Read the Maya Nut Institute summer 2010 Newsletter!

Africa's Green Revolution should be built around the needs of its people, says report

This article on Science development Network (www.scidev.net) on a recent UN report seems to cover a lot of relevant ground to us.

Find it by clicking here.

As it mentions “…the challenge is to find, promote and disseminate innovation relevant to African agriculture.”

The following questionnaire is designed to obtain information in the context of Resolution 6/2009 of the Governing Body and to facilitate discussions at the consultation conference. The Secretariat will follow this process and provide information to Contracting Parties accordingly.

Please distribute this questionnaire to organizations and individuals engaged in plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and farmers’ rights – in your own country and abroad. We would also be grateful if all those who are working with farmers take this opportunity to distribute the questionnaire among them, or to convene group consultations among farmers to complete the questionnaire collectively, if appropriate, and send it to us.

We sincerely hope that you will take the time to complete this questionnaire to the best of your capacity, and return it to us.

The final deadline for submission of this questionnaire is 31 August 2010.
Please e-mail the questionnaire to email hidden; JavaScript is required or as fax to (+47) 67 11 19 10.

We will publish the results of this e-mail based part of the consultation by the beginning of November 2010 in the form of a report, with the responses presented region-wise. For more information please visit the website of the Farmers’ Rights Project of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute at (www.farmersrights.org) or contact Tone Winge (email hidden; JavaScript is required).

Oslo, Norway 6 July 2010
Sincerely yours,
(sign.)
Regine Andersen,
Senior Research Fellow and
Director of the Farmers’ Rights Project
Fridtjof Nansen Institute

THE QUESTIONNAIRE
English: http://dgroups.org/?56n6yhjx
French:  http://dgroups.org/?fmcgl3nf
Spanish: http://dgroups.org/?tm9assp9

ABOUT THE TREATY AND THE CONSULTATION
English: http://www.farmersrights.org/about/fr_in_itpgrfa_7.html
French: http://www.farmersrights.org/FR/concernant_traite4.html
Spanish: http://www.farmersrights.org/ES/acerca_tratado4.html

Photo: Luciano Ghersi

A recent study titled “Traditional food crops as a source of community resilience in Zimbabwe” by researchers from Cornell and Rhodes universities and the Sebakwe Black Rhino Conservation Trust found that traditional food crops, such as mubovora (pumpkin) and ipwa (sweet reed), are an important source of community resilience in Zimbabwe—including resilience to climate change and economic turbulence.

Read more here.

After 4.5 years at the helm of ICUC, now CFF, it is now time to say good-bye to the many friends and supporters of underutilized crops and the organisation itself. Over the past years, we have been able to raise the profile of underutilized crops worldwide considerably, although a lot more remains to be done. The most important achievement of the past years is the creation of Crops for the Future from a merger of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops and the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species. This new entity will assist in further increasing the profile of underutilized crops for food security, nutrition and health and environmental sustainability. It will be in good and experienced hands with Dr Michael Hermann, the incoming Global Coordinator of Crops for the Future. With the changes in leadership comes also a change in location. From 1 April 2010 onwards, Crops for the Future will be hosted by Bioversity International, at their Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania, in Serdang, Malaysia. I wish to take this opportunity to explicitly thank the International Water Management Institute for their cordial hosting of ICUC/Crops for the Future for the past 5 years in Sri Lanka. I also wish to thank the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of ICUC and later CFF Board of Directors: Prof. George Rothschild, Dr Ruth Oniang’o, Dr N.G. Hegde, Mr John Palmer, Prof. Frank Rijsberman and Dr Colin Chartres, for their guidance and support. Last but not least, we could not have managed to achieve what we have without the support of the many research and development partners around the world to whom I say an especially warm thank you.

With best wishes,
Dr Hannah Jaenicke

The new coordinates of Crops for the Future are:

Here you can find the first circular with preliminary information about the symposium. Further information including registration, keynote speakers, venue and accommodation will follow shortly. 

 The Symposium website will be live shortly.

FOR ENQUIRIES AND CORRESPONDENCE
Secretariat: Underutilised Plants Symposium 2011
Crops for the Future – beyond food security
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Tel:     +6 (03) 8924 8218
Fax:    +6 (03) 8924 8018
Email:  email hidden; JavaScript is required
or email hidden; JavaScript is required

More information can be found in the document “Specific definition of underutilized species for human consumption”

While reporting upon these indicators, difficulties were encountered in defining underutilized foods. Therefore, FAO and Crops for the Future have developed specific criteria in order to establish the reference list for underutilized foods counting for the nutritional indicators for biodiversity:

Of the following criteria, the first one is compulsory, and several of the others should be met for a species to be included in this list:

• The food was/is/could be used for human consumption.
• May have great potential for contributing to food security and nutrition.
• Mainly local and traditional crops/animals (including insects, amphibians and reptiles) whose distribution, biology, cultivation and uses are poorly documented.
• Receive little attention from research, farmers, policy and decision makers, technology providers and consumers.
• Have weak or no formal seed/animal germplasm supply systems.
• Farmed, reared, gathered or caught in small scale.
• The species must be grown/raised in the country/region where it is underutilized.
  Species that are imported do not count as underutilized in that region.

Furthermore, information on country/region of origin should be given.

These criteria, only intended to be used to report on the two nutrition indicators for biodiversity, should not replace the broad criteria that has been defined for categorizing underutilized species as such (www.underutilized-species.org/spotlight/what_are_underutilized_species.asp).

The integration of these specific criteria and the reference list of underutilized foods counting for food biodiversity will be uploaded on the websites of the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species at www.underutilized-species.org/species/about_species.asp and of the INFOODS at www.fao.org/infoods/biodiversity/index_en.stm.

We would appreciate receiving your comments by email (email hidden; JavaScript is required) within the 20^th March 2010 on both the criteria and the list before publishing them on the websites.

We look forward and thank you!

The deadline for submissions of PKF grant proposals and/or PKF Award nominations for 2010 is 28 February 2010. All projects supported by the Foundation deal with two main issues: community and solidarity. For more information, please consult “Views – Ideas.”

All submissions must be made by a Nominator and not directly. Thus,  if interested please contact the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Secretariat for further details to develop and submit proposals. The Nominators do not write the grant proposals, instead they just receive them, evaluate them and pass them on. For the PKF Award, however, it is a different story.  In these cases, the Nominators fill the form(s) themselves, and not informing the nominees,  and simply direct the form(s) to the Board.

The projects may concern less favoured communities and engage them in a process of solidarity to improve their living conditions, their environment and their rights. They may also attack the social conditions which bring about or perpetuate the lack of solidarity within or between communities. Or again, these projects may concern “non-material” communities centered with solidarity around defending a common good or issue, if this action is relevant to the Foundation’s objectives.

The deadline for all applications is 22 March 2010.

Details and application forms can be downloaded from: http://www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/resource/award.asp

Application forms can also be obtained by writing to: email hidden; JavaScript is required