BSF project "Use of genetic resources to establish a multi-country program of evolutionary participatory plant breeding"

" Use of genetic resources to establish a multi-country program of evolutionary participatory plant breeding" is one of the projects supported by the Benefit-Sharing Fund of the International Treaty for Food and Agriculture (Second Cycle). Farmers’ knowledge is being used to support and strengthen national participatory plant breeding programs (PPB) and to start new programs of evolutionary participatory plant breeding (EPPB) in Iran and Jordan by developing locally-adapted varieties of wheat, barley, rice and maize while enhancing biodiversity within and among farmers. Particular attention is being paid during this BSF project to gender-differentiated knowledge of local landraces and cultivation practices. This BSF project works with farmers to help them cope with climate change and the impact this has on their lives and their food security. It does this by strengthening their agricultural means with solutions such as PPB and EPPB and by using traditional varieties that were lost in previous decades. The project is also contributing to building capacities and skills of national breeding institutes and NGO practitioners in participatory and gender sensitive breeding methodologies, and providing them with a pool of genetic material for further improvement.