Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Please fix the following errors:

    Help on this page

    The Inventory

    This online version of the Inventory presents, for each measure, the title and a brief description with information on implementing organization(s), start year, objectives, core elements, key outcomes, and, if applicable, lessons learned. It thus allows users to quickly identify those examples that may be of interest to them. A hyperlink to the original submission is provided, which includes additional information, such as on the history and context of the presented measure, challenges encountered, or target groups reached. In this way, users can get a more comprehensive idea of the measure in question and the specific context for which it was developed.
     
    To facilitate navigation, the Inventory is subdivided into eleven categories. Measures or practices that fall under more than one category are listed under each one that applies. Furthermore, information is provided on the type(s) of measures that are typically involved, such as technical, administrative, legal, and/or others, and on the relevant sub-article of Article 9 that is addressed. Additional search options allow searching by country, region, free text and keyword.
     
     
     
     
     
    Clear search form
    Number of records: 233

    46) Policy dialogue to facilitate farmers’ participation in decision-making

    The Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) has been conducting policy advocacy on seed related policy and legal frameworks with a focus on frameworks recognizing and promoting Farmers’ Rights. In 2018, the Department of Agriculture Research Services (DARS) reviewed the Seed Bill; CEPA conducted an analysis of the draft Seed Bill and mobilized stakeholders, including farmers, to engage in a dialogue meeting with the Seed Bill drafting team. During dialogue sessions, CEPA played a facilitating role by conducting sessions in a local language to ensure that farmers could effectively participate. Major outcomes of the process were the observation that most of the concerns/issues raised by the farmers during the dialogue session were addressed in the revised Seed Bill document. A key lesson learned was that involving farmers to actively participate in policy dialogue increased the chances of influencing decision-making.

    Category: 8.Farmers’ participation in decision-making at local, national and sub-regional, regional and international levels

    Type of measure/practice: Others

    47) The NARO Genebank Project, Japan

    The Genebank Project of Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), which started in 1985, builds on various previous initiatives. Its activities are directed toward conservation, exploration, collection, characterization, evaluation, distribution and documentation of PGRFA, including farmers’ varieties/landraces. The project develops and applies advanced technology to improve genebank operations, e.g. low/ultra-low temperature preservation and reproduction techniques. The Genetic Resources Center continuously develops new cryopreservation techniques for vegetatively propagated plant genetic resources, for which more systematic procedures are needed and/or to which the current techniques are difficult to apply. Such techniques can be shared with researchers of other countries through collaborative research and training. Genetic resources are distributed, together with relevant information, to users for breeding, scientific studies and educational purposes.

    Category: 11.Other measures / practices

    Type of measure/practice: Technical

    48) Strengthening local farmers’ seed systems through Community Seed Banks in Malawi

    Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (BCI), a civil society organization in Malawi, partnered with the Development Fund of Norway (DF) to implement a Community-Based Agrobiodiversity Management project (2013-2016), which was extended for the period 2017-2020. DF provides the funding, while BCI directly implements the project targeting 2500 smallholder farmers. The major objective is to increase adaptive capacity to climate change among smallholder farmers in Malawi through strengthening local seed systems with community seed banks as a major focus. Core components of the work include: (1) multiplication of locally adapted seed varieties such as finger millet, groundnuts, beans, green gram, sesame, sorghum, pearl millet and bambara nut; (2) maize varieties participatory variety selection; (3) community seed banking on a loan basis for enhanced farmer access of the materials and loan schemes for sustainability; (4) capacity development programs on quality seed production and enhanced crop production practices; and (5) seed policies, including Farmers’ Rights. Notable achievements of the work include the sustainable management of four Community Seed Banks in Rumphi district. Lessons learned include that capacity development of farmers in key areas, such as seed multiplication, collection and storage, appropriate storage facilities and economic incentives are important to effectively conserve crop genetic resources on-farm.

    Category: 6.Facilitation of farmers’ access to a diversity of PGRFA through community seed banks, seed networks and other measures improving farmers’ choices of a wider diversity of PGRFA.

    Type of measure/practice: Technical

    49) Presentation of Farmers' Rights to representatives of organizations, producers, and citizens in general in Nicaragua

    The Federation of Development Co-operatives (FECODESA), founded in 2007, is a third-degree co-operative organization, made up of 15 unions and central co-operatives and a specialised development organization known as Centro Para la Promoción, la Investigación y Desarrollo Rural Social (CIPRES). FECODESA represents 144 grassroots cooperatives and 5,802 members (2,911 women and 2,891 men). The objectives of the federation are to strengthen organizational capacities and entrepreneurship; to provide training and technical assistance for the production, marketing to its members; and to engage in political advocacy work. In this process, FECODESA has implemented different actions and strategies, such as the ‘Collaborative Participatory Plant Breeding Program’, which was initiated by CIPRES in 2000 and continued by the federation from 2014 onwards; this program has allowed, inter alia, to strengthen capacities and build alliances for the implementation of a strategy for conservation, development and use of local agrobiodiversity. Activities included participatory collection and conservation of local varieties; the development of new varieties of crops using participatory methods; local seed production; as well as local and national advocacy work to promote strategies and policies that are favourable to small and medium farmers in the country.

    Category: 9.Training, capacity development and public awareness creation

    Type of measure/practice: Technical

    50) Site recognition of traditional agricultural systems

    In 2017, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), together with the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN), the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply and FAO Brazil, launched a call for the Traditional Agricultural Systems Prize. The initiative aimed to identify, recognize and protect traditional agricultural systems in which practices, places, instruments and ways of life contribute to on-farm conservation of PGRFA; it thereby addresses Brazil’s obligations under the ITPGRFA. The initiative builds on concepts developed under the National Immaterial Cultural Heritage Programme and the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme of FAO. The prize provides an opportunity for communities to present their initiatives for agrobiodiversity conservation. The organizers received 58 traditional agricultural systems, and selected 15 sites. Initiatives such as collective work, seed fairs, self-demarcation of traditional territories, among others, received the prize. The evaluation was done by a committee consisted of representatives of organizing institutions, universities and civil society organization. The prize includes a financial award and an opportunity for selected communities to participate in a workshop on patrimony and agricultural systems. A film, book and booklet were produced for promotional purposes.

    Category: 5.In-situ/on farm conservation and management of PGRFA, such as social and cultural measures, community biodiversity management and conservation sites

    Type of measure/practice: Technical; Administrative; Others