Facilitating small-scale farmers access to diverse seeds of traditional small grains varieties and landraces, and providing support to sustainable use and conservation of local small grains resources

In June 2020, the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Serbia, and the Institute for Plant Genetic Resources, Bulgaria, in cooperation with other national and local organizations, started implementing the project " Redesigning the exploitation of small grains genetic resources towards increased sustainability of grain-value chain and improved farmers’ livelihoods in Serbia and Bulgaria - - GRAINEFIT." The project aims to increase on-farm small grains crop diversity, contribute to food security and enhance resilience to climate change by collecting, multiplying, evaluating, maintaining, and facilitating the adoption, access, and exchange of farmers’ seeds. The core components of the project include the collection of small grains genetic resources from farms, institutes’ collections, and gene banks, as well as local traditional knowledge on crop management and use; seed multiplication, characterization, and evaluation of the small grains genetic resources, among others. Key outcomes of the project include: collection, multiplication, characterization, and evaluation of 141 local landraces and traditional varieties, and the establishment of firm linkages and cooperation between farmers, researchers, and national and local community gene banks is one of the key outcomes. The main lesson learned is that the involvement of farmers conserving and using PGRFA is important in raising awareness of the importance of farm diversification, plant genetic resources, and farmers’ rights.