Bioversity International supports research on resilient seed systems in the context of adaptation to climate change. Bioversity believes that giving farmers better access to crop and crop varietal diversity will strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate change. Climate and crop modeling tools are increasingly used to project the adaptive capacity of a given crop to the expected changes in climate.
The results of these modeling exercises can be used to design strategies to access and use crops and crop varieties that are better adapted to future climate-changes in specific sites. Researchers, gene bank managers and farmers could then attempt to gain access to potentially useful plant genetic resources through the multilateral system of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Once obtained, they could evaluate these new plant genetic resources in farmers’ fields.
Bioversity International is assisting different countries in designing and implementing a comprehensive capacity building strategy to access and use plant genetic resources in the context of climate change adaptation. This resource box aims to support these efforts.