Use of Genetic Diversity and Evolutionary Plant Breeding for Enhanced Farmer Resilience

The overall goal of the programme is to sustainably increase crop productivity and enhance resilience to climate change in farming communities under low-input, rainfed and less-favoured production conditions.

The main target group is composed of poor farmers in Bhutan, Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Nepal and Uganda, who will directly benefit from the deployment and management of EP through reduced vulnerability to shocks, increased volume and stability of yields, and enhanced nutritional and market value of their crops.

Women will particularly benefit from this programme since gender differentiation is built in into the EPB crop selection strategy. Women will be actively targeted as farmers, researchers and decision makers for leadership, management and research roles. Youth will also be a major target group, especially in establishing EP-related enterprises for seed production, product promotion and sales.