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.

Crop Wild Relatives and Climate Change – new website

The www.cwrdiversity.org website aims to be a resource for those interested in collecting, conserving and using crop wild relatives (CWR) in the context of adapting agriculture to climate change. The site is providing information on the taxonomy, distribution, conservation status and breeding potential of the wild species in the genepools of 26 crops of major importance to food security that fall under Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. CWR not yet available in genebanks will be collected, conserved, and through prebreeding and evaluation, materials will be prepared for use by plant breeders and farmers.   

The site is the result of cooperation between the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in partnership with national and international crop conservation and use programmes, universities and other research institutions.

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