Conclusion

Biologists and environmentalists have sounded convincingly the alarm regarding the urgency of conserving biodiversity and in particular the PGR. A better understanding of the adaptation and development of crop species to changes in the environment are fundamental to safeguarding PGR diversity effectively. At the global level, there is a consensus about the fast genetic erosion of PGR diversity and the urgent need for the preservation of a large genetic base of cultivated crops in order to ensure food security for future generations.

A global architecture and mechanisms have set up to these ends, including the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and seed banks. At the national level a number of national agricultural research systems are already working on ways to preserve and develop PGR.

At the grassroots level, smallholder farmers and rural communities in developing countries who have not adopted the conventional agriculture practices of the Green Revolution have instead been maintaining and continuously adapting their indigenous crop resources (including traditional varieties and landraces) and preferred varieties on-farm.

It is impossible to overstate or truly estimate the importance of the crop materials that smallholder farmers are using and conserving. In the first place, this genetic diversity is crucial for the farmers themselves. Their crop varieties are probably the only ones that can take the farmers and their families through the periods of drought. But they also provide for year-round harvest security in the harsh conditions under which farmers in most developing countries are trying to get some food from their land. Plant breeders worldwide look for commercial varieties with characteristics which have potential economic value. For instance, when screening gene bank materials, they repeatedly find seed samples of Ethiopian origin to be particularly rich. In the context of globalization of agricultural trade, genetic diversity also helps out farmers and companies in other parts of the world.

While normally the formal sector tends to pay little attention to this innovative capacity of smallholder farmers or local communities to save plant genetic diversity, an alternative strategy involving smallholder farmers in several stages of the seed-saving and breeding process is a valuable option for preserving genetic diversity. There is an urgent need to maintain landraces growing under field conditions in order to preserve a large genetic base, and for use in crop improvement programs. Landraces adapt gradually to the changing environment and climate, and this is probably best achieved through on-farm conservation programs. However, the direct benefits for peasant farmers are likely to be quite limited, in particular for food crops and especially for farmers in semi-arid areas.

As public funds are limited, in order to encourage farmers to participate in long term sustainable safeguarding of genetic diversity through their traditional landrace varieties, incentives must be created. Certified organic agriculture could be one of the most promising: it is technologically appropriate—smallholder farmers favor local varieties not only for their greater resistance to disease but for the taste and cooking quality—and financially rewarding, due to the rapidly increasing global organic trade and the growing demand for health and specialty foods.

Through the development of market incentives for cultivating traditional and underutilized varieties, and the promotion of sustainable practices, certified organic agriculture is a potentially effective means of preserving plant genetic resources in situ. The role of the public sector in this process will be to develop markets for organic and traditional products, encourage pro-poor private investment in organic agriculture, and establish research centers to collaborate with farmers to identify and document indigenous varieties.

By assisting farmers in using techniques for certified organic food, we involve farmers not only in conserving germplasm but also in restoring and enhancing the performance of traditional varieties, and by developing and maintaining elite landraces. Farmlands act not only as sources of food, but also as village gene banks for a wider range of landraces, which can be used as a depository for a wide range of useful genetic characteristics.

In an era when climate change, poverty, food safety and other environmental concerns are high on the international agenda, promoting trade of pro-poor and pro-environment goods such as organic products should be promoted in all economic development efforts.

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