Agrobiodiversity
Several controversial issues have emerged in the current public debate on the management of genetic resources in agriculture. These include genetic modification, patenting and the loss of agrobiodiversity. This Newsletter focuses primarily on biodiversity in crop production but not without looking at the other two issues as well.
As an introduction to the subject, Conny Almekinders (guest editor for this issue) and Walter de Boef discuss the institutional setting of plant genetic resource management and the new developments taking place.
Table of contents:
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4 - 4written by ILEIA editorial teamSeveral controversial issues have emerged in the current public debate on the management of genetic resources in agriculture. These include genetic modification, patenting and the loss of agrobiodiversity. This Newsletter focuses primarily on biodiversity in crop production but not without looking at the other two issues as well. As an introduction to the subject, Conny Almekinders (guest editor for this issue) and Walter de Boef discuss the institutional setting of plant genetic resource management and the new developments taking place.
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5 - 7written by Walter de Boef , Conny AlmekindersThe authors give an overview of crop genetic diversity as a crucial element in total agrobiodiversity. Farmers need a certain degree of genetic diversity for their survival and resilience, especially in marginal areas where modern, improved varieties have not brought any profitability. Finding the right mix between (re)creating and conserving biodiversity and introducing improved varieties is the big challenge. Formal, or institutional, seed systems and informal, farmers\' seed systems operate parallel to each other and must be brought to cooperate better. Examples of innovative approaches, still rare, need to be upscaled now.
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8 - 9Biodiversity and farmers\' intimate knowledge of it has made possible the evolution of agriculture. Today, as world agriculture industrialises, the irreversible destruction of biological and cultural resources raises critical policy issues. This article explores current trends in technology, trade and agricultural research and identifies the problems of local farming communities who, as custodians of genetic resources, are working to develop sustainable alternatives.
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10 - 10written by Marilyn Minderhoud-JonesMembers of the Intercontinental Caravanb launched their protest against the growing power of the agrarian multinationals last spring in Amsterdam. Several hundred farmers from all over India used their savings, community funds and farmers\' union money to make the journey to the West. To Professor Nanjundaswamy, president of the Karnataka State Farmers Association, the International Caravan was an attempt to bring Western decision makers and public closer to the realities facing small scale farmers in the South.
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11 - 11written by Marilyn Minderhoud-JonesIn 1997, following an initiative by several Dutch organic food merchants, the Louis Bolk Institute started work on the Sustainable Organic Plant Breeding project (SOPB). One of the results of this project is the Stichting Zaadgoed. This is a foundation set up to stimulate and increase the production of organic plant breeding material. It also concerns itself with policy and ownership issues. Though based in Europe, it has an international network of contacts, through which stimulates the flow of information on seed breeding activities.
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12 - 12written by Vir SinghIn 1987, the Hemwal valley in India was struck by an unprecedented drought followed by two years of pest infestation. The modern varieties which were used all through the valley, with their very narrow genetic base, were badly damaged and farmers experienced some of the worst days of their lives. Farmers confronted the crisis by collecting together the indigenous seeds that had almost disappeared from the valley. By the end of the thirs year, a total of 110 local rice varieties had been reintroduced, dramatically increasing the genetic diversity in rice.
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13 - 13written by Vanaja RamprasadThe GREEN Foundation, based in bangalore, India, strives to conserve the agricultural biodiversity that is based on local culture and knowledge. Activities to collect, characterise, conserve and distribute traditional crop varieties like millet, gram, lentils, fingermillet, rice and sorghum, take place in 50 communities. GREEN stands for Genetic Resource Energy, Ecology and Nutrition. Article published in COMPAS Newsletter, Vol. 1-2, October 1999.
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14 - 14written by Miguel A. AltieriTraditional agroecosystems, based on the cultivation of a diversity of crops and varieties, have allowed traditional farmers to maximise harvest security using low levels of technology and with limited environmental impact. Many Latin American agroecosystems are small scale, geographically disontinuous, and occupy a variety of ecological niches. Richly diverse, site-specific farming systems are well adapted to locval conditions.
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15 - 15written by Firew MekbibInformal seed systems cover methods of local seed selection, production and diffusion. Such a system is described as traditional or informal, and operates at a community level through exchange mechanisms. This corresponds with the traditional seed sector. For centuries, virtually all Ethiopian seed supplies have been generated within an informal system. This article further describes a survey carried out with 176 farmers in Eastern Ethiopia.
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16 - 17written by Catherine Longley , Malcom Sellu-JusuSmall-scale farmers manage genetic variability through a variety of different agricultural techniques. This article describes one such technique, that of maintaining varietal mixtures of a self-pollinated crop - in this case, rice. Sierra Leonean smallholders maintain 2 varieties in the same field not only as a risk avoidance strategy - the 2 varieties together perform better than alone - but also for nutritional purposes. Farmers adapt the composition of the seed mixture from year to year according to their own preferences and experiences.
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18 - 18written by Gigi Manicad , Yiching SongThe International center for Wheat and Maize Improvement, CIMMYT, started a maize-breeding programme at the end of the 1970s in south-west China, where 25 million poor farmers depend on the crop for their staple food. An impact study of this ongoing programme was financially supported by CIMMYT, carried out between 1994 and 1998. The study revealed that the CIMMYT genetic material had had a significant effect, but also highlighted the importance of women\'s participation in agriculture.
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20 - 22This article presents examples from ongoing research with maize farmers in the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, to illustrate how the insights of farmers and plant breeders can be brought together to facilitate a better understanding of local maize seed selection practices. It also explores the implications for collaboration, aiming to come to a clear understanding of what the components of the biological model of selection used by plant breeders looks like from the farmers\' perspective.
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23 - 23written by Raul Boncodin , Belita VegaThe significance of local involvement in genetic resources conservation is increasingly recognised. However, several basic question still need to be explored. The UPWARD Genetic Resources and Biodiversity Contact Group brought researchers andlocal innovators together to share ideas on root crop genetic resource conservation during a Local Conservationists\' Workshop held at ViSCA, Leyte, in the Philippines.
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24 - 25written by Ortwin NeuendorfSeed fairs in Zimbabwe have shown how important they can be in raising awareness about seed issues. They began in the early 1990s and followed the most devastating droughts to affect Southern Africa this century. There were fears that farmers had lost all their planting material. Acting as an informal inventory, the seed fairs were quick to establish the resilience of traditional farming systems in the face of such major catastrophes. More and more crops and now being displayed, and the number of exhibitors, and of visitors, have largely increased.
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26 - 27Today, biodiversity fairs are held allover Peru and have expanded to include diversity in crops other than potato. Fairs encourage farmers to pay attention to the diversity of varieties they grow. On a more practical level, they provide a space where neighbours can exchange seed and plants, and, at a regional level, they bring farmers from distant communities together, ensuring that seed stocks are rebuilt and expanded. The article shows the example of the biodiversity fair in Colpar, near Huancayo.
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28 - 28written by Ghate UtkarshThe People\'s Biodiversity Register was initiated in 1995 by the Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), an NGO in Bangalore, India. Between 1996 and 1998, the Indian Institute of Sciences coordinated the activities of the People\'s Biodiversity register at 52 sites in eight states. Full text of this article can be found in the COMPAS Newsletter, Vol. 1-2, 1999.
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29 - 29written by Oswald QuintalThe Tamil Nadu LEISA Network is dedicated to the development of sustainable small scale rainfed agriculture. Its members are resource-poor farmers and small NGOs living and working in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, in southern India. The network organised a campaign to "Save Traditional Seeds" and, in the process, they have documented the traditional varieties that still exist. They have also identified those farmers intereste dincultivating, upgrading and multiplying traditional varieties.
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30 - 31written by Abebe DemissieThe objective of the Etiopian on-farm initiative is to esyablish a programme linking in situ and ex situ conservation. As part of the in situ conservation efforts, Community Seed Banks are being established as pilot projects in 6 different agroecological zones. Like the formal gene banks, conservation of localy adapted traditional varieties in community-managed seed banks will ensure the sustained provision of useful variability to the community and to various breeding programmes, complementing the formal network of international gene banks.
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32 - 33written by Franz Terrazas , Rolando Oros , Raul Delgado , Gonzalo Alfaro , Blasco Vera , Graham ThieleThe Foundation for the Promotion and Investigation of Andean Products, PROINPA, is cutodian of the the Bolivian Andean tuber germplasm collection. Its focus has shifted from in situ conservation and resolving specific production constraints to promoting the sustainable use of Andean tubers in the contxt of a complex local social, economic and politican environment. PROINPA has joined the San Simon University in Cochabamba and other institutes in forming the Integrated Candelaria Project, PIC. Within PIC, realistic, interdisciplinary proposals for the sustainable use of biodiversity are being developed.
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34 - 35written by Andreas GerritsThe Kigezi Highlands in south west Uganda have good dairy production potential because of reliable rainfall and a moderate climate favorable to both humans and livestock. The Agroforestry research Network for Africa, AFRENA, is an agroforestry research project in which different institutions collaborate in supporting smallholder dairy production. The project carries out research and development activities into the production of fodder from trees and shrubs, and trials with indigenous species.
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36 - 37written by Salvatore Ceccarelli , Stefania GrandoThe objective of the Participatory Plant Breeding project conducted in Syria was to test an alternative way of producing varieties of crops such as barley, for marginal environments. The project operated in 9 villages chosen to represent variations in annual rainfall, soil types, management practices, farm sizes, types of livestock ownership, and the formal edutation level of farmers. It showed that plant breeding programmes can be organised so that farmers bacome major actors in selection, testing and multiplication of new cultivars.
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38 - 39written by Humberto Rios Labrada , Julia WrightThe Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agricolas carried out a participatory plant breeding project in order to diversify and improve the varietal structure of maize and common bean crops for los input conditions. The general reception given to this new approach was positive, given that farmers are accustomed to a more top-down management style.
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40 - 41written by D Jarvis , Bhuwon SthapitIn 1995, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, IPGRI, together with partners in nine countries, began to explore the potential of on-farm conservation in a global project. The project intended to develop insights into how on-farm conservation can be best carried out. This included an analysis of the ways in which sustainable partnerships between the formal and informal sectors can be developed. The article is based on an example from Nepal.
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42 - 43Biodiversity has been dealt with from many different angles. Three programmes reflect this diversity of approaches and objectives. These are the Community Biodiversity and Conservation project (CBDC), the Centre for Biodiversity Utilisation and Development (CBUD), and the Biodiversity Research for development programme (BRD).
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44 - 45The \"Eco-papas\" project, implemented in the province of Carchi, Ecuador, followed a broad approach: reintroducing biological and ecological farming techniques that decrease the importance of chemical inputs and moving towards a more stable and sustainable agroecosystem. Its guiding principle was the notion that healthy, living soils provide a stable base from which other adjustments and improvements to the production system can be made and managed. Its most interesting result was the active involvement of local farmers.
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46 - 46written by Wietse BruinsmaThe mission statement of the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) programme is to assess and develop \"methodologies and organisational innovations for gender-sensitive participatory research in plant breeding, crop and natural resource management\". It pursues a new kind of partnership between farmers and scientists.
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47 - 47written by Emmanuel YapMASIPAG is a farmer-led network of farmer organisations and local communities, representing more than 30,000 farmers in the Philippines who all believe in the sustainable use and management of biodiversity through people\'s control of genetic resources, including the associated knowledge. MASIPAG has made significant headway in research into and the development of rice seeds and sustainable production systems.
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48 - 49written by Justin RabenandrasanaA very productive and paying 'System of Rice Intensification' (SRI) is being developed in Madagascar. Over the past four years, some hundreds of farmers increased their yields of irrigated rice from about 2 tons per hectare to up to 8 tons and more. Instead of relying on the 'Green Revolution' recipe, which is far too expensive to them, these farmers are following innovative ecological soil, plant, water and nutrient management practices. Similar practices are being applied by ecological farmers in Brazil and Sri Lanka. This ecological approach is challenging the conventional scientific insights in rice production.
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50 - 50written by Ana M. PrimavesiMany people believe that lowland rice produces best when it receives water and minerals as if hydroponic techniques were being applied. But rice does not grow in water. When drainage, organic ammendments, crop rotation and micronutrients are applied, yields can increase from 4,000 to more than 11,000 kg per hectare, and the percentage of entire grains after shusking also increases. Good soil fertility management is the basis for hich yields and quality.
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51 - 51written by GK UpawansaThis article presents the practice of weedy bund management for rice production. This practice is very simple, it saves labour and money, and regenerates biodiversity. As practised in Sri Lanka, this technique provides an alternative to the disastrous conventional method of paddy cultivation. Farmers experience many benefits, among which is that the natural vegetation is retained at least on the land covered by the bunds.
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60 - 60written by Marilyn Minderhoud-JonesThis article is a brief review of "The Malthus factor", book written by Eric Ross and published in 1999. The author argues that Malthusian ideas have surfaced at critical moments, and are currently being used to justify political and eocnomic policies designed to promote a market economy. He questions, however, whteher their objective can ever provide the infrastructure necessary for building economically stable and socially just societies in the South.
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