Three meetings were held in February that marked the close of the project “Reinforcing the resilience of poor rural communities in the face of food insecurity, poverty and climate change through on-farm conservation of local agrobiodiversity” (IFAD-NUS phases III-IV [3]). The meetings took place in each of the target countries: La Paz, Bolivia (3-4 February), Chennai, India (17-18 February) and Pokhara, Nepal (23-24 February) and were organized by our partner organizations PROINPA, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and LI-BIRD, respectively.
The meetings were unique in concentrating on region-specific factors but they all involved sharing the achievements of the project with farmers, policy makers and other stakeholder in the conservation and use of neglected and underutilized species. The importance of neglected and underutilized species for the resilience of the farming systems of the communities supported by the project was highlighted in all the meetings.
The presence of farmers was consistently a vital and enriching experience and they had opportunity to interact directly with different stakeholders, such as government agents, private sector representatives and researchers.
Highlights of each meeting have been posted on the Bioversity International webpage. Presentation slides from all three events have been shared in our publications database and photos of each event have been posted on the NUS Community Flikr. Links to all these materials are provided below.
Some additional media associated with the meetings has also been shared on our Youtube. A new video on custodian farmers [4] was shared at the meeting in La Paz, which is now available online. The closing comments by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan [5] at the final meeting in Chennai have also been posted, which is a half hour long reflection on the state of millet promotion in India from a most wise and informed person on the subject.
Although the project is winding down in these sites, there are indications the momentum for mainstreaming neglected and underutilized species and securing their conservation will continue through new initiatives that will bring forward the research.
Highlights
- Celebrating the diversity of Andean crops in Bolivia [6]
- Millet revolution in India: Let's keep up the momentum! [7]
- Putting Himalayan Superfoods on the menu [8]
Photo Albums
- Photos of the meeting in Bolivia [9]
- Photos of the meeting in India [10]
- Photos of the meeting in Nepal [11]
Presentations Bolivia
- Alvaro Otondo,
La conservación in situ y el rol de los agricultores custodios en la revalorización de la AGB [12] (5.0 MB) - Wilfredo Rojas, Esquema de ejecución del proyecto en Bolivia, avances, resultados y marco general del taller [13] (1.1 MB)
- Juana Flores, Custodios de la agrobiodiversidad [14] (1.1 MB)
- Stefano Padulosi, Presentación global de proyecto [15] (792 KB)
- INIAF, Nuestros avances: vínculo con los bancos de germoplasma (IFAD-NUS III) [16] (559 KB)
Presentations India
- Stefano Padulosi, IFAD-NUS III-IV Project - Session 1 [17] (636 KB)
- Suman Sahai, Rural Communities in the Face of Food security, Poverty and Climate Change through on Farm Conservation of Local Agro-Biodiversity [18] (3.1 MB)
- Ashis Mondal, Reinforcing the Resilience of Poor Reinforcing the resilience of poor... through on-farm conservation of local agro-biodiversity [19] (3.0 MB)
- Oliver King, Developing value chain of nutri-millets in India [20] (6.6 MB)
- Sandesh Neupane, Progress of IFAD-NUS III Project in Nepal [21] (1.1 MB)
- Gennifer Meldrum, Online information resources for the NUS community [22] (1.6 MB)
- Nirmala Yenagi, Women Centric Farm to Market Value Chain of Local Crops for Nutrition Security [23] (3.3 MB)
- M. Karthikeyan, Promoting NUS for the masses [24] (3.3 MB)
- Rakesh Kumar, Enhancing Food Security of Rural Families Through Production, Processing and Value Addition of Regional Staple Food Grains in India [25] (9.4 MB)
- Kiran Sakkhari, Mainstreaming millets into Nutritional Programm [26] (2.1 MB)
- B Daykar Rao, Policy Issues Related NUS crops and custodian farmers [27] (3.0 MB)
- Ashish Wle, Nirmal Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Nirmal Seeds biofortification programme with HarvestPlus [28] (1.8 MB)
- Stefano Padulosi, IFAD-NUS III-IV Building an Enabling Policy Environment - Session 3 [29] (3.1 MB)
Presentations Nepal
- Sajal Sthapit, A case for research and development on NUS crops [30] (3.1 MB)
- Stefano Pdulosi, The rise of Andean Grains in the world market: The case of Quinoa and Amaranth [31] (9.6 MB)
- Oliver King, Developing a value-chain of nutri-millets in India [20] (6.6 MB)
- Gennifer Meldrum, Online information resources for the NUS community [22] (1.6 MB)
- Laxmi Lama, Exploring the scope of Amaranth a a leafy vegetable in high mountains [32] (788 KB)
- Indra paudel, Optimal planting dates for Amaranth targeting the lean vegetable period in Pokhara [33] (381 KB)
- Shambhu Basnet, How Doti became a hotspot for Amaranth production and marketing [34] (921 KB)
