Crop Interdependence, Adaptation to Climate Change and the Multilateral Systems of Access and Benefit Sharing: The Case of Nepal

Improving farmers’ access to more plant diversity is expected to be an effective strategy to respond to climate changes. Degrees of current crop interdependency were estimated based on the origin and pedigree analysis of modern varieties of rice, wheat and potato cultivated in Nepal. Geographical information system (GIS) was applied to identify germplasm from the global and national gene pools with respect to current and future climate analogue sites. Using the Climate Analogue Tool (CAT), the analysis identified current, future, and past analogue sites within and outside Nepal, suggesting that there might be useful genetic materials that could be exchanged between such regions. To do so, Nepal has to be capable to make better use of the Multilateral System of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.