Realizing Farmers’ Rights through Community-based Agricultural Biodiversity Management

Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture addresses Farmers’ Rights and recognizes the crucial role that smallholder farmers collectively play in maintaining the global pool of plant genetic resources. Strengthening and supporting women and men smallholder farmers and their communities to manage agricultural biodiversity effectively promotes food and seed security, sustainable livelihoods, and resilience. This is best achieved through a community-based approach that is responsive to local conditions and builds on traditional knowledge and practices of farming communities. Native agricultural genetic resources have been generally under-valued, therefore, some initiatives have been taken through Global In-situ agrobiodiversity project joinly implemented by NARC, LI-BIRD and Bioversity International since 1997 in Nepal for conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity on-farm.