SEARCA Graduate Scholarships are open to applicants from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam who are regular employees of academic, research or government institutions and not more than 35 years old. The topic of research for thesis/dissertation must be in line with SEARCA’s current priority themes:

1) Natural Resources Management
Focuses on management of land and water resources; biodiversity management for food security; and risk assessment and the impacts of climate change on agrobiodiversity

2) Agricultural Competitiveness
Addresses agricultural competitiveness, food security and rural poverty alleviation, natural resources management

Click here to see the universities that qualify for study posts.

Applicants may submit the applications to the respective Ministries of Education of their countries before 30 July 2012.

Click here for the detailed application procedure.

A consortium led by UC Davis with CGIAR partners and the private sector plans to sequence the genomes of neglected African crops, with the ultimate goal of developing “new varieties [...] that are more nutritious, produce higher yields and are more tolerant of environmental stresses, such as drought”. Genomic information generated through the project will be freely available to scientists around the world. Of the US$ 40 million needed by the project, US$7.5 million have already been raised. A list of 96 species has been developed, which will be narrowed to 24 food crops and tree species whose genomes will be sequenced. Candidate species include amaranth, marula, cocoyam, Ethiopian mustard, ground nut tree, African potato, acacia, baobob, matoke bananas, African medlars, African eggplant and Cape tomato. We were intrigued by the latter name but unable to associate it with a taxon. Could this be the pictured Physalis peruviana, a native of South America, which is now globally distributed with much export-oriented production taking place in South Africa under the trade name of Cape Gooseberry?

The Economic and Social Research Council

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) are partnering in a new programme on economic growth in developing countries. The DFID/ESRC Growth Programme will fund scientific research on issues relating to inclusive economic growth in Low Income Countries (LICs), with high potential for impact on policy and practice.

There are three themes under the call, of which the first  is most relevant to the community of researchers of neglected and under-utilised species: Theme 1: Agriculture and Growth. This theme will focus on developing understanding of the relationship between agricultural development and broader economic growth, and on the impact of policies on agricultural productivity. It is widely observed that agriculture is a key sector of many low income countries, and there is broad consensus that policies that stimulate agricultural output and productivity will deliver wider economic benefits, for example via lower food prices, increased food security, improved nutrition and health outcomes, and higher domestic demand for manufactured goods and services.

The Deadline for applications is 26 May 2011. The programme is allocating £8.91M for research projects under this call for proposals.  Minimum proposal value is  £100,000, and it is expected that up to 30 research projects with an average size of £370k will be funded. Proposals need to be submitted  via the UK Research Council’s Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system. For further details about applications, see this articles.

The Paul K. Feyerabend Foundation (PKF) promotes the empowerment and well being of disadvantaged human communities. By strengthening intra and inter-community solidarity the Foundation strives to improve local capacities, promote the respect of human rights and sustain cultural and biological diversity. The Foundation was created in Switzerland in March 2006. It has an international Board of Directors including six members. Since December 2009, the Foundation has supported eleven initiatives and honored seven laureates of the PKF Award.

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.

Information about grants for agriculture and environment projects is fragmented. An internet search often yields incomplete results, even after you spend hours or even days at the computer. Printed and online directories of grant makers are available, but many have to be purchased, and often at a substantial cost. This is where Terra Viva Grants comes in: 

Terra Viva Grants is not a grant giving organization; instead, it develops and manages information about grants for agriculture, energy, environment, and natural resources in the world’s developing countries. On the website, it provides profiles of over 300 grantmakers for the “green” sectors of the developing world and provides information about application deadlines, new and changed grants programs, and other funding news.

For information about green grants for developing countries, visit http://www.terravivagrants.org. To subscribe to a periodic news mailout, contact Terra Viva Grants at email hidden; JavaScript is required.