There are several ways of rating community seed banks that show their status. A small grant received from Seed Soil and Culture via Bioversity International developed and tested a new method for rating of community seed banks in Nepal on a 0 to 5-star scale.

This rating scale is useful to evaluate the progress made in the operations and functioning of a community seed bank and encourages community seed banks to think and move ahead.

The method shows the path of progress to be a better-managed community seed bank for quality delivery and better services. With this method, all 23-member community seed banks were assessed.

The main criteria used for rating community seed banks include
• The number of local crop species and varieties conserved,
• The volume of local and improved varieties of seed produced and distributed,
• Quality of the seed they produce and distribute,
• Technical and managerial capacity to manage community seed banks,
• Institutional governance and
• Development of a basis for the sustainability of the institution and community seed banks.

The main objective of the star rating system is to encourage community seed banks to continue upgrading their operations.

Of the total community seed banks assessed, five community seed banks did not get any stars, six community seed banks got one star, seven community seed banks got 2 stars, and three community seed banks got 3 stars.

The 3-star community seed banks were Shivaguj Community Seed Bank, Jhapa; Kachorwa Community Seed Bank, Bara; and Agyauli Community Seed Bank, Nawalparasi. So, CSB Nepal awarded the three 3-star community seed banks with NPR 100,000 each.

The award-recipient community seed banks have procured computers, printers, and photocopy machines to make their day-to-day work more efficient and digitalize the data and information of local varieties they have conserved and their account-keeping system.

The concept of the star rating system of community seed banks was suggested by the late Dr. Bhuwon Ratna Sthapit, one of the founders of LI-BIRD who also worked for Bioversity International for many years as a scientist.