Annual Report
- 2002
Annual Report 2002
From here you can explore the various stories contained in IPGRI's Annual Report for 2002. The supplementary information -- for example Financial Information, Staff and details of IPGRI's project set -- are not published on the Web. However, they can be found in a printable PDF of the Annual Report, which can be downloaded here. The file is about 2Mb.
Alternatively, if you would prefer to receive a printed copy, please send your address details by e mail.
Foreword
Ignatius Nkondung, one of five extension agents recruited by the project in Cameroon. He works with about 100 farmers in two villages, to whom he is taking a variety called FHIA 17.
The year was dominated by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in September in Johannesburg, South Africa. Also billed as Rio Plus 10, the Summit sought to obtain real commitments to meeting the Millennium...
Banking on local knowledge
A farmer in Jordan sows pasture crops. Tapping the traditional knowledge of farmers should help improve livelihoods.
Farmers in Jordan are working with local researchers to document and share the secrets of agricultural survival in a harsh and inhospitable climate. Walking the baking deserts or stony mountain slopes of Jordan in the summertime,...
Drying without dying: improved options for tropical trees
Fruits of Syzygium cumini being prepared for initial trials in Tanzania
Studies on 61 species in 18 countries have resulted in techniques that give foresters and nurseries access to far greater diversity as they seek to manage forest genetic resources. The common wisdom about many tropical tree seeds...
Genetic Resources Policy Initiative
Members of the GRPI task force and appraisal team in Zambia. Left to right: Prudence Musonda, Dr Judith Lungu, Sande Ngalande, Ronald Msoni, Mwendabai Uyoya, Dr Catherine Mungoma, Brian Mwitwa Chimbanga, Dr Walter de Boef, Lovemore Simwanda and Godfrey Mwila.
A new project designed to help national governments navigate the maze of policy options around genetic resources is getting under way. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, adopted...
Traditional foods, modern diets and the conservation of biodiversity
The Karanjee Limuni Womens Seed Saving Group in Santa Monica, Kenya, is helping to ensure that people can buy good seed of local leafy vegetables.
Making greater use of minor crops is just one aspect of a new approach that forges links between nutrition, health, conservation and biodiversity. In India, food scientists use ancient ingredients and modern technology to prepare...
Tree conservation strategies for sub-Saharan Africa
Debarking specimens of Alstonia boonei for medicinal use is a serious threat in Togo.
Wide-ranging pilot studies of important tree species in three countries have indicated the best options for ensuring that they will continue to provide useful goods. IPGRI and FAO jointly established the sub-Saharan African...
Start with a Seed: the Global Conservation Trust
Workers clean seed before it enters the national Andean Grain genebank in Peru.
Efforts to underwrite the future of globally important collections of plant genetic resources are moving forward. After two years of stakeholder discussions and feasibility studies, the campaign for the Global Conservation Trust...
The state of genebanks in Latin America
Research by Francisco Morales, assisted by Tito Franco, both at IPGRIs office for the Americas, revealed the major threats to the ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources in the region. Morales surveyed 103 genebanks,...
New banana project on target
Women from the village of Loum 99 in Cameroon gather to unload healthy plants supplied by the project.
A package of new varieties, new technologies and new approaches to marketing will improve the livelihoods of banana growers in Africa. The disease resistant and high-yielding varieties of plantain and banana developed over the...
Participating in better breeding efforts
Farmers in India with the bulk populations of rice that had already been selected to have a good chance of bringing together desirable qualities.
Two system-wide programmes came together in 2002 to examine the quality of science in participatory plant breeding. The verdict? It is good. Participatory plant breeding explicitly brings together farmers, plant breeders and...
New light on the value of old rice
Detailed economic studies are beginning to add a deeper understanding of why some farmers continue to grow old varietiesand how to encourage them. A fundamental assumption of the early days of the Green Revolution was that the...
Hungarian home gardens (re)valued
In Hungary, during the period of collectivized agriculture, small plots ranging in size from a few square metres to 5 hectares remained in private hands. These home gardens are micro-agro-ecosystems, farmed intensively with...
Domesticated yams develop farmers diversity
Domesticated yams, as seen here, have thicker tubers and less thorny stems.
A study with farmers in Benin reveals that they are continuously boosting the diversity on their plots with the offspring of wild and cultivated yams.
More than 90% of the worlds harvest of yams (Dioscorea species) grows in west...
Tropical fruit project grows to maturity
A farmer in Chitwan District, Nepal, is growing one of the Indian mangoes that bears fruit all year round.
Very few tropical fruits are cultivated on a plantation scale; most are grown in home gardens and small plots. IPGRI projects have been working to improve their value to small farmers. In 10 countries across Asia (Bangladesh,...
