|
- The Solomon islands' ethnic conflict and insurgency (1998)—developing
sustainable small-scale coastal enterprises to reduce unemployment
and poverty (WorldFish through support from ACIAR, CIDA, the EU,
NZAID and the Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation of Japan);
- Rebuilding dryland agriculture in postindependence, post-war
Eritrea (since 1998—ICARDA and ICRISAT through support from
Denmark and IFAD);
- Restoring sorghum and millet seed systems in Somalia, Sudan
and Uganda in the late 1990s (ICRISAT through ODI and USAID support);
- Introducing true potato seed technology to North Korea in 1999
to combat famine (CIP through USAID support);
- 'Seeds of Life' launched in 2000 following East Timor's long
independence struggle and civil war (ACIAR supporting and convening,
with CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICRISAT and IRRI);
- Restoring seed and root crop systems in the Limpopo River Basin
after massive floods in southern Africa caused by Cyclone Eline
(ICRISAT and IITA through USAID support since 2000);
- Combating the Africa Cassava Mosaic Virus disease that spread
during the chaos of the revolution in Zaire (now DR Congo) (IITA
through USAID support since 2000);
- Promoting sweetpotato to help Cuba recover from Hurricane Michelle
and reduce vulnerability to future hurricanes (CIP since 2001);
- 'Seeds for Life': restoring lost rice seed and germplasm following
the Ivory Coast insurgency (Africa Rice Center - WARDA - 2003,
with support from CIDA) building on earlier restoration initiatives
in these countries as well as Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, Mozambique,
Rwanda and Sierra Leone (1994-2002 through support from WARDA
donors, particularly DFID);
- Battling refugee malnutrition caused by Uganda's longstanding
insurgency through CIP's Vitamin A for Africa partnership (since
2003 through support from BMZ, the OPEC Fund, the McKnight Foundation,
The Micronutrient Initiative, Senior Family Fund and USAID);
- The `Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan'
(ICARDA convening, with CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICRISAT, IFPRI, ILRI,
IPGRI, and IWMI through support from USAID and IDRC); and
- Assisting Iraq and Palestine to build strong research systems
and conserve agrobiodiversity (ICARDA and IPGRI through GEF, UNDP,
UN/ ESCWA and USAID support).
|
|
| Safeguarding and restoring
agrobiodiversity |
|
| Smallholders
were found to have surprisingly resilient local seed systems.
When conflicts were brief as in Rwanda, those systems bounced back
quickly, because seed supplies on-farm had not been destroyed or exposed
to long periods of decay in storage. On the other hand, intense and/or
extended conflicts such as the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia and
the conflict in Afghanistan did degrade agrobiodiversity significantly. |
|
