Making access and benefit sharing work for family farmers and agroecology

CALL FOR PAPERS

In a forthcoming special issue of the magazine “Farming Matters,” ILEIA in collaboration with Bioversity will explore if and how access and benefit sharing related to plant genetic resources can work for family farmers and agroecology. The publication will primarily be based on experiences of family farmers from around the world and aims to inform farmers and practitioners, researchers, civil society, and policy makers. It will be published in collaboration with Bioversity International. Topics of interest include: linking ABS issues with  in-situ agricultural diversity  conservation and use, dynamic partnerships and projects linking in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable use,  promotion of  farmers’ and indigenous peoples’ access to genetic resources and know-how, use of community protocols for ABS, management of biocultural landscapes, biopiracy prevention, promotion and recognition of farmers and indigenous peoples in natural resource management decision-making, climate change adaptation, poverty alleviation, training of farmers to take advantage of the ITPGRFA, and participatory plant breeding.

For the full text of the call, see the web announcement here or at http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/get-involved/participate/call-for-contributions-access-and-benefit-sharing-can-it-work-for-family-farmers-and-agroecology

We encourage you to submit an article together with research partners!

New publication: Toolkit for the indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes

Toolkit for Indicators of Resilience

Toolkit for the Indicators of Resilience

This toolkit, available on the Bioversity International website provides practical guidance for making use of the “Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS)” in the field. The indicators are a tool for engaging local communities in adaptive management of the landscapes and seascapes in which they live. By using the tested methods presented in this toolkit, communities can increase their capacity to respond to social, economic, and environmental pressures and shocks, to improve their environmental and economic conditions, thus increasing the social and ecological resilience of their landscapes and seascapes, and ultimately make progress towards realizing a society in harmony with nature.

The approach presented here is centred on holding participatory “assessment workshops”. These involve discussion and a scoring process for the set of twenty indicators designed to capture communities’ perceptions of factors affecting the resilience of their landscapes and seascapes. The participants in these workshops are members of the local community and stakeholders in the local area. Their participation allows them to evaluate current conditions across the landscape and identify and reach agreement on priority actions, contributing to enhanced communication among stakeholders and empowered local communities. Workshops may be planned and implemented by people from within or outside the community. The guidance provided in this toolkit is primarily intended for organizers and facilitators of resilience assessment workshops.

Read our previous post on the co-management of pastoral lands in Mongolia.  Mongolia was one of the case study countries in which the toolkit was tested and refined. This work was coordinated by Dr H. Ykhanbai and Ronnie Vernooy..

Announcement: Climate-Smart Agriculture Conference

We are pleased to circulate this announcement for the Climate-Smart Agriculture 2015 Global Science Conference, 16-18 March 2015, Montpellier, France.

Climate smart agriculture is a way to achieve short and long term agricultural development priorities in the face of climate change and serve as an integrator to other development priorities. It seeks to support countries and other actors in securing the necessary policy, technical and financial conditions to enable them to:

– Sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes in order to meet national food security and development goals
– Build resilience and the capacity of agricultural and food systems to adapt to climate change;
– Seek opportunities to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases and increase carbon sequestration.

Submit abstracts by 30 November 2014. Early bird registration by 31 December 2014.

Opportunity: International course on Integrated Seed Sector Development

We are pleased to circulate this announcement from Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation on their International course on Integrated Seed Sector Development, Wageningen, the Netherlands, 18 May – 5 June 2015.

Fellowships available – apply before 21 October 2014.

Creating vibrant, market oriented and pluralistic seed sectors
Seed is an essential input for crop production. Access of farmers to affordable quality seed of superior varieties is key in increasing agricultural production and productivity. Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) recognizes that farmers obtain their seed from different sources or systems, and builds programmes upon a diversity of seed systems. ISSD programmes strengthen farmer and community based seed systems, businesses operating at local and national level, but also engage in partnerships with international companies producing seed or providing seed related services. In addition ISSD works on institutional bottlenecks and strengthens seed sector governance. Supporting the development of a vibrant and pluralistic seed sector can substantially contribute to increasing food security and prosperity in developing countries. Continue reading

Formation sur les systèmes de semences robustes face aux changements climatiques

Ouagadougou, 26 au 28 mai 2014

Par Koffi Emmanuel Kassin et Edmond Koffi

Du 26 au 28 mai 2014, nous avons pris part à atelier de formation sur les systèmes de semences robustes face aux changements climatiques organisé par l’INERA et Bioversity International à Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Cet atelier s’inscrit dans le cadre du renforcement de capacités nationales pour la mise en œuvre du Traité International sur les Ressources Phytogénétiques pour l’Alimentation et l’Agriculture (TIRPGAA). Ont pris part à cette formation une vingtaine de participants (chercheurs, enseignants chercheurs et étudiants) venus de la Côte d’Ivoire et du Burkina Faso.

Participants de l'atelier Photo: Ronnie Vernooy

Participants de l’atelier
Photo: Ronnie Vernooy

Trois objectifs étaient assignés à cette rencontre. Il s’agissait d’une part, d’initier les participants aux outils du Système d’Information Géographique (SIG) pour la recherche de ressources phytogénétiques dans un contexte de changements climatiques, d’autre part de les familiariser à l’utilisation des outils SIG à travers des exercices pratiques à partir des données provenant des pays respectifs et enfin d’identifier les étapes prochaines pour l’application des outils dans des projets de recherche au Burkina Faso et en Côte d’Ivoire. La formation a été dispensée par Ronnie Vernooy de Bioversity International (Rome) et Gloria Otieno de Bioversity international Uganda avec l’appui de Sognigbe N’Danikou de Bioversity International Benin. Outre les chercheurs du CNRA, l’équipe de la Côte d’Ivoire comprenait deux enseignants chercheurs : Dr DIBI Pauline et Dr Koné Moussa de l’UFR Géographie Tropicale de l’Université Félix Houphouët Boigny.

Le programme de l’atelier d’une durée de trois jours s’est articulé autour de 4 points essentiels : 1. Introduction au cycle de recherche sur les systèmes de semences robustes face aux changements climatiques; 2. Acquisition, préparation des données d’accession et installation des logiciels; 3. Initiation aux outils DIVA-GIS et Analogue climatique; 4. Exercice de groupe.

DIVA-GIS et Analogue climatique

DIVA-GIS qui est un logiciel gratuit de cartographie sur internet. Initiation à DIVA-GIS a porté sur comment : élaborer des cartes de distribution à différentes échelles de la diversité biologique ; extraire les données climatiques des points de collecte des accessions ; prédire la présence d’espèces en fonction du climat actuel (1970-2000) et futur (2020-2050) en utilisant BIOCLIM. Avec l’outil « Analogue climatique » nous avons fait des simulations de changements climatiques, afin d’identifier les ressources adaptées à chaque type de scenario. En effet, cet outil est efficace pour : – prévoir l’agriculture de demain ; – déterminer des sites analogues actuels et futurs à partir de 19 indices bioclimatiques.

L’exercice de groupe a consisté à vérifier les connaissances acquises lors de la phase précédente. Ainsi, les participants ont été répartis en trois groupes dont deux pour le Burkina Faso et 1 pour la Cote d’Ivoire. Chaque équipe a eu à travailler sur les données nationales pour produire des cartes de répartition des accessions en fonction des zones climatiques et déterminer des sites analogues actuels et futurs. Les travaux des différentes équipes ont été présentés puis critiqués avant la clôture de l’atelier.

 

Participants de Côte d’Ivoire Photo: Ronnie Vernooy

Participants de Côte d’Ivoire
Photo: Ronnie Vernooy

Apprentissages

Au cours de la formation, avons vu quelques aspects de l’utilisation des outils SIG. Toutefois, ils peuvent contribuer à mettre à jour les informations sur les sites de collecte des ressources phytogénétiques, réaliser un plan de la diversité des cultures au niveau global ou par pays, analyser et caractériser la diversité des ressources phytogénétiques ou faire une analyse complémentaire de la biodiversité pour la combinaison de traits et enfin identifier les sites correspondants potentiels pour la culture de variétés dans des conditions de stress biotiques et abiotiques.

Ces outils peuvent également permettre de faire une classification des collections basées sur le critère de l’adaptation climatique, fournir des informations climatiques (pluie mensuelle, température minimale et maximale) pour les sites de collecte individuels, élaborer des cartes climatiques de divers paramètres climatiques et leurs combinaisons. Ils peuvent également permettre de définir des lignes directrices pour développer des stratégies de collecte de nouvelles collections ainsi que pour la re-collecte du matériel génétique.

Ces outils apparaissent indispensables pour les chercheurs, particulièrement les sélectionneurs et les gestionnaires des ressources phytogénétiques. Une restitution à l’attention de ces sélectionneurs ainsi que des géographes et de tous ceux qui sont impliqués dans des travaux touchant au changement climatique s’avère nécessaire en vue d’une plus large diffusion de ces outils et d’une dissémination étendue des connaissances dans ce domaine.

 

 

 

 

Custodian farmers: policy and legal support

Custodian farmers are recognized for their contributions to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity

Custodian farmers are recognized for their contributions to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Photo credit: R Vernooy\Bioversity International.

Ronnie Vernooy recently attended a workshop on Custodian Farmers of Agricultural Biodiversity: Policy support for their roles in use and conservation, in New Delhi, India, 11-12 February 2013. Ronnie gave a presentation on supporting the custodians of biodiversity, highlighting options for policy and legal support in four areas: recognition of conservation efforts; protection of farmer knowledge; taking part in benefit-sharing; and participation in decision making.

For more information, see Bioversity International website.

Science Seminar: Who has a right to climate change adaptation? Social differentiation in promoting climate resilience

On 18 February, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is organising a seminar (in Copenhagen and streamed live through the CCAFS website) which will explore the social dimensions of climate change: how development programming needs to embrace resilience, the transformative cornerstones of social science research for climate change, and gender and social differentiation in building agricultural climate resilience.  Read more.

Policy brief on sustainable use of plant genetic resources

 new strategies and partnerships for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources

Policy brief on new strategies and partnerships for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources

Bioversity International’s Policy Unit has developed a policy brief on new strategies and partnerships for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources.  The brief was presented to the Ad Hoc Technical Committee on the Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA)of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture when they met recently to develop their programme of work.

The brief uses case studies to show how farmers and community organizations are successfully collaborating with research organizations to strengthen diverse agricultural systems, including informal seed systems,  conserve and improve traditional crop varieties, and facilitate improved access to genetic diversity.  Read more. Download the PDF

Access and benefit sharing debated

First session of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Ad Hoc Technical Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

FAO CGRFA Working Group on ABS, Svalbard, Norway, 11-13 September 2012. Credit: R Vernooy/Bioversity

Report by Ronnie Vernooy

From 11-13 September 2012, about 60 delegates and observers came together in the town of Longyearbyen, Norway – better known as  the location of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault – to review and discuss appropriate access and benefit sharing modalities and measures for genetic resources for food and agriculture in a number of sub-sectors (forest, animal, aquatic, micro-organisms and invertebrates).   Continue reading