Trek to Nepal Yields Cross-Regional Exchange of Ideas
A reflection by Chris Schmidt, Director of Conservation at Native Seeds/SEARCH (USA) on his experiences at the workshop "Enhancing the contribution of custodian farmers to the plant genetic resources system of Nepal" that was held in the summer of 2013 in Pokhara, Nepal.
Every region of the world requires unique solutions to building and sustaining its own system for seed security, but practices that work well in one context can often be informative in others. Pioneering initiatives around the world have attempted to address the urgent need for on-farm conservation. Nepal has been at the forefront of these efforts since 1997, when Bioversity, the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), and LI-BIRD initiated a research program on the implementation of in situ conservation as part of a broader global effort. Their work in Nepal eventually produced an integrated approach called Community Biodiversity Management (CBM) that is now being taken as a model for other countries.
On-Farm Conservation [2] South Asia [3] IFAD NUS III-IV [4] Conference and Workshop Proceedings [5] All [6]
