Implementing the Agricultural Programme of Work: The Contribution of Bioversity International and its Partners

Since the adoption of the Programme of Work on Agricultural Biodiversity in 2000 (Decision V/5, annex 5), there has been a substantial expansion of work on the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity throughout the world. This pamphlet describes the results of a range of collaborative initiatives in over 30 countries, in all regions of the world, involving institutes, organizations, communities and farmers working with Bioversity International. The work focused on the maintenance and use of and the conservation of crop wild relatives and has contributed directly to all four elements of the Programme of Work—assessment, adaptive management, capacity building and mainstreaming—and also to the International Initiative on Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (Decision VIII/23 A, annex). We thank the many international, national and local organizations, farmers and communities throughout the world that have worked with us over the past few years. They have generously shared their experience, knowledge and ideas to implement the collaborative programmes whose results are described in this document.

Bioversity International Via dei Tre Denari, 472/a 00057 Maccarese Rome, Italy Tel: (39)0661181 Email: bioversity@.org Fax: (39)0661979661 www.bioversityinternational.org Women farmers in Nepal share knowledge on composting techniques (B. Sthapit/Bioversity International). Programme element 1: maintenance. Complementary work Crop wild relatives are a vital Assessments in eight African countries (Benin, source of useful traits that can be Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, used to improve crops so they While traditional crop varieties Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe) has can meet the needs of the world’s continue to constitute an essential confirmed and emphasized the value growing population and can cope part of the production system in of adopting assessment procedures with challenges such as climate many parts of the world, a measure that include traditional knowledge and change. Supported by the Global of the amount of diversity maintained that use participatory approaches. Environment Facility, Bioversity in this way is still largely lacking. To Home gardens provide and partners developed and tested address this gap a global partnership microenvironments for the methods to assess the status and working in eight countries (Burkina conservation of a wide variety of conservation needs of crop wild Faso, Ethiopia, Hungary, Mexico, useful species. It is not uncommon relatives in five countries—Armenia, Morocco, Nepal, Peru and Vietnam) to find more than 100 plant species Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka developed and tested globally in a single garden. Assessments of and Uzbekistan—in centres of applicable diversity indicators for the amount of diversity maintained diversity that contain large numbers 27 different crop species. The work in home gardens in Cuba, Ghana, of important crop relatives. The confirmed that considerable diversity Guatemala, Nepal, Venezuela, and methods have been tested on 37 of a wide range of crops is still Vietnam demonstrated that home genera in these countries and priority maintained on farm in many different gardens also provide for effective conservation actions have been farming systems. The empirically maintenance of genetic diversity as identified. derived linear relationship between well as species diversity, despite the An internet site—www. variety richness and evenness, small population size of a species cropwildrelatives.org—has been found at both household and in any one garden. Indeed, a small established by a partnership between community level, provides a basis sample of Cuban home gardens was the five countries and several for establishing national and global found to contain amounts of bean international organizations (BGCI, indicators of crop diversity. The diversity similar to that conserved BLE, FAO, IUCN, UNEP-WCMC) results underscore the importance in the country’s national ex situ under the leadership of Bioversity and of small-scale farmers in diversity germplasm collection. with the support of UNEP-GEF. The portal gives access to information from a wide range of international 2.0 sources, including GBIF and SINGER, as well as from national and international partners. Y = 0.13 + 1.19 * X SINGER—the System-wide Information Network for Genetic 1.5 Resources—is the germplasm information exchange network of the CGIAR and its partners. Through its website, SINGER provides access to available information on more 1.0 than 600 000 accessions of crops, forages and agroforestry species maintained in trust in the CGIAR’s genebanks under the auspices of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic LN Farm richness (=Y) 0.5 Resources for Food and Agriculture. SINGER was developed, and is maintained, through the CGIAR’s System-wide Genetic Resources Programme, which is hosted by Bioversity International. 0.0 To assist in analyzing the kind 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 of diversity data that can be LN Farm Simpson index (=X) obtained from SINGER, CIAT, IRRI and Bioversity jointly developed Richness – the most important diversity statistic for conservation – is difficult to measure accurately, but is closely related to evenness, which is much easier to measure. Black circles denote main staple DIVA-GIS (http://www.diva-gis.org). crops, grey circles denote other crops. Source: Jarvis et al., 2008. This free mapping programme can

 Mechanisms such as Community Biodiversity Registers, which record details of the crops grown by farmers in a village, can play an important part in this. Diversity fairs are popular in many parts of the world as a way of sharing information and exchanging local varieties and strengthening local knowledge of available materials. Farmer Field Fora, which can provide a framework for comparing and testing both new and traditional materials, have been successfully tested in Mali and other parts of West Africa. These different elements all contribute to the development of more effective community-based biodiversity management approaches, which are central to long-term maintenance of crop diversity in situ. SINGER homepage Informal systems remain a major source of seed for millions of farmers be used for a variety of purposes, to resources and markets is difficult. throughout the world and are an including identifying diversity High levels of diversity are also important way of maintaining crop ‘hotspots’ and predicting species characteristic of home gardens, where diversity within production systems. distributions. production is optimized in small areas. Maintenance by farmers of their own Knowledge of existing crop seed, exchanges between neighbours diversity and the ways in which and relatives, gifts and local market Programme element 2: it can be used plays a key part sales all play a large part in ensuring Adaptive management in the maintenance of diversity. that locally adapted varieties remain

The maintenance of high levels of crop genetic diversity, based largely on traditional varieties, continues to meet the livelihood needs of resource poor farmers in many parts of the world. Understanding when, where and how farmers maintain diversity, who manages the diversity and why it is maintained has been central to the work Bioversity has undertaken with partners around the world. Crop diversity helps avoid risk of crop failure, increases cropping stability, improves resilience, helps to manage pest and disease problems and enhances and nutritional wellbeing. It generates income, meets cultural and religious needs, optimizes land use and provides for adaptation to changing environmental conditions. High levels of crop diversity commonly occur in areas where production is particularly demanding, where the environment is particularly variable and where access Community Biodiversity Registers can play an important role in maintaining crop diversity (LIBIRD, Nepal).

 Who: Nodal farmers in Nepal

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Participatory plant breeding aimed at improving local crop varieties can contribute to the maintenance of local crop diversity. In Nepal it was used to develop a new improved rice variety—Pokhareli Jethobudho— based on a traditional high-quality aromatic variety but with improved resistance to leaf and neck blast. The nutritional benefits of useful plant diversity are increasingly recognized. Work on African leafy vegetables in Botswana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda has enabled conservation workers to come together with nutritionists and others to find ways of stimulating the use of nutritionally rich dark green leafy vegetables, which can play a role in reducing the occurrence of xeropthalmia and other deficiency diseases. In Nairobi, Kenya, sales of traditional leafy vegetables increased by 1100% in two years following work by Bioversity in collaboration with AVRDC, Kenyan local NGOs, Farm Concern International and the Rural Outreach Program. Leafy vegetables are just one of a large group of species that are neglected and underutilized in modern agriculture. These crops— which include Andean grains and tubers, some tropical fruits and Preparing a nutritious meal based on leafy vegetables, Kenya (P. Maundu/Bioversity International). many pulses, vegetables, minor oil

 crops and others—can play a crucial part in maintaining diversity and adaptability in production systems, meeting nutritional needs, supporting production in marginal areas and providing income to poor farmers. Bioversity is currently working with Bolivia, India, Peru, Yemen and other countries to secure and stimulate production of these crops. Home gardens not only maintain an astonishing richness of useful species, they often serve as refuges for crops and crop cultivars that were once more widespread in the wider agroecosystem. Work in Cuba, Ghana, Guatemala, Nepal and Vietnam showed that home gardens help to preserve the function and resilience of the wider agroecosystem and that differentiation through their multi-storey, multi-species microenvironments can increase the overall productivity of these Home gardens maintain an astonishing richness of plant species (P. Eyzaguirre/Bioversity International). agroecosystems. Maintenance of agricultural biodiversity depends on an to see that its work improves this strategies and methodologies for in appropriate economic and policy function of agricultural biodiversity in situ conservation, sustainable use framework. Substantial progress has agroecosystems. A major GEF project and management of agricultural been made in understanding the with China, Ecuador, Morocco and biodiversity. The approaches used economic factors that can support Uganda is testing ways of improving aim to strengthen local decision- maintenance of local crop diversity use of genetic diversity in traditional making processes and emphasize and practices have been identified varieties to reduce pest and disease local governance in the conservation that can help farmers obtain better problems in crops as diverse as and use of community biodiversity returns from the diversity they barley, rice, beans and . resources. Capacity building maintain. The entry into force of the currently constitutes a key part of a International Treaty on Plant Genetic UNEP-GEF–supported agricultural Resources for Food and Agriculture Programme element 3: biodiversity project in Central Asia provides a unique opportunity for Capacity Building involving Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, the development of appropriate Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and national policies that support both Capacity building is embedded Uzbekistan. crop diversity maintenance and the in all the work undertaken by Programmes in many partner maintenance of other agricultural Bioversity and its partners to countries have included training on biodiversity, including livestock, fish, improve maintenance and use of the use of Community Biodiversity soil organisms and pollinators. The agrobiodiversity. It has included both Registers, the development and Genetic Resources Policy Initiative, community-centred, participatory operation of community genebanks, implemented by Bioversity in approaches and more traditional the management of home gardens partnership with Egypt, Nepal, Peru, training of change agents such as and cultivation and use of nutritionally Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia, is conservation workers, agricultural beneficial neglected and underutilized finding ways to ensure that countries researchers, extension workers, crops. Participatory variety selection are in a position to develop policies policy-makers and civil society and participatory plant breeding for maintaining crop, forage and activists. programmes have also included agroforestry diversity. Community-centred approaches, substantial training elements targeting Crop genetic diversity can building on indigenous knowledge local communities, farmers and civil contribute significantly to reducing systems, have aimed at enhancing society organizations and are already damage by pests and diseases. the capacity of indigenous and local producing improved materials through Bioversity is increasingly concerned communities to adopt and implement the Central Asian work.

 Innovative partnerships with needs by providing information, the improved traditional rice variety, farmers, extension workers and identifying the contribution of Pokhareli Jethobudho, mentioned universities in Burkina Faso, Mali agrobiodiversity to major global above. and Niger have supported the issues and promoting research. Policy implementation is a central empowerment of Sahelian farmers More traditional capacity building part of effective mainstreaming. The to leverage their crop diversity activities have included development Genetic Resources Policy Initiative assets for enhanced livelihood of: aims to strengthen the capacity strategies. The creation of strong • A module entitled ‘Seed Handling of developing countries to design farmer networks in these three in Genebanks: a Self-learning comprehensive policy frameworks countries and in nine other Asian, Module’ intended to help for genetic resources. GRPI works Latin American and sub-Saharan genebank technicians strengthen with partners in Egypt, Nepal, Peru, African countries has supported their knowledge and capacity to Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. active exchange of information and manage diversity in genebanks. Through its efforts, national level experiences on management of local • ‘A Training Guide for In Situ multi-stakeholder, multidisciplinary biodiversity. Conservation On-farm’, which and multi-sectoral committees Global partnerships, such as provides a set of approaches that and platforms have been created the Global Facilitation Unit for can be used to understand the to develop genetic resources Underutilized Species (GFU) and important characteristics of on- policies within the framework of the the Platform for Agrobiodiversity farm diversity maintenance within International Treaty on Plant Genetic Research, support collaboration an area or community. Resources for Food and Agriculture. among stakeholders from a wide Appropriate policy training range of organizations who work on modules have been prepared different aspects of the conservation Programme element 4: which include a ‘training of trainers’ and use of agrobiodiversity. With Mainstreaming learning module entitled ‘Law other institutions, including and Policy of Relevance to the Wageningen University, the GFU While mainstreaming has not been a Management of Plant Genetic has supported a number of training core element of Bioversity’s work with Resources’. More than 5000 copies courses on the maintenance and its partners, a number of activities of this module have been distributed, use of underutilized species. The in the past few years have begun with training delivered in more than Platform seeks to enhance the to contribute to this objective of the 20 countries in five regions—the sustainable management and use of CBD programme of work. An obvious Pacific and Oceania, Asia, Latin agrobiodiversity for meeting human example is the formal release of America, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. There is a growing interest in initiatives for the conservation of agricultural biodiversity, including interest in farmer-based conservation initiatives. Awareness has been promoted through the production of national and regional films, newsletters and agrobiodiversity fairs organized to sensitize local communities. In the formal education sector, best practices include development of school and university curricula that address the use of diversity in agriculture. Agrobiodiversity conservation has been introduced as a topic within the education system of four countries. A major public awareness campaign that will improve awareness of the value of agricultural biodiversity in Armenia, Egypt, India, Italy, Kenya, Peru and The Philippines has been prepared and will be launched in Young girls learning to cook maya nut, Brosimum alicastrum (E. Vohman). May 2008.

 Concluding comments Securing Livelihoods in Dryland Acronyms Areas. Earthscan, UK. Contributions to the CBD’s • Jarvis DI, Padoch C, and Cooper AVRDC The World Vegetable Center programme of work on agricultural HD, 2007 (Eds.). Managing BLE German Federal Agency for biodiversity have involved a variety Biodiversity in Agricultural Agriculture and Food of partners including farmers, Ecosystems., Columbia University BGCI Botanic Gardens communities, NGOs, national Press, NY. Conservation International organizations and international • Jarvis DI, Brown AHD, Pham CBD Convention on Biological institutions, as well as Bioversity Hung Cuong, Collado-Panduro L, Diversity International. Two important Latournerie-Moreno L et al. 2008. A CGIAR Consultative Group on elements, both of key importance in global perspective of the richness International Agricultural the ecosystem approach of the CBD, and evenness of traditional crop- Research are the recognition of the importance variety diversity maintained by CIAT International Center for of collaboration between partners farming communities. PNAS 105: Tropical Agriculture from the formal and informal sectors 5326-5331. Available on line at FAO Food and Agriculture and the recognition that there must www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/ Organization of the United be a multidisciplinary approach—that pnas.0800607105 Nations genetic, agronomic, ecological, social, • Smale M (Ed.), 2005.Valuing crop GBIF Global Biodiversity economic and other expertises are biodiversity: On Farm Genetic Information Facility all required to develop understanding Resources and Economic Change. GEF Global Environment Facility of the maintenance of agricultural CABI Publishing GFU Global Facilitation Unit for diversity. Collaborative management • Subedi A, Chaudhary P, Baniya B, Underutilized Species frameworks help formalize Rana R, Tiwari RK, Rijal D, Jarvis D GRPI Genetic Resources Policy partnerships with national and and Sthapit B. 2003. Who maintains Initiative international bodies and have enabled genetic diversity and how? Policy IRRI International Rice Research development of multi-institutional, implications for agrobiodiversity Institute multidisciplinary work. management. In: Gauchan D, IUCN World Conservation Union Future work will undoubtedly Sthapit BR and Jarvis DI, editors, NGO non-governmental strengthen some elements and Agrobiodiversity Conservation On- organization include new ones. Key issues are farm: Nepal's Contribution to a SINGER System-wide Information likely to be a greater emphasis on Scientific Basis for National Policy Network for Genetic functional aspects of agricultural Recommendations. IPGRI, Rome, Resources biodiversity, relating crop diversity Italy. pp. 24–26. UNEP United Nations Environment maintenance to the rest of the Programme agricultural ecosystem and building UNEP- United Nations Environment stronger partnerships with the private Useful web addresses WCMC Programme–World sector and farmer organizations. Conservation Monitoring However, a central concern will • Bioversity International Centre continue to be to work with www.bioversityinternational.org partners to carry out the research • For information on crop wild that will generate the knowledge relatives see http://www. base needed to maintain and use cropwildrelatives.org agricultural biodiversity ever more • For recent Bioversity publications effectively. on access and benefit-sharing see http://www.bioversityinternational. org/Themes/Policy_and_Law/ Further reading Access_and_Benefit_Sharing/ index.asp • Eyzaguirre, PB and Linares, OF • Global Facilitation Unit for (Eds.), 2004. Home Gardens and Underutilized Species Agrobiodiversity. Smithsonian http://www.underutilized-species. Institution. org/default.asp. • Geneflow – a publication about • Genetic Resources Policy Initiative agricultural biodiversity (annual, http://www.grpi.org Bioversity International) • Platform for Agrobiodiversity • Giuliani A, 2007. Developing Research http://www. Markets for Agrobiodiversity: agrobiodiversityplatform.org

 About Bioversity International

Bioversity International is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to improve the well-being of present and future generations of people by enhancing conservation and the deployment of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. It is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. Bioversity has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The Institute operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships, and Commodities for Livelihoods.

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Map of Bioversity International offices