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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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
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