Securing a Fair Food Future

Gene banks are storage facilities for different breeds and varieties of plants, where cuttings or seeds are kept in cold storage for future use. Gene banks are essential for crop breeders, who breed different varieties of crops together in order to form new varieties; this is a practice that is becoming particularly important in the face of climate change. As a result of climate change, the world needs more varieties of food crops that can withstand the weather, pest and disease changes that are associated with changing climatic patterns. There are numerous instances where Crop Wild Relatives (the wild species of crops) have been gathered and stored in gene banks, while in the wild the same plant species have gone extinct. These same species have been used to breed new varieties that are disease resistant - an outcome which would not have been possible had the species not been stored in a gene bank (an example of this is the Cartago bean from Costa Rica). Gene banks are thus a powerful player in the search for solutions to some of the major food security issues that the world faces in light of climate change. However, they are often severely underfunded, and so there is a need for greater pledges from governments and organisations to financially support gene banks, so that they can be harnessed as powerful tools in maintaining plant genetic diversity.

Presented by: Szonja Csorgo Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs Director, Euroseeds, Belgium, and Juan Lucas Restrepo Director General, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Italy

CGIAR Genebank Platform

CGIAR Genebanks

While gene banks are invaluable tools in preserving plant genetic diversity necessary for securing a fair food future, it is important not to limit this effort to gene banks alone. Of the money spent on conservation of plant genetic diversity, some 99% of finance is targeted towards putting Crop Wild Relatives (the wild species of crops) into gene banks. However, more work can be done to ensure that crop biodiversity remains, notably through the use of in-situ conservation sites alongside gene banks. These are sites on farms where species of Crop Wild Relatives as well as Landraces (which are species of plants that are domesticated from Crop Wild Relatives) are planted and maintained by the farmer to an agreed standard. The farmers in charge of the in-situ sites will be connected with ex-situ sites (gene banks) to ensure that there are back-up samples of the crops grown on the farms in the gene banks. This ensures that, should anything happen to the in-situ farm site, there is a gene-bank backup of the crop available. By having the complementary strategy of in-situ sites as well as use of gene banks, there is a greater assurance that crop genetic diversity is maintained.

Presented by: Professor Nigel Maxted, Professor of Plant Genetic Conservation, University of Birmingham, UK

Gap analyses Crop Wild Relatives

Crop wild relative diversity Middle East

Crop wild relatives from Malawi

Farming subsidies usually support the most productive crops, under the belief that the most productive yields are the greatest tool to fight food insecurity. However, this has led to monoculture of a very limited number of crops, and within this, a very limited number of crop varieties (Restrepo highlights that nine crops account for 70% of crop production worldwide and only three crops provide 60% of calories consumed by humans). One solution to this is the provision of greater financial support from governments to encourage farmers to grow a more diverse range of crop species and varieties on their farms. This may mean growing some species or varieties that do not have such high yields as others, but which are nevertheless important to preserve in order to maintain crop genetic diversity. Through the re-allocation of government agricultural subsidies for these activities, farmers would be enabled to grow more traditional landraces that would otherwise die out where monoculture of the most productive crops is traditionally favoured.

Presented by: Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj (Farmers’ Forum, India), India

Billions in Misspent EU Agricultural Subsidies Could Support the Sustainable Development Goals

Smallholders at risk

The Seeds for Needs initiative, run by CGIAR in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, is a programme which works with local farmers as "citizen scientists" to trial different varieties of crops. The initiative provides farmers with 3 different seed varieties of a landrace, often bred to withstand certain climatic conditions, and then works with the farmers who provide their feedback on the performance of the crops in their location. The farmer feedback is used alongside other data on climatic and soil conditions in the specific environment in which the crops were grown, in order to ascertain which varieties are best suited to certain conditions or environments. The data is collated and uploaded to ClimMob - a mobile application which uses a crowdsourcing approach to merge the data provided by numerous growers, and thus provide a wealth of information on the tested seed varieties online. The Seeds for Needs approach has achieved significant success - it is a solution which provides specific information to farmers about the types of crop varieties that might perform best in their climatic location, information which is not always widely available. The information can also be used by seed producers to boost their seed sales, all while providing more accurate information to farmers about the adapted varieties that will suit their needs.

Presented by: Professor Nigel Maxted, Professor of Plant Genetic Conservation, University of Birmingham, UK

Seeds for Needs

Seeds for Needs: citizen science and crowdsourcing

ClimMob Website