the Ebola Seed Initiative to provide seed to countries affected by the virus, and communicated efforts to strengthen regional seed systems in the future," says Dr Asiedu.

Supported by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the World Bank, the initiative found specific seed varieties for the affected areas, tested them for quality and transported them across international borders. "Mapping was very important", stresses E. Asiedu, explaining that the team took into account ''factors such as the type of soil in an area and the varieties preferred by the people''. ''We then distributed rice, maize and cowpea seeds from across the region for the 2015 cropping season, as well as supporting the production of new seeds for the following year's harvest, while the World Food Program provided rice and cereals for farmers to save their seeds''.

At the border between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, trucks loaded with cowpea seeds from Niger were held up for a month and a half". Added to this are other difficulties. In some places, the trucks found it very difficult to use the mountainous roads. They had to be unloaded to facilitate their movement and then reloaded. It was very difficult", says Asiedu.

Despite these challenges, CORAF reports that the Ebola Initiative produced more than 12,600 tons of certified seed between 2015 and 2016. In 2015, the Initiative reached more than 240,000 people with seeds covering some 110,000 hectares. Given that the Initiative also helped increase seed supply in 2016 in the three beneficiary countries, estimates for the same year were even higher. "I had to struggle with my five children through hard times; we consumed all the grain that was left, and I had sold my clothes to make ends meet," explains Mama Isata Mansaré, These seeds are like a rebirth. I'm going to grow and do business after the harvest," she says.

The initiative demonstrates the role that regional seed systems and the coordinated efforts of different organizations can play in ensuring that farmers receive the help they need during crises. "It shows very clearly that human beings, if we work together, can solve any problem, it gives us hope," says Dr. Moses M. Zinnah, Liberia's Minister of Agriculture.

"We need to put systems in place to avoid these kinds of disasters" Even in showing how organizations can respond to regional crises, the lessons learned from the initiative can help point the way forward. "We have experienced solidarity in crisis," Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Executive Director of CORAF, tells Food Tank. "We now think we know how to handle this, but it will be much wiser for us to be prepared from now on. And we can reap global partnerships for that."