Join our next GFAR Collective Action Webinar on Farmers’ Rights

GFAR partners CGIAR, GODAN (Global Open Data Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition) and Asociación Andes, through a GFAR Collective Action, are pleased to invite you to:

Our webinar:
“Farmers’ Rights: How Complementarity between Researchers and Farmers Impact the Conservation of Genetic Diversity, Food Security and Livelihoods of the Poor”

Date: 19 September 2017
Time: 15h00 Rome time
Duration: 2 hours max

Registration: open

This webinar aims to exchange best practices and information on:

• how to achieve complementarity in practice between the formal research and smallholder farmers to achieve food security and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers;
• how to contribute to the protection of traditional knowledge and the implementation of the rights of farmers to participate in the benefits arising from the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture;
• how to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds and propagating material.

Agricultural research has faced a change of paradigm where researchers used to work isolated when evaluating problems and developing solutions. We are now working together with farmers on challenges such as food security, climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation, etc. This new way of research and innovation development has led to build trust between the formal and informal seed systems, strengthen ways of communication, increase the value of different sources of knowledge, and generate direct benefits for both the formal and informal seed systems.

However, further exchange of information and success stories on how the formal research sector is working together with smallholder farmers, complementing both the formal and informal seed systems is still needed. The exchange of information, success stories and best practices will motivate other researchers and farmers to join efforts, work together and identify further challenges that need to be addressed when strengthening the complementarity between the formal and informal seed systems.

Researchers from CGIAR Centers will share their perspectives on success stories and best practices, including innovative ways of working with farmers towards the conservation of genetic resources, sharing of benefits arising from the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the protection of traditional knowledge. They will give interesting information on the work done to improve national legislation recognizing the rights of farmers over their plant genetic resources and traditional knowledge and new national funding mechanisms for smallholder farmers supporting their role as custodians and innovators of key crops.

Another presentation by the Asociación Andes on the complementarity and joint work between farmers and researchers from the farmers’ point of view, will explain the mutual benefit arise from such complementarity and identify further challenges.

A last presentation by the Global Open Data Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) will show how open access to research data has directly/indirectly impacted smallholder farmers and how they can better benefit from open access data.

Desired outcomes of the webinar include:

• Distill information and best practices in order to deliver examples for researchers and smallholder farmers on how to strengthen complementary between the informal and formal systems contributing to food security, improving the livelihoods of the poor and the implementation of Farmers’ Rights;
• Identify challenges and possible solutions; and
• Motivate participants, especially researchers to identify ways and tools to exchange their experiences and best practices on how to contribute together with farmers to food security, conservation of genetic resources and the improvement of the livelihoods of the poor, contributing with the implementation of Farmers’ Rights.

This webinar further expands the discussion on topics related to Farmers’ Rights, already introduced in our previous webinar on “how to achieve complementarity between the informal and formal seed systems”.

Presenters:

Jorge Andrade, holds a Ph.D in Plant Pathology with minors in Epidemiology and International Agriculture from Cornell University, M.Sc. in Plant Pathology from La Molina University and B.Sc. in Agronomy (high honors) from Central University in Quito. Jorge had post-doctorate studies in the International Potato Center (CIP). He is a member of the American Phytopathological Society, the Latin-American Phytopathological Society and the Latin-American Potato Society. Jorge has fifteen years of experience in research and development with small-scale potato farmers in the Andes. His research interests include epidemiology of potato late blight, seed systems, adult education and innovation systems.

Alejandro Argumedo, is the Program Director of Asociación ANDES, a Cusco-based non-governmental organization of indigenous peoples, working to protect and develop indigenous peoples’ biocultural heritage in the Potato Park and beyond. He is the founder and coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (IPCCA). Alejandro is also a founding member of the Indigenous Peoples’ Biodiversity Network (IPBN) and the “Call of the Earth Group”. Both are global coalitions of indigenous peoples working towards the shared goals of protecting and nurturing biodiversity and protecting their bio-cultural innovations and intellectual property. He is the coordinator of the Mountain Communities Network, and the former Executive Director of Cultural Survival Canada and the Indigenous Knowledge Program.

Jeremiah Baarbé (GODAN) is a Juris Doctor (JD) Candidate – University of Ottawa. He has worked for two years with Professor Isabel Pedersen in the Digital Culture and Media Lab, where he established a digital archive to track how rhetoric drives innovation. Jeremy was previously the President of PSAC Local 555, advocating for Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants and Sessional Faculty at UOIT. His interests include social justice, intellectual property law, and entrepreneurship.

Rose Nankya, a conservation biologist, works with Bioversity International as a Program Specialist in the Productive and resilient farms, forests and landscape program and is the Uganda National Manager for projects that promote conservation and use of crop genetic diversity to enhance productivity, resilience and food security of smallholder farmers. She is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development.
Before joining Bioversity, she worked with the Environment Conservation Trust of Uganda; Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Forestry Department of Uganda. She has experience of 18 years working with communities in conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and 8 years of research experience working with farmers and other stakeholders in conservation and use of crop genetic diversity to enhance productivity, resilience and food security.

After each set of presentations, the moderator will invite participants to ask questions or share related experiences.

Register now!

You can register for this webinar by filling in this short form.

You will get a reminder with the technical details to join the webinar, a few days before.

Register fast! Our webinars are limited to 100 participants and the available “seats” are often taken in a matter of days.

We encourage participants to actively engage in our webinars with feedback, questions, and sharing of their own experiences.

For further info or questions, contact the webinar moderator – Peter Casier – peter.casier(at)fao.org

About the GFAR webinars

Our webinars are open to Partners in GFAR as well as other nonprofit organisations or individuals working in the area of agriculture, ecosystems and sustainable development. They are attended by scientists, students, communications staff as well as agricultural practitioners.

The webinars present the work of Partners in GFAR and show how our partners are working together towards shared GFAR goals. If your organisation is not a GFAR partner yet, join now!

We do not ask for a participation fee, but request all participants to actively engage in the online discussions during the webinars.

The webinars are moderated via BlueJeans, an online tool running within any internet browser. It only requires participants to have a good and reliable Internet connection and a computer running any browser.

Topics of our past program-related GFAR webinars include:

Farmers’ Rights: Achieving Complementarity Between the Informal and Formal Seed Systems
Closing the gender data gap for agricultural policy and investment
Agents of Change in Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation: The Value of Facilitators
Building a bridge between scientists and communicators
Beyond decision making: Foresight as a process for improving attitude towards change

Beyond these program-focused webinars, we have also organised an extensive set on communications topics. Check out the playlist of all past GFAR webinars on YouTube!

Note: CGIAR’s contribution to this webinar has been co-organized by Bioversity International – representing the Policy Module of the Genebank Platform – and by the CGIAR System Organization -representing the CGIAR Legal and IP Network-.

Photo: Farmers and researchers with durum wheat varieties (Ethiopia), courtesy S.Collins – Bioversity International