Rome, Italy
November 21, 2023
Partners of the Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture- shared innovations from projects supported by the Fund at a Side Event organized during the Tenth Session of the Governing Body.
In his opening remarks, International Treaty Secretary Kent Nnadozie noted that 2023 marked a successful year for the BSF, with 28 new projects approved for funding in the fifth cycle of the Fund (BSF-5), in addition to a number of other on-going projects finalizing from BSF-4.
Special guest, BBC journalist Dan Saladino reflected on the leveraging the success stories from BSF projects for effective communication for raising awareness about plant genetic diversity.
Upscaling and mainstreaming successful innovations
For the first time, the BSF-5 programme includes second phases of projects. Gloria Otieno, from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and project lead for a multi-country project in Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, reflected on their strategy for upscaling: “The project supports exchange of plant genetic diversity among farmers, for example through Community Seed Banks. But for farmers to commercialize the high-quality seed that they produce, their varieties need to be registered,” she said. “In the second phase of the project, we will explore and improve models to do that, including by the establishment and strengthening of Farmer Seed Enterprises and by engaging in policy in the three countries, looking at the Quality Declared Seeds model of Uganda,” she added.
Andrew Mushita, Director of the Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT) in Zimbabwe, involved in the project in Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe, described a recent workshop co-organized with the International Treaty Secretariat, to design the scaling-up pathways for the future. Pathways include the formation of a federation of Community Seed Banks in Zimbabwe and the establishment of Farmer Seed Enterprises in several agro-ecological zones in the countries, catering to the diverse needs of the areas.
Director Mushita spoke of the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration for the project. “Our participation in the Benefit-sharing Fund has been instrumental to this,” he said. “It provides us the mandate to collaborate with academia, private sector and the government, they are strongly present in our implementation.” As a testament to this, he mentioned the governments’ recent adoption of the Farmer Field School approach that CTDT implemented, and the Zimbabwean government’s plan to expand to 35 000 groups throughout the country, involving lead farmers and trainers from the project.
Innovations for local value chains
Other panellists were from ongoing projects in Uganda and Malaysia. Both projects discussed their approach to integrate products from PGRFA managed in the projects into local value chains.
Alexander Bombom, from the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda, explained the multiple uses for sorghum, including using the stalks of the crop for syrup. An important driver for the project is to explore market value and interest among end-users, so that farmers can commercialize their practices.
Zulhairil Bin Ariffin, from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), shed further light on this with the multiple uses of taro in local value chains BSF project in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In both examples from Uganda and Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, mainly women take the lead as small-scale entrepreneurs.
“These are the stories we need”
Dan Saladino, BBC food journalist, reflected on the examples discussed during the Side Event, “These are project that make an impact and they are tangible. We need such examples, as they bring across the actual work of the International Treaty and help us communicate the importance of plant genetic diversity. It is fascinating to see how projects are finding new ways with the materials and to see how the potential of millets, sorghum and taro are unleashed,” he said, adding, “the projects of the Benefit-sharing Fund are a source to find stories to communicate crop diversity. We need such stories.”
Contributors to the Benefit-sharing Fund of the International Treaty include the European Commission; Australia; Austria; Germany; India; Indonesia; Ireland; Italy; the Netherlands; Norway; Spain; Sweden; and Switzerland. Additional contributions have been made by the European Seed Association; the International Seed Federation; the French Interprofessional Organisation for Seeds and Plants (SEMAE); ProSpecieRara Hauptsitz; the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); and the Norwegian initiative to contribute a percentage of the value of its annual national seed sales. In addition to these voluntary contributions, the Benefit-sharing Fund has received user-based income from the International Treaty’s Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing.
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