BFN Project - Mechanisms for mobilizing Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition

Teresa Borelli

Programme Specialist

ANNEX F: Mechanisms for mobilizing biodiversity

for food and nutrition

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Women produce 60-80% of

the food consumed locally in

developing countries

Approaches for mobilizing BFN

Participatory

Gender-sensitive

Food-based

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1. Documenting and supporting home gardens

2. Strengthening community management of agricultural biodiversity

3. Promoting dietary diversity in school children by developing school gardens and linking school meals with small-scale local producers

Mechanisms & approaches

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1. Documenting and supporting home gardens

2. Strengthening community management of agricultural biodiversity

3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by developing school gardens and linking school meals with small-scale local producers

Mechanisms & approaches

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Homegardens – neglected hotspots of biodiversity

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• Fruit• Vegetables• Medicinal plants• Herbs• Spices• Livestock• Poultry• Fisheries• Beekeeping

A few stats

Project – “Enhancing the contribution of home gardens to on-farm management of plant genetic resources and to improve the livelihoods of Nepalese farmers”

Aim: to explore the role of home gardens in community empowerment, food security, livelihood and biodiversity conservation

Although they occupy only 2% of the family’s total land holdings they are rich in biodiversity (87 species) and provide 60% of dietary diversity requirements.

(Gautam et al., 2006)

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Home gardens – neglected hotspots of biodiversity

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• Also important in urban and peri-urban areas

• 800 million people already involved in urban horticulture

• Mainly Asia, Africa and Central and South America

Efforts to promote traditional home gardens

Documenting local food systems and promoting research projects focusing on biodiversity in home gardens

Strengthening community management of biodiversity, local markets and seed systems

Encourage participation of farmers and indigenous communities in developing policies and programmes

Promote knowledge transfer among communities and between communities and research institutions

Ensuring accessibility of local communities to land and the genetic resources they develop

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Improving nutrition through home gardening – A training package for preparing field workers in Africa (2001)

Improving nutrition through home gardening A training package for preparing field

workers in Southeast Asia (1995)

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Training resources available

Aimed at agricultural and community development workers

1. Documenting and supporting home gardens

2. Strengthening community management of agricultural biodiversity

3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by developing school gardens and linking school meals with small-scale local producers

Mechanisms & approaches

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Community Biodiversity Management (CBM) is a community-driven participatory approach that empowers farmers and communities to organize themselves and to develop strategies and plans that support on-farm management of agricultural biodiversity.

(Sthapit et al., 2008)

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Community management of agrobiodiversity

Developing local CBM strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can:• Encourage dietary diversity• Improve access to source of vitamins and minerals

•Community actions: biodiversity fairs, diversity kits

•Capacity building of community knowledge centres: community biodiversity registers, seed banks, farmers’ field schools

•Participatory plant-breeding (PPB) to improve landraces and make them more marketable

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Good practices to enhance and conserve on-farm diversity

1. Documenting and supporting home gardens

2. Strengthening community management of agricultural biodiversity

3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by developing school gardens and linking school meals with small-scale local producers

Mechanisms & approaches

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Educational

Nutritional

Economic

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• Providing pupils with knowledge and skills on sustainable agricultural practices

• Environmental education

• Changing attitudes towards agriculture

• Increasing school attendance

The importance of school gardens

• Lowering the cost of schooling and school feeding

• Income generation

• Improving food diversity to combat malnutrition• improving food security

School Gardens Constraints

Access to water

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Seed availability Land availability

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Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF)

Help alleviate hunger Exist in almost all high- and middle-income

countries and majority of low- and lower-middle-income countries

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However… WFP’s HGSF does not highlight the importance of dietary diversity and the contribution to biodiversity to food and nutrition

Opportunity for linking school feeding programs to local small-scale farmers can be developed into a mechanism for mobilizing and delivering biodiversity for food and nutrition

Mainstreaming nutrition education into national curricula

Importance of nutritional education as an intervention to complement other approaches to mobilizing agricultural diversity

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Efforts to mobilize BFN

Raise awareness of the contribution of biodiversity for food and nutrition among all stakeholders

Adapt the approaches mentioned to socio-economic and cultural context being targeted

Incorporate the approaches into livelihoods and food security and development programs

Provide information, tools, resources needed for their implementation

Promote the sustainable production of local and indigenous foods and their cultural, ecological and nutritional values

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