Bioversity

by Ronnie Vernooy

Upstream and downstream, the operations of CGIAR centers face a range of policy challenges related to genetic resources. Upstream, a new research focus on developing technologies that can be taken forward by private companies requires striking a balance between providing incentives for private-sector engagement and maintaining maximum public availability for the goods that the centers develop. Downstream, greater involvement with formal and informal seed systems at the national level, to produce and distribute quality seed, depends on national level policies (and their absence) that can determine the success of these activities.

In our survey for the report Flows under stress: Availability of plant genetic resources in times of climate and policy change, we found that centers generally did not face significant challenges in getting access to proprietary technology from companies and research institutions. Instead, most difficulties arose where the centers provide technologies to private sector companies. Read more »

By Jeremy Cherfas

When it comes to climate change and agriculture, almost all you hear about is the impact on short-lived crops, arable and horticultural. What about perennial tree crops? A newly published literature review shows that farmers are already feeling – and responding to – the effects of climate change on tropical trees.

What do you do when your mango trees – which took 15 years to start bearing fruit, and which have a good 50 years ahead of them – give up on you? Bioversity researchers decided to ask farmers. Progressive farmers, they found, are cutting out branches that aren’t bearing fruit and grafting new varieties onto their trees. Read more »

by Prem Narain Mathur, Bioversity International

Climate change is likely to profoundly affect production in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, which, in turn, can have serious consequences for food security in South Asia. Bioversity International, with support from CCAFS, is working with partners in India and Nepal to address this by exploring means of strengthening the link between researchers and local farmers in the context of adaptation to climate risks; exploring effective means of introducing new adapted landraces and varieties in the context of social and cultural barriers; and understanding local seed systems for adaptation under changing production constraints. Read more »

 by Jeremy Cherfas, Bioversity International.

A new climate change tool will not only help farmers to prepare for the future, it may also spur implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Although 127 countries rushed to ratify the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, far fewer have implemented it in national law. The reasons are many, and one that comes up often is that lawmakers don’t actually understand its importance. A planning meeting for a new Bioversity project, Strengthening National Capacities to Implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, funded by the Dutch government, heard this over and over again from representatives of the eight countries taking part in the project. But the meeting also heard about a new tool that could help to raise awareness - the Climate Analogue Tool.

Read more »