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

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

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.

 

 

 

 

“Resilient seed systems: tools and techniques for climate change adaptation”

Giving farmers better access to crop and crop varietal diversity will strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate change. Climate and crop modeling tools are increasingly used to project the adaptive capacity of a given crop to the expected changes in climate. The results of these modeling exercises can be used to design strategies to access and use crops and crop varieties that are better adapted to future climate-changes in specific sites. Researchers, genebank managers and farmers could then attempt to gain access to potentially useful plant genetic resources through the multilateral system of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Once obtained, they could evaluate these new plant genetic resources in farmers’ fields.

(Photo: R.Vernooy)

Bioversity International is assisting Bhutanese and Nepali research and development agencies to design and implement a comprehensive capacity building strategy to access and use plant genetic resources in the context of climate change adaptation. The workshop “Resilient seed systems: tools and techniques for climate change adaptation,” held in Thimpu, November 26-28, 2013, aimed to strength the capacity to integrate climate modeling in crop improvement strategies. Topics covered were: identification of farmers’ perceptions of climate change; analysis of climate changes and their impact on seed systems; identification of plant genetic resources that have potential to adapt to identified climate changes; mechanisms for the acquisition of plant genetic resources that have potential to adapt to identified climate changes; and planning of field testing of newly acquired plant genetic resources. 20 participants from Bhutan and 8 from Nepal attended the workshop. GIS tools introduced were DIVA-GIS, MaxEnt, and the climate analogue tool. Resource persons were Prem Mathur, Sarika Mittra, Michael Halewood and Ronnie Vernooy.

Photo: R. Vernooy

 

The workshop was hosted by the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC) of the Ministry of Agricutlure and Forests of Bhutan. The national genebank of Bhutan is located at NBC. A workshop news link can found here: http://www.bbs.bt/news/?p=34226

 

Visiting the NBC. (Photo: R. Vernooy)

GRPI2 mid-term review workshop report available

Report of the GRPI2 mid-term review workshop

The project “strengthening national capacities to implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture” (ITPGRFA) or GRPI2 recently underwent an external mid-term review. A workshop with the external evaluators and project partners from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Bhutan, Nepal and University of Illinois at Chicago, was held at Bioversity International headquarters, Rome, 16-19 July 2013.

The report of the workshop is available from Bioversity International. It summarizes progress made by Bioversity and partners and proposes next steps in project implementation.

Some photos from the workshop (credit: E. Clancy/Bioversity International):

Participatory research and capacity strengthening in East Africa – linking farmers, scientists and policy makers to use crop diversity for climate change adaptation

The threat of climate change has raised concern among scientists as well as farmers as crop growth, agricultural production and subsequently food security could be severely affected by changes in temperature and precipitation which are key to agricultural production.

Participatory research and capacity strengthening in East Africa took place in Uganda in September and involved teams from Uganda and Rwanda consisting of scientists, climate change specialists, GIS specialists, breeders and agricultural extension workers using GIS and other methods to identify germ plasm suited for future climate. As part of the training, scientists were involved in a visit to one of the local community gene banks in Kabwohe – Uganda. In addition, the scientists, using participatory approaches were able to discuss climate change and resilience with bean farmers from three communities in Uganda and Rwanda; and using participatory approaches, discuss and rank farmer varieties fro traits such as drought tolerance, resistance to pests and diseases, yields among others. The communities were from previously selected reference sites in Rwanda (Bugesera and Rubaya) and Uganda (Kabwohe) and two of these communities have community seed banks.  A CSB exchange visit was organized for members of the Rubaya community seed bank from Rwanda bank to visit Kabwohe community seed bank in Uganda for learning experiences as well as to discuss modalities for seed exchange among the two communities. The two gene banks were able to share with each other and with scientists their experiences in conservation and management of their bean diversity.

As a result of this exercise, the two countries have identified germ plasm for climate change adaptation within their  national gene bank collections which they are exchanging using the SMTA. Some of these germ plasm is already being subjected to trials in different agro-ecological zones i.e. in the reference sites. The research teams are also expanding their search for potentially adapted germ plasm to ex situ collections hosted by the CGIAR centers, USDA, and in European countries, and a database of variety evaluation trial results (Ag Trials). The accessions were clustered based on their different climatic variables and crops suitability mapping done to identify accessions that would be suitable for these areas in the year 2050 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Some accessions suitable in reference sites in 2050

 

In addition, through participatory methods with scientists, farmers were able to document their observed changes in climate and weather patterns; their coping mechanisms and the desired traits for germ plasm they would like to have in order to c help them to cope with vagaries of weather an climate. Furthermore farmers identified varieties within their gene banks and further classify them based on their traits, an exercise which facilitated farmer selection of climate resilient varieties for exchange. One emerging challenge is that these materials in community gene banks are not in the MLS and modalities for their exchange have to follow national laws within the two countries. As such these two community gene banks with the help of their respective National Agricultural Research Organizations are working modalities with which these farmers can exchange germ plasm.

 Figure 2: Scientists discuss with farmers their climate vulnerabilities

Adapting to climate change: training workshop for teams of Bhutan and Nepal

By Pashupati Chaudhary, LI-BIRD, Nepal

Agrobiodiversity plays a pivotal role in securing food and nutrition and enhancing resilience of agriculture to climate change. As the climate is becoming more erratic and unpredictable than in the past, it has become increasingly difficult to properly manage agrobiodiversity to sustainably produce food. One of the challenges is the lack of scientific knowledge to predict climate dynamics in particular regions. Another challenge is to develop and deploy crop varieties that are adapted to changing climatic conditions. Climate Analogue Tool (CAT), a recently developed tool by partners of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) programme is a remarkable breakthrough in tackling this problem. CAT can identify a) future climate conditions of a particular location and sites that currently resemble these conditions (b) locations that currently have or in the future will have similar climate conditions, and c) locations that in the future will have current climate conditions of a particular place. Based on careful analyses done using the Climate Analogue Tool and supported by data from actual conditions in farmers’ fields, scientists can identify possible appropriate plant genetic resources, deploy suitable varieties, and develop new varieties for specific locations of interest.

Recently, the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative 2 project, led by Bioversity International, organized a three-day long training workshop on Climate Analogue Tools in order to enhance skills of Nepal and Bhutan project staff in analyzing, interpreting and presenting climate data. 18 scientists, managers, and development professionals representing government organizations, national research programs, gene banks and non-governmental organizations of both countries participated in the training that was facilitated by Bioversity International scientists. 

National kick-off workshop in Guatemala

A market in Guatemala. Photo credit: J Fanzo/Bioversity

by Gea Galluzzi and Isabel Lapeña

The national kick-off workshop for the GRPI2 project “strengthening national capacities to implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture” in Guatemala, took place in Guatemala city, 21-22 March 2013. Participants included the Guatemalan team, national authorities from agriculture, environment, biodiversity, trade and IP and staff from Bioversity International and CCAFS. 

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.

Climate analogues for Rwanda and Uganda – building capacity to exploit the multilateral system

Report by Gloria Otieno, Bioversity-Uganda.

The Climate Analogues Tool, developed by CIAT and CCAFS (CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) identifies areas where current climate corresponds to predicted future climate at a chosen reference site of interest. The use of the tool within Bioversity International’s GRPI2 project should allow partners to identify germplasm from the analogues sites, which could perform well under the future climatic conditions of their reference sites. Germplasm from the identified analogue sites, in or out of the country, can be accessed through the multilateral system created by the International Treaty, by consulting databases such as Genesys. Teams from Rwanda and Uganda took part in a training workshop, from 21-23 November 2012, in Kigali, Rwanda, to learn hands-on about the tool.

CGIAR centres and climate change; new CCAFS working paper

There’s one optimistic conclusion for agriculture under climate change: modelling the future suggests that for many places, the climate they face in 20 or 30 years is already present somewhere on Earth. Farmers and plant scientists can prepare for the future by using something like the Climate Analogues Tool to suggest places to look for crop and varieties that might to some extent be pre-adapted to predicted conditions [http://gismap.ciat.cgiar.org/analogues/].

The next problem, of course, is to access that genetic diversity.

The free movement of the genetic resources themselves and information about them is thus a crucial element in efforts to adapt agriculture to climate change.

A new study of how plant genetic resources move into and out of the CGIAR, carried out for the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program by researchers at Bioversity International and partners, reveals the invisible flows of material and identifies some of the blockages. CGIAR genebanks keep data on the countries accessions come from and the countries that request accessions, and those data are publically available through the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The study reveals that countries are hugely interdependent on one another, and that the multilateral access and benefit-sharing system of the Treaty is enhancing the availability of genetic resources. Some genebanks have sent material to more than 150 countries. And individual countries have received accessions from a similar number of other countries. But there is also troubling evidence that blockages to the flow are becoming more frequent and harder to get around.

CGIAR centres are themselves adapting in response to climate change. Among these changes are closer direct interactions with farmers, national extension services, NGOs and aid agencies and closer cooperation with the private sector. The details of these broader operational strategies, along with the information on flows, can be found in a working paper based on the new study: Flows under stress: availaibility of plant genetic resources in times of climate and policy change, by Isabel López-Noriega, Gea Galluzzi, Michael Halewood, Ronnie Vernooy, Enrico Bertacchini, Devendra Gauchan and Eric Welch. Link to the paper: http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/21225

The main findings of the paper will be summarized in three forthcoming CCAFS blogs which will be posted on September 14, 21, and 28 [http://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog]. The authors welcome comments and observations which can be posted directly on the CCAFS blog. Or alternatively, send them to Ronnie Vernooy, r.vernooy@cgiar.org

GRPI 2 project starts in the Americas. Kick-off workshop in Costa Rica

Story by Gea Galluzzi and Isabel Lapeña

On the 23^rd and 24^th of August 2012 the national kick-off workshop for the project  “Strengthening national capacities to implement the ITPGRFA” took place in Costa Rica, organized by the National Seed Office (ONS), national counterpart of the project. Participants came from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG), the Ministry of Environment, public research centres and genebanks (INTA, CATIE, Universities), NGOs (INBIO), farmer cooperatives and Bioversity International.

Photo by Gea Galluzzi

Walter Quirós from the ONS and president of the National Commission on Plant Genetic introduced the importance of the ITPGRA in general, Costa Rica’s commitments and obligations and the benefits expected for the country. Staff from Bioversity International gave an extensive overview of the ITPGRA, its legal framework and operational mechanisms; as well as on the fundamental steps leading to national level implementation and the role of the project in this direction. Among the most important steps mentioned was the identification of a relevant national authority in charge of access and benefit sharing of PGRFA and the clear identification of national collections automatically included in the MLS. Jorge Cabrera, a legal expert who will assist the national level implementation of the Treaty, gave a detailed overview of the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing under the CBD and its relation to the ITPGRFA.

The second day was dedicated to a short visit to the germplasm collections maintained in CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza) and to a discussion with national researchers around the activities to be carried out under the project’s complementary research themes. The discussion was very fruitful and allowed grounding the research questions outlined in the project in the national context and interests. Concept notes for each theme were refined and research work has been officially initiated.

Prior to the two-day workshop an additional day was devoted to training smaller groups of researchers on specific tools for data gathering and analyses, under specific research themes of the project. One group was trained in the use of the Climate Analogues tool, thanks to the participation of Flora Mer from the CCAFS program. This tool is one of the instruments to be used within a research component on estimating the impacts of climate change on interdependency on PGRFA across regions and countries. Through use of the tool, potentially useful germplasm from analogue sites can be identified which researchers could then access through the Multilateral System. A blog about the training session:

http://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/climate-analogues-arrives-costa-rica-time-pgr-conservation

Another smaller group was trainedion the use of the Sawtooth software for collecting interview data as part of the research component on policy networks. This component aims to identifying key actors, strengths and weaknesses of their relations, and improve the policy making processes with respect to the implementation of the Treaty.

The workshop resulted in participants gaining more knowledge about the project, the International Treaty and its Multilateral System of benefit-sharing and about relations with the Nagoya Protocol. In general, it raised an interest among relevant national stakeholders about conservation and use of PGRFA and set very good basis for fruitful development of the project.