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Bioversity Board meets
The Board of Trustees of Bioversity International last week concluded a very successful meeting in Budapest, Hungary. The Board elected two new members and adopted a new mentoring policy that will promote the growth and on-the-job training of Bioversity staff. Members also spent considerable time in extensive discussion of the Change Process being undertaken by the CGIAR, in order to help Bioversity to continue to play an important role within a reinvigorated CGIAR system.
At the official opening of the meeting Tony Gregson, Board Chair, noted Hungary’s founding membership of both the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) and the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN). Dr Gregson paid tribute to the “expertise, knowledge and experience of Hungary’s contributions” to the two networks, both of which are coordinated by a Bioversity secretariat.
The Board also heard about important steps that Hungary has taken to secure the future of its national genebank at Tápiószele. Dr Katalin Rodics, Head of the Biodiversity Unit at the Hungarian Ministry of the Environment, told the Bioversity Board that as the focal point of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity she had come to realize not only that agricultural biodiversity was as threatened as wildlife, but also that the situation is worse for agrobiodiversity “because most people and decision makers have not noticed this pressing situation”.
Dr Rodics determined to “pull down the wall” between nature conservation and agriculture, and to that end instigated a joint programme of the ministries of environment and of agriculture to raise money for the genebank and to promote its importance.
Her colleague, Dr Zsolt Feldman, deputy head of the Department of Agriculture, supported the project. He told the Board that in his view, while collecting crop varieties was important, “more important is to maintain and share them”. This, he explained, was the “farseeing intention” of Andor Jánossy, the founder of the National Institute of Agrobotany in Tápiószele, who was born 100 years ago in 1908.
Dr Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, warmly welcomed the joint ministerial initiative to preserve its national genebank. “Hungary has a very strong tradition of home gardens and the maintenance of traditional varieties and livestock breeds,” he said, and he encouraged the commitment to maintain and make available those resources.
During its meeting the Board bade farewell to Dr Olga Linares and Dr Stephen Smith, both of whom came to the end of their final term of office. The Board elected Dr Jeremy Burdon, Chief of CSIRO Plant Industry, Australia, and Dr Cristián Samper, Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Biodiversity (and Bioversity) impress Kenyan government
Showing vegetables to President Kibaki of Kenya is Maryam Imbumi, a botanist at National Museums of Kenya, who has been working with Bioversity International on a variety of projects related to the use of traditional African leafy vegetables to enhance dietary diversity and thereby improve nutrition.
The occasion was the official opening of the 25th FAO Africa Regional Conference. Bioversity mounted a stall displaying the diversity of traditional leafy vegetables, which attracted considerable attention from President Kibaki and his entourage. The President asked for a copy of a Bioversity publication on traditional leafy vegetables, and engaged in a lively discussion about the importance of making use of the full range of agricultural biodiversity to address issues of food security in Kenya. Bioversity's Regional Director Joseph Baidu-Forson emphasized the need for further research into neglected and underutilized species, and Honourable William Ruto, Kenya's Minister of Agriculture, was in full agreement.
The Daily Nation's report on the event, and a copy of President Kibaki's speech, can be viewed online.
Training course on in vitro and cryopreservation techniques
Bioversity International and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in India are once again organizing an international training course to teach techniques for conserving genetic diversity. The course will focus on in vitro conservation and cryopreservation, vital approaches to the conservation of some crops, such as fruit trees and many root and tubers, that cannot be conserved as seeds. It is designed to enhance the skills of young scientists who are already working in genebank conservation. "We are very pleased to be able to offer the course again, thanks to the sustained and strong support from NBPGR and India," said Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Capacity Development at Bioversity International."Last year we had ten participants from seven countries," said Prem Mathur, Bioversity's local organiser in New Delhi, "and they found it very worthwhile."The participants' feedback bears this out.Dr Maizura Ithnin, from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, praised the interactions with the experts. "Hands-on experience, the tips, do's and don'ts, were valuable," she said, adding that she would recommend the course unhesitatingly to anyone seeking to establish cryopreservation facilities.Participants valued the formal teaching. "It had a very high technical and scientific standard, it far exceeded my expectations," said Sandra Constantino, of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. "Lectures and practicals were very good, very well planned and delivered." And because the course required students to have some prior experience "no time was lost on very basic things that all the students already knew".Justin Ugochukwu Ogbu, a Research Officer at the Root Crop Research Institute in Nigeria said that the course "armed me with enhanced skill and knowledge which I have applied in solving related problems in my home institution, as well as in my on-going PhD research programme".
The training course on In Vitro and Cryopreservation Techniques for Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources will take place at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India from 3 to 15 November 2008. NBPGR is one of the leading institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and is a Bioversity International Centre of Excellence. The course is co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), a programme of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (AAPARI). The course consists of lectures and practical sessions using various species. Young scientists are encouraged to participate. They may also bring material for hands-on practice.
Full details of the course and an application form are available at the Bioversity web site. Closing date for applications is 30 August 2008.
Perhaps the only quibble was with the food; many participants found it too highly spiced.
"We'll be taking care of that this time," joked Prem Mathur. "I do urge anyone with an interest to apply for the course," he added.
For further information, contact Elizabeth Goldberg.
Cautious Welcome For Food Summit Declaration
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
Bioversity International, one of the 15 international agricultural research centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), today broadly welcomed the declaration adopted yesterday by the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome.
"While there was a lot that governments could not agree on, such as trade agreements and biofuels, two things were mentioned in almost every statement; the need for humanitarian aid and the need to invest more in agricultural research and development," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, who represented the CGIAR at the High-Level Conference.
Thanks to pledges of additional support, The World Food Programme and others will be able to help those in greatest need.
"That's excellent, but we also need to see money to match the rhetoric of more research and development. Otherwise, when the food crisis reoccurs, as it will, it will be even worse than this time," Frison warned.
The Declaration "urge[s] the international community, including the private sector, to decisively step up investment in science and technology for food and agriculture".
Among the many delegates calling for greater support for research and development was Ed Schafer, US Secretary of Agriculture.
"We must invest in scientists and research institutions," he told the conference on the opening day. He also said that he had discussed how to increase agricultural productivity in developing countries with Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Laureate whose work with the forerunners of the CGIAR produced the Green Revolution and is estimated to have saved a billion lives.
"That's ironic," Frison said. He noted that the US government has cut its allocation to the CGIAR by about US$30 million this year, equivalent to eliminating one entire centre and effectively blocking all new research.
"Dr Borlaug has written several letters to the administration asking them to reconsider the decision to cut funding," said Frison. "I hope that with all the promises made here in Rome they will now reconsider."
The Declaration separates immediate and short-term measures from medium- and long-term measures. Among the former, it calls for support to give the worst affected farmers "access to appropriate locally adapted seeds, fertilizers, animal feed and other inputs ... to increase agricultural production."
An Action Plan for coping with the current food price crisis drawn up by the CGIAR Centres and presented to the meeting indicated that this was one area in which the Centres were ready to contribute right now.
"With donor support, CGIAR Centres can certainly provide the seeds, technology and know-how that partners can then use to help farmers increase their harvests," Frison said.
For the medium and long term, the Declaration points out that "it is essential to address the fundamental question of how to increase the resilience of present food production systems to challenges posed by climate change."
"The Declaration says that 'maintaining biodiversity is key to sustaining future production performance'. I'd go further than that. We need to make much greater use of agricultural biodiversity now," Frison said.
"This is a very important point," he continued. "The farming systems of poor people in marginal lands can become more productive and more resilient in the face of external pressures, and not just those of climate change. That will take research, and to do that will take additional investment."
ENDS
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Agricultural Researchers Call for a Revolution in Sustainable Agriculture
Earlier Efforts to Achieve Sustainable Agriculture Stalled by Declining Support
Rome, Italy
For immediate release
With the aim of helping avert future food crises, the world's largest organization dedicated to international agricultural research called today for renewed commitment to a revolution in sustainable agriculture, which was set for success in the 1990s but then stalled as a result of waning financial support.
Just as all the elements needed for such a revolution came together more than a decade ago, support for agriculture, at the international and national levels, went into a tailspin, explained Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International – one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Frison spoke on behalf of the Alliance of CGIAR Centers during the High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bio-energy, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, Frison noted, wealthy countries cut their support roughly in half from US$6 billion to $2.8 billion between 1980 and 2006. “The new revolution in sustainable agriculture was essentially put on hold,” he remarked.
“That's one of the reasons we're facing a food price crisis now,” Frison continued. “It also helps explain why we're not better prepared to confront the impacts of climate change in agriculture. Farmers would be much further along in adapting to those impacts, if more of them had the resilient varieties now available and if more were using improved practices for managing natural resources, including biodiversity, soils, water and small-scale fisheries.”
Beginning in the 1960s, international agricultural research centers later supported by the CGIAR began developing modern varieties of rice and wheat, which made possible the worldwide Green Revolution in agriculture. Responding well to fertilizer, the new varieties gave crop yields a large boost, especially in irrigated areas with uniformly favorable conditions. The steady stream of improved varieties and other technologies had huge impact. For every dollar invested in CGIAR research since 1971, nine dollars worth of additional food has been produced, according to a 2003 study led by Yale economist Robert Evenson.
The Green Revolution even offered environmental benefits, lessening the pressure on fragile land that otherwise would have been brought into cultivation. But it also had environmental costs. More intensive cultivation, without proper resource management, led in many places to severe degradation of soils and water.
By the 1990s, however, the CGIAR had in place a strong program of research to achieve a more sustainable revolution in agriculture. Through that research, they found ways to balance the need for more intensive crop production with the need to protect natural resources. A notable example is the spread of “zero-till” technology in the rice-wheat systems of South Asia's Indo-Gangetic Plain. Close to half a million farmers are using this technology on more than 3.2 million hectares, according to CGIAR impact reports. Crop yields are higher, and production costs are down, mainly because of savings in energy and water. Economic benefits were estimated several years ago to have reached a total of $147 million.
Increased harvests and steadily declining food prices throughout the 1980s and 1990s lulled donors into complacency about agriculture, Frison commented, and they shifted attention to other development challenges. Despite the funding cuts to agriculture, key research received support and produced important results. For that reason, Frison asserted, the Alliance of CGIAR Centers is ready to help resolve the current food crisis and reduce the risk of future crises through a set of short-, medium- and long-term measures, outlined in an action plan presented at the FAO High-Level Conference.
“We urgently need to accelerate the flow of new varieties tolerant to heat, drought and other stresses that will become worse with climate change,” Frison said. “We must also spread more widely the new tools and methods from research on natural resource management. But there are no simple solutions and no magic bullets.
“Nor should we concentrate just on globally important staples,” Frison added. Locally important crops and livestock, for example millets in India, bananas across much of Africa, and Andean roots and tubers and grains in South America, are often the key source of sustenance for poor, rural people. Production in such systems, which are common in marginal areas, must be increased to improve food security and nutrition for the poorest farmers.
“Success will require a substantial increase in funding and collective action among all key actors and players,” Frison stressed. ”We believe that, in order to deliver the knowledge and technologies required, we must double our annual investment in pro-poor research.” The Alliance will continue to work in concert with other international institutions, such as FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme and World Bank, as well as with many regional, national and local partners.
ENDS
For further information, contact Jeff Haskins,/a> at Burness Communications or Jeremy Cherfas at Bioversity International
About the CGIAR:
The CGIAR, established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting the work of 15 international Centers. In collaboration with national agricultural research systems, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources. For more information, please visit www.cgiar.org.
