Voluntary Guidelines for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers' Varieties/Landraces

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Unfortunately, many of these genetic resources have been replaced by modern cultivars in recent decades, resulting in a reduction in the total number of different varieties grown and/or loss of heterogeneity. Such losses make farming systems less resilient, especially to shocks from abiotic and biotic stresses. These guidelines, intended as reference materials for preparing a National Plan for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers’ Varieties/Landraces, will contribute to addressing this continuing loss of diversity. The guidelines are therefore a useful tool for development practitioners, researchers, students and policymakers who work on the conservation and sustainable use of these valuable resources.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: May 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9789251324363

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.

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Genetic diversity represents a critical resource to achieve and maintain global food security. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) comprise modern cultivars, breeding lines, genetic stocks, obsolete cultivars, ecotypes, farmers’ varieties/landraces, weedy races, as well as crop wild relatives and wild harvested species. With a genetic reservoir of alternative traits and characteristics, these resources enable diversification of crops, foods and farming methods, and provide genes for targeted plant breeding.

Cropping systems throughout the world rely on PGRFA and thus substantially contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of global crop diversity. In fact, farmers,¹ especially the small-scale ones, continue to cultivate the diverse array of well-adapted farmers’ varieties/landraces on account of preferred agronomic, culinary, quality or even locally important cultural values. The dynamic management of farmers’ varieties/landraces, including their exposure to different production regimes, environments, farmers’ selection and seed exchange systems, maintains a reservoir of continuously evolving genetic variability. Unfortunately, this plant diversity is threatened by urban encroachment on farmland, unsustainable use of natural resources, the promotion of genetically uniform varieties in replacement of local varieties, introduction of alien invasive species, changing pattern of human consumption, absence of or inappropriate legislation and policy, and climate and other environmental changes.

These important resources therefore represent a source of food/feed and income and constitute a potential source of basic genetic material for adapting crops to changing environmental conditions, and for improving crop productivity and quality. Maximizing genetic diversity within crop production systems is a way to reduce risks resulting from changing biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the crop diversity found in farmers’ fields are inadequately documented, valued and studied, and only partially conserved in genebanks. In addition, few farmers and local communities receive information and support in relation to the conservation and sustainable use of these genetic resources in their fields.

To prevent losses and maximize the availability of a wide range of plant genetic resources for the future, a more systematic approach to conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA on-farm is needed at both the country and local levels. This need has been recognized by international organizations and instruments, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),² the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)³ and its International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Treaty)⁴ and the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Second GPA).⁵ The CBD, the Treaty and the Second GPA each underline the commitment of governments to ensuring that the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources continue to be key elements in the efforts to alleviate poverty, increase food security and provide a genetic diversity safety net for the future of agriculture. They also highlight the need to develop and implement national strategies and action plans to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA.

These voluntary guidelines, adapted from the Resource Book for the Preparation of National Plans for Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives and Landraces (Maxted et al., 2013), were prepared at the request of FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Commission).⁶ The guidelines outline the process for preparing a National Plan for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers’ Varieties/Landraces (National Plan), with the aim to support national authorities in developing a systematic approach to the management of these genetic resources. A series of decisions and actions that could be helpful to follow in developing such a plan are outlined. Through a step-by-step approach, these guidelines focus on the common elements that could ensure a systematic, national approach to conservation and sustainable use of farmers’ varieties/landraces. Aspects of these processes were validated in the course of the implementation of the project, entitled Novel characterization of crop wild relative and landrace resources as a basis for improved crop breeding (PGR Secure).⁷

However, it must be noted that the goals and strategic actions a country wishes to take will naturally depend on the national context, including the availability of baseline data, the existing policy framework, the remit of the agencies responsible for formulating and implementing such a plan, the perspectives of famers and local communities, as well as the human and financial resources available for its implementation.

Farmers’ varieties/landraces

The role of farmer’s variety/landrace diversity for sustainable agriculture, food security and economic development

Population growth, changing and extreme weather patterns and their direct and indirect effects, along with other drivers of food insecurity, are increasingly threatening PGRFA and challenging the production of more food sustainably with fewer inputs. In such a scenario, it is imperative to conserve PGRFA more broadly than in the past.

A significant amount of local crop diversity is only maintained in farmer’s fields, orchards or home gardens. This diversity is adapted to specific ecosystems, climatic conditions and farming practices. Farmer’s variety/landrace diversity constitutes the livelihood for millions of farmers throughout the world. Local crop diversity is therefore particularly relevant in the context of food security, rural development and resilience of farming communities. There is inadequate information available on the diversity, number and status of farmers’ varieties/landraces on-farm; their use in crop improvement is also limited (FAO,