Promoting genetic diversity in agriculture through National Adaptation Plans

One very good way to promote climate-smart agricultural practices is to include them in the National Adaptation Plans that countries are developing under the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture adopted a programme to work on climate changes that includes the development of guidelines for the integration of genetic diversity into national climate change adaptation planning.

As part of the process, the Commission Secretariat organized a meeting in Rome, April 8-9, 2014, for experts to contribute to the development of the draft guidelines. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) was invited to provide one of the opening presentations to set the stage for the meeting. Michael Halewood, Policy Theme Leader at Bioversity International, presented a cross section of CCAFS work, linking it to the development of the guidelines.

Read the blog post on the event by Bioversity International scientists Michael Halewood and Ana Bedmar.