"The support of ECHO has been invaluable not only in providing seeds and gardening information, but also in providing leading edge information that relates to nutrition and other factors that can combat HIV/AIDS and other challenges."

--Hilltop Christian Centre, Rangwe, Kenya

"ECHO is an excellent resouce of information and germplasm. As a researcher and consultant in third world development I encourage all involved in rural development from farmers to researchers to use it as a resource, and to contribute to it."

--Consultant, Working in Nile Basin and Southern Africa

Welcome to the seed bank ministry of ECHO.  Our goal is to serve as a resource for development workers who wish to experiment with underutilized crops as they work to improve the lives of the poor.  We maintain a collection of hard-to-find seeds that thrive under the often difficult growing conditions of the tropics and sub-tropics.

As a seed bank we provide small sample packets of seed to those working on behalf of the poor, particularly in developing countries.  It is our hope that these seeds will be used to evaluate new species that may help alleviate hunger, improve the soil, and produce income in areas where agriculture is difficult.

We hope you will find these pages to be a resource of information as well as seeds. Please take a moment to read about the seed bank and what we have to offer.

PLEASE NOTE: We are now processing requests for seeds through the ECHO Community store (echocommunity.org).

Ordering sample seeds through the ECHO Community store is easy! You can:

• search the online store for a particular item. (If you don't find what you're looking for, please click "contact us" at the top of the page to inquire.)
• select which variety if listed under “item attributes”
• designate your order mailing address – home, work or wherever you choose!