The agricultural biodiversity policy development process: Exploring means of policy development to support the on-farm management of crop genetic diversity

An Heuristic Framework for Identifying Multiple Ways of Supporting the Conservation and Use of Traditional Crop Varieties within the Agricultural Production System

“…They can be realized, for instance, by improving public awareness about sociocultural values of traditional varieties (Birol et al, 2007), by providing information on the substitution value of traditional variety diversity for fertilizer and pesticides (Di Falco and Perrings, 2007), moral suasion, regulation and planning, by preventing specific land management practices such as low input zones (Pascual and Perrings, 2007), by designing agroecological parks or agrotourism zones (Ruiz, 2009;Ramirez et al, 2009;Ceroni, et al, 2007). Other possibilities include compensating farmers for their conservation functions through payment for environmental services (FAO, 2007;Brussaard et al, 2010) or by supplying insurance functions and option values (Bragdon et al, 2009). Insofar as they exist, the enforcement of Farmers' Rights, and the adaptation and enforcement of intellectual property law could also play a role.…”

“…Farmers' Rights implies the development of some means of ensuring benefits flow to farmers and farming communities either through an ownership approach or a stewardship approach 4 (Farmers' Rights, 2010). In this context, creating incentives and removing disincentives to enable farmers to continue their work as stewards and innovators of agricultural biodiversity need to be part of any benefit-sharing mechanism (Bragdon et al, 2009). Currently, disincentives to the maintenance of traditional varieties may be associated with various aspects or consequences of agricultural development strategies such as 1) alterations in land tenure systems that threaten the survival of traditional farming communities; 2) subsidy schemes that promote exclusive adoption of uniform agricultural productions; 3) research programs that neglect traditional varieties and their associated knowledge and uses; and 4) food standards that limit entry of traditional farmers' varieties and products into markets.…”

“…Enhancing the benefits for farmers of local crop diversity means enhancing the net benefits, as there also could be costs to farmers associated with any benefit generating option (Sthapit et al, 2008b). This involves ensuring that appropriate incentives for creating and sharing benefits with farmers are developed and that unnecessary or unintended barriers to the flow of benefits to the farmer are not created through the introduction of taxes and subsidies (Bragdon et al, 2009).…”

“…In Burkina Faso, a series of local genebanks are being established in high-priority conservation areas. These gene banks are part of the National Plant Genetic resources system and will both emphasize conservation of local varieties and be a source of local seeds that can be deployed in the event of natural disasters such as extreme drought Bragdon et al, 2009).…”

Access to and Benefit Sharing of Plant Genetic Resources: Novel Field Experiences to Inform Policy

“…The examples are grounded in the practices of local and indigenous farming communities and linked to new partnership configurations of multiple stakeholders interested in supporting these communities. This article thus serves as input to a grounded approach to policy development [8] The effective and fair implementation of mechanisms, supported by appropriate policies and laws, will ultimately be the most important assessment factor of success of any access and benefit sharing regime [9][10][11].…”