Presentation given at the session on 'Seeds of Resilience - Novel strategies for using crop diversity in climate change adaptation' at Tropentag 2016, September 21st, Vienna, by Bioversity International scientist Ronnie Vernooy. Future impacts of climate change are expected to become more pronounced in many parts of the world, forcing farmers to change their practices and causing them to find crops and varieties better adapted to new weather dynamics. Providing farmers with better access to crop and varietal diversity can strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate change. Under supportive policy and socioeconomic conditions, such strengthened capacity could contribute to greater food availability throughout the year, the production of more nutritious and healthy crops, and income generation. This is easier said than done. How do we design and implement a comprehensive strategy that will allow farmers to access and use plant genetic diversity more effectively in the context of climate change adaptation? This session responded to this question through an interactive introduction to the challenge of enabling farmers to use climate-adapted germplasm (led by Bioversity International), a practical example from the field to bring new diversity to farmers fields (a case study from Uganda), and a “this is how we support crop diversification for climate change adaptation” exchange among a number of experts from government (development cooperation), private sector and civil society. Find out more: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/tropentag2016/ http://www.bioversityinternational.org/e-library/publications/detail/resource-box-for-resilient-seed-systems-handbook/

1. Novel strategies for using crop diversity in climate
change adaptation
Ronnie Vernooy, Genetic resources policy specialist
21 September 2016

2. The challenge
A changing climate
Less predictable weather
More extreme weather events
“Strange things are happening with our
grassland.”
Mongolian herder in 2002
Strange things are happening with crops
too… Bioversity InternationalR. Vernooy (South Africa)

3. Impact on agriculture, predicted by 2050
Source: Adapted from Mathur 2014.

4. Crop diversity as a response to uncertainty
Supporting countries to design and implementing a
comprehensive strategy to access and use plant genetic
resources more effectively in the context of climate change
adaptation
Bioversity InternationalR. Vernooy (South Africa)

5. Which and whose diversity and how to find it?
Bioversity InternationalR.Vernooy (China)

6. Eight step methodology
1. Situational analysis and planning
2. Data preparation and selection of software
3. Climate change analysis and identification of appropriate
germplasm
4. Germplasm acquisition
5. Field experimentation
6. Germplasm conservation
7. Participatory evaluation
8. Knowledge sharing and communication

7. Combining:
• GIS tools +
• Crop modeling +
• Multiple sources of germplasm +
• Crowdsourcing +
• Community-based biodiversity management practices
Novel elements

8. Climate analogues, for Paro, Bhutan
Source: Adapted from National Biodiversity Centre of Bhutan (2015)
The greener the higher
the similarity
The redder the higher
the dissimilarity
Paro

9. Possible gaps in
collection
Mapping of pearl millet against collecting sites and growing
area in India (1993)
Source: adapted from Mathur 2015

10. Crowdsourcing trials in India
Source: van Etten 2016

11. • http://www.seedsresourcebox.org/
• http://www.bioversityinternational.org/e-
library/publications/detail/resource-box-for-resilient-seed-
systems-handbook/
Resources: website and handbook

12. Module 2: Data preparation and software selection
Introduction
Learning objectives
What do you know already?
1. Data sources: i) climate, ii)
biodiversity
2. Preparing data for importing into
selected software
3. Importing data into DIVA-GIS and
MaxEnt
Testing your knowledge quiz
Applying your new knowledge Bioversity InternationalR.Vernooy (Nepal)

13. Module 3: Climate change analysis and
identification of germplasm
Introduction
Learning objectives
What do you know already?
1. Classification of germplasm
collections based on climate
2. Climate change analysis
3. Identification of potential
germplasm for testing
Testing your knowledge quiz
Applying your new knowledge BioversityR.Vernooy (Burkina Faso)

14. Module 6: Germplasm conservation
Introduction
Learning objectives
What do you know already?
1. Ex situ and in situ conservation:
two complementary strategies
2. Custodian farmers
3. Community seed banks
Testing your knowledge quiz
Applying your new knowledge
UBINIG (Bangladesh)

15. Quiz: Situational analysis and planning (module 1)
1. A situational analysis in the context of resilient seed systems
and adaptation to climate change encompasses different steps.
Which step(s) is (are) missing in the following list: a) Community
identification and profiling b) Analyzing with farmers their
perceptions on climate change, variability and adaptation c) The
assessment of a community’s crop diversity and its vulnerability to
climate change d) Participatory adaptation planning.
a) Transect walk
b) Participatory vulnerability assessment
c) Participatory ranking of varieties
d) Village resource mapping
e) Seasonal calendar
f) Stakeholder analysis

16. Quiz: Data preparation and software selection (module
2)
3. Which of these software tools can be used for data analysis?
a) Ecocrop
b) ModEco
c) OpenModeller
d) DIVA-GIS
e) MaxEnt
f) Google Earth
g) The Climate analogue tool

17. Quiz: Climate change analysis and identification of
germplasm (module 3)
3. How can we identify locally adapted adaptation measures to
climate change?
a) Develop climate models that simulate future conditions and provide a
glimpse of a set of possibilities both spatially and temporally.
b) Use General Circulation Models (GCMs), which provide the current
and future scenarios (under different probable conditions) to gauge the
vulnerability of a site to changing climate.
c) Develop improved genotypes that are resilient to any number of
stresses like extreme temperatures, flooding or drought.

18. Quiz: Germplasm acquisition (module 4)
1. In many cases, germplasm acquisition must follow formal rules
and regulations. What do these rules cover?
a) The scientific aspects of seed production
b) The phytosanitary aspects of seed production
c) The protection of traditional knowledge
d) Access to germplasm
e) The phytosanitary aspects of seed distribution
f) Benefit sharing of germplasm
g) The protection of biodiversity

19. Quiz: Field-testing (module 5)
4. What is the crowdsourcing field trials approach?
a) An approach used to collect data by large numbers of specialized
researchers and breeders.
b) An approach used by scientists and companies worldwide to collect
data by large numbers of volunteers.
c) An approach enabling farmers to carry out large trials.
d) An approach that usually focus on many crops at the same time.

20. Quiz: Germplasm conservation (module 6)
3. Which farmers can be characterized as custodian farmers?
a) Farmers in an area where there is a community seed bank.
b) Farmers who have special knowledge and skills to practice seed
conservation and are recognized by the community for this special trait.
c) Members of community seed savers groups.
d) Farmers who breed new varieties on their farms.

21. Quiz: Participatory evaluation (module 7)
2. Important reasons for using participatory evaluation are:
a) To increase the relevance and effectiveness of the research to
stakeholders
b) To contribute to empowerment and social transformation
c) To create a clearer picture of what has happened according to the
perspectives of women, men, and various age, class and ethnic groups
in the community

22. Quiz: Knowledge-sharing and Communication (module
8)
1. What is the most important factor in communicating research
results effectively?
a) Simplifying and presenting the content in a clear and structured way
b) Identifying what is expected from the audience and preparing the
content in different ways for different groups, with their inputs.
c) Selecting an interesting communication media that will spark interest
from the audience.
d) Doing an evaluation after the presentation of the research results.

23. An example from the field: Uganda
Bioversity InternationalG.Otieno (Uganda)

24. Thank you
www.bioversityinternational.org/subscribe
@BioversityInt
Ronnie Vernooy
r.vernooy@cgiar.org