“Reinforcing the resilience of poor rural communities in the face of food insecurity, poverty and climate change through on-farm conservation of local agrobiodiversity”

This is the title of the new Project Bioversity and its partners in India, Nepal and Bolivia, will be launching in June 2011.

Threshing minor millets in India: traditional operations which are currently poorly effective can be improved with great benefits for the farmers who are encouraged to use these resources and contribute to their on farm conservation (Credit: S. Padulosi)

The 2010 FAO State of the World Report II on PGRFA depicts an alarming and worrying situation with regard to the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity: despite considerable progress made on ex situ conservation, very limited efforts are on record for curbing the genetic and cultural erosion taking place on farm and severely affecting the sustenance of local crops and varieties. Furthermore, international policy instruments in support of agrobiodiversity, such as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, are currently focusing mainly on crops of Annex I of the International Treaty for PGRFA, thus excluding de facto thousands of other nutritious (and in many cases endangered) crops and varieties from being properly safeguarded, conserved and promoted for their effective use.

The Programme will be implemented in Latin America (Bolivia) and in South Asia (Nepal and India) and will be pursuing three main objectives:

1. the development of tools to map out diversity and assess values, threats and competitiveness of local crops of relevance to the rural poor within a climate change context;
2. the dissemination of tools, mechanisms, approaches to enhance capacities of stakeholders in conserving diversity on farm and
3. the exploration of policy options and collaborative frameworks at national and international levels aimed at strengthening pro-poor on-farm conservation. Ultimately, these efforts will aim at mainstreaming agro-biodiversity into conservation and use practices and in so doing enhance the preparedness of farmers and value chain actors against climate change.

For more information contact email hidden; JavaScript is required and to read a more extensive write up see the post on PAR web site