Agricultural biodiversity is an essential asset for rural households worldwide, especially for the poor and the marginalized. Diversity in crops, trees and livestock allows farmers to respond to different situations and contexts and these options can build resilience within livelihood systems and improve food and nutrition security, particularly for women and children who are most vulnerable to nutrition deficiencies. Communities’ resilience relies on their access to crops adapted to new weather patterns. It also depends on their capacity to use diversity effectively in value chains to generate income and nutritionally complete family diets. Several neglected and underutilized species (e.g. Andean grains, fonio, bambara groundnut, minor millets and many fruits, vegetables and pulses) are known to be stress-tolerant and hold great potential to contribute to the resilience, nutrition and food security of communities, which can be realized if their cultivation is supported and integrated into value chains.

Climate change adaptation and value-chain development need to be fostered in an integrated approach that includes gender-sensitive, pro-poor and nutrition considerations. If they are not, there is risk of developing value chains with crops that fail because they are not adapted to new climate patterns, developing cropping systems with crops that are difficult to market, or devising “solutions” that do not improve or even exacerbate nutritional problems or increase inequities. Multiple efforts are needed to promote species and varieties adapted to climatic and socio-economic conditions, to raise awareness on the need for dietary appropriateness of food within households and to advocate enabling policies for linking farmers to markets. Furthermore, institutional support is needed to strengthen on-farm conservation and value chains, all of which must be built in ways that are mindful of gender, pro-poor and nutrition-sensitive perspectives.

Until now, linkage between efforts to develop crops more adapted to climate change and interventions targeting agrobiodiversity value chains have been very limited. Furthermore, efforts to conserve plant genetic diversity have not been well linked to its use in fostering more resilient production systems, value chains and nutrition. Diversification strategies that address multiple goals, including income generation, climate change adaptation and food and nutrition security have been limited so far, largely because researchers and the networks they engage in tend to be disconnected. There is no coherent methodology to analyze diversification options in a systematic and integrated way, linking equitable value chain development with climate change adaptation and gender-sensitive food security and nutrition considerations. 

Local communities, including indigenous peoples, hold knowledge which is important for sustainably managing resources and responding to ever-evolving opportunities and threats that may affect their nutritious crops. To be fully beneficial, this knowledge needs to be supported by innovative methods and approaches developed by other farmers, communities, and researchers.  Designing holistically beneficial diversification strategies requires women and men farmers to be able to draw on a wide range of knowledge sources which supplement their own extensive knowledge, allowing them to set goals and mobilize their resources effectively. Tried and tested participatory scientific tools (such as Community Biodiversity Registers, participatory weather data monitoring, focus group discussions, Farmers’ Field Fora, and multi-stakeholder value chain innovation platforms) are available to support diversification strategies, manage production and market risks, and guide assessment of income generation potential and nutritional value of local crops. 

The Conference

This Conference is being organized in the framework of an International UN project financed by IFAD, the EU and CCAFS entitled ‘Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: empowering the poor to manage risk’. The 3-year project will have a primary focus in Guatemala, Mali and India and will be implemented from 2015 to 2017.  

Main Goals

1. Share lessons on approaches, methods and tools for empowering communities towards more resilient livelihoods through agrobiodiversity-based solutions
2. Guide the implementation of the IFAD-EU-CCAFS Project for the next three years through development of a robust methodological framework  

Specific objectives

1. Enhance the scientific understanding of the role played by agricultural biodiversity in resilient and nutrition sensitive production and food systems;
2. Share experiences in applying approaches, methods and tools to assess, document, monitor, conserve and manage stress-tolerant varieties of traditional crops for more effective deployment in value chains and resilient livelihood strategies;
3. Understand how best practices on climate change adaptation are influenced and managed by farmers according to gender and other social factors and how these can be further strengthened and promoted through the Project; 
4. Explore mechanisms and processes managed by local communities (including indigenous people) for the sustainable conservation and use of agrobiodiversity and how these can be further strengthened through the Project;
5. Identify actions for strengthening the capacity of poor and vulnerable groups to deal with climate risks within a holistic value-chain approach and other efforts meant to build capacity of national agriculture research systems in dealing with these themes;  
6. Design a process by which the Project will engage with policy makers to achieve policy change for long lasting impact.

Relevance

1. The Conference will cover the strategic theme of agricultural resilience using a holistic livelihood approach, trying to connect its various dimensions (production, market, nutrition) through the common denominator of crop diversity and how its use enhancement and proper conservation can reduce people’s vulnerability and strengthen their capacity to manage risks.    
2. The proceedings will be published as soon as possible in order to share findings across the wider international community of practitioners and the framework emerging from the Conference will be tested out by the Project in countries directly involved in its implementation (viz. Guatemala, Mali and India); 
3. Conference recommendations will be used to advocate supportive policies for leveraging agrobiodiversity in order to develop more resilient production and food systems around the world.