Papua New Guinea is a hotspot of banana diversity. An expedition to Bougainville by Bioversity International and partners resulted in +60 samples of wild & cultivated bananas added to the national collection.
Bioversity International's mission is to deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to sustainable food and nutrition security.
The Southeast Asia region here refers to the sub-region of Mekong River Basin plus Malay Archipelago and covers the major least developed countries in the world. The region is characterized by diverse ecosystems and landscapes: highlands and low humid tropics with climates varying from the temperate, the sub-tropical to the tropical.
The region is the centre of diversity of many important species of crops (rice, soybean, banana, coconut), animals and livestock with most of its resource-poor smallholder farmers dependent on this agricultural and forest biodiversity for food security and livelihoods.
Bioversity International is working with partners in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam where agricultural biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.
Where we work
Cambodia, China, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
Contact
For details of how to contact our offices in South-east Asia, click here
Alternatively contact our Regional Representative, South-east Asia: Zongwen Zhang
Papua New Guinea's amazing banana diversity
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Adding nutrition to the food chain in Indonesia
How to diversify diets, improve diet quality and increase smallholder incomes in commercial food systems in five steps.
Markets for nutritious foods
We are promoting agricultural biodiversity for nutrition and health focused on the value chains of available agricultural biodiversity in production, markets and consumption with partners in China and Vietnam. The participatory action research methodology has been adopted on the assessment of agricultural biodiversity by smallholder farmers, particularly females and will be promoted on banana and underutilized crops such as buckwheat.
Climate-smart research
We are carrying out research on integrated agricultural technologies for enhanced adaptive capacity and resilient livelihoods in climate-smart villages (CSVs) of Southeast Asia aims to provide climate-smart agriculture options to enhance adaptive capacity among CSV farmers and stakeholders, and contribute to more climate-resilient livelihoods, in selected sites in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam.
News from the South-east Asia region
Playing chess with a pigeon – food safety, food security and obesity in Vietnam
The recent series of poor decisions made by the leaders of some of the most powerful countries in the world in response to the COVID pandemic are...
Not so robust: robusta coffee more sensitive to warming than previously thought
Widely considered to better prepared for climate change than arabica coffee, a new study from Southeast Asia shows robusta coffee production decreases...
Protecting income-generating cassava from virus duo
While the world worries about the global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, smallholder cassava farmers in South-East Asia are being affected by...
The response from the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT to the COVID-19 crisis in Asia
COVID-19 emphasized the need for more resilient and healthy food systems. In Asia, we are partnering with governments, NGOs, and private institutions...
How did an ancient plant from Latin America become Asia’s second-most important cash crop?
Valued at dining room tables and factory floors alike, cassava is worth about $10 billion in Asia. The continued growth of the commodity faces...
An Alliance for Trees: Why forest biodiversity is "too precious to lose"
From forest fires to COVID-19, this year has already presented grave challenges to human and planetary health. Now more than ever, forests have an...
![Analyses in Maluku, Indonesia, showed that locally available fish species, such as anchovies, could contribute much more to nutrition and incomes, if the appropriate interventions are put in place. Credit: Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/7/csm_Anchovies_Wikimedia_1600x600_25d7851333.jpg)
Adding nutrition to the food chain in Indonesia
A case study from Indonesia applies a five-step approach to incorporate nutrition considerations into food value chains and so diversify diets,...
A Course in Nepal on Plant Genetic Resources and Resilient Seed Systems for Sustainable Food Security
Francesca Grazioli, Research Support Officer for the Cacao Genetic Resources Team, Bioversity International, reports on a training on securing...
Strengthening farmers' seed systems in China
Dr. Yiching Song, Senior Researcher at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Ronnie Vernooy, Senior...
Using vignettes to explore gender issues related to food security and nutrition
Giulia Micheletti, Marlène Elias, and Jessica Raneri of Bioversity International describe a nutrition-sensitive version of GENNOVATE, in which a...