Mountain communities could help rebuild diverse, climate-resilient crops

By Mike Baños for Kagay-an. Published Oct 19, 2015

World leaders left New York having agreed a framework for the world’s sustainable development, but for mountain communities around the world this action can’t come quickly enough. Climate change is already here, threatening their food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

Indigenous groups and traditional farmers from 21 mountain communities in 10 countries gathered recently in Tajikistan to assess climate change impacts and develop responses to this crisis. The meeting was organised by Asociacion ANDES (Peru), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Aga Khan Foundation’s Mountain Development Support Programme.

Ahead of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) biennial International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resource for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) meeting on 5-9 October, the meeting developed solutions that will aid the implementation of the Treaty’s objectives on in-situ conservation and enhance the resilience of indigenous famers in the face of global warming threats. The implementation of Farmers’ Rights is a key issue on the agenda for the FAO Treaty3 Governing Body meeting in Rome next week.

Farmers’ Rights are increasingly being eroded by the introduction or strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for plant breeders, since farmers often have no equivalent protection in many countries. As a result, traditional farmers are facing serious challenges and a lack of incentives for sustaining their diverse genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The Tajikistan meeting found that mountain communities are already facing drastic changes in their food and farming systems due to extreme and unusual weather patterns, and that these impacts have worsened in the last 18 months. Many are suffering from reduced water availability and increased pests linked to decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures, however the meeting has already been able to provide some steps towards tackling this.

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