Empowering the Custodians of Agrobiodiversity through a Collective Action on Forgotten Food

In 2021, AFA has joined the Collective Action on Forgotten Food being led by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Crops for the Future Research Centre.  According to GFAR (2021), “forgotten foods are derived from a diversified set of Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) conserved and improved by farmers for centuries, but currently underutilized; and that they provide vital nutrition for local communities, contribute to global food security, generate environmental services and improve communities’ livelihoods through additional income derived from their commercialization”. One of the intentions of Collective Action is to take stock of what needs to be done to effectively meet the needs of custodians farmers. These actions are meant to be with the custodians themselves as emphasized by GFAR.

In Asia-Pacific, AFA and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) are collaborating with the lead institution, APAARI. On May 28, 2021, key partners organized the  Regional Consultation on Forgotten Foods in Asia-Pacific: Developing a Regional Manifesto that gathered farmers’ organizations and research institutions across the region. The aim was to seek information and set priorities from collective action to promote research, innovation, education, sustainable production, processing, marketing, and consumption of forgotten food. The resulting output, the Asia-Pacific Regional Manifesto, served as a guide to the region’s community of practice on Forgotten Food and was used to formulate the Global Manifesto on Forgotten Food

Prior to the Regional Consultation in May 2021, a perception survey was conducted in 17 countries led by farmers’ organizations. This process ensured that farmers’ perspectives are considered in developing future collective actions. The result of the perception survey, a collective voice of farmers in Asia-Pacific, was then shared in various regional and global fora to influence plans and research agenda. The result was further packaged into a Farmers’ Declaration that was used to formulate the Regional Manifesto and Global Manifesto on Forgotten Food. The Declaration was given back to the farmers’ organizations to be disseminated to their members and partners.

Converging through this Collective Action, all concerned partners will be able to put forgotten foods priority agenda of research institutions and at the same time fully unleash their potential to address pressing challenges related to nutrition, food security, and climate change. The Collective Action on Forgotten Food is a mechanism that can lead to enhanced partnerships between researchers and farmers leading to the reinforcement of local knowledge that in turn supports resilience-building efforts in rural farming communities.

In 2022, the Collective Action stakeholders intend to seize opportunities to mobilize all partners and resources to implement the actions stipulated in the Global Manifesto and Global Action Plan. In Asia-Pacific, there will be strategic activities that will be undertaken to be led by AFA and national farmers’ organizations.

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Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Declaration on Traditional and Indigenous Food Crops
May 28, 2021

We, the participating organizations in the survey conducted between March-May 2021 on Traditional and Indigenous Crops, as a preparatory process to the Regional Consultation on Forgotten Foods organized by the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Global Forum of Agricultural Research (GFAR), Alliance Bioversity – CIAT, Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (BDIRW) and International Crop Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), appreciate the attention given to traditional and indigenous food crops that we, with our ancestors, have cultivated for generations. We know that many of these crops are nutritious and can readily provide for our families’ need for food, fiber, health, medicines, and occasionally incomes. We also use our indigenous crops for religious activities and for traditional and local festivals. We understand well that these crops have thrived in our soil, even in marginal areas, with little inputs, and withstand adverse conditions. Thus, these crops have been conserved by our communities, especially by our women farmers. We have relied on traditional and existing practices – our own knowledge, family’s tacit knowledge, and fellow farmers’ knowledge – to grow, consume and sell these crops. We have been developing resource management approaches that help conserve agrobiodiversity and ways to process and market these crops. Our work on local indigenous crops is a testimony to the role of family farmers as custodians of our country’s agrobiodiversity and caretakers of the environment. Our communities are rich repositories of diverse species, wisdom, and knowledge.

We have learned that many of these local and indigenous crops are now being termed by international scientists as “forgotten food crops” or “neglected and underutilized species” because these crops have received little attention or entirely ignored by agricultural researchers, plant breeders, and policymakers. We recognize that attention to these crops is mounting because of their potential to contribute to fighting poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as to make agriculture more resilient to withstand the effects of climate change. In our communities, where many are poor, hungry, and malnourished, the massive promotion of these crops can mean more available, affordable, adequate nutritious food, and markets for our crops, thereby increasing our incomes.

With the support mainly from our partner civil society organizations and development agencies, some of us have already taken initiatives for conserving, using, and diversifying agriculture through indigenous, traditional, or local crops:

• In the Pacific, the Pacific Breadfruit and Seeds Program, as prioritized by the Pacific Island Farmers Organisation Network, developed breadfruit, an important indigenous food source, as an orchard crop across the Pacific region. The seeds component encourages members to grow local, nutrient-rich, open-pollinated plant varieties and relearn the practice of saving their own seeds for future planting. A virtual community has been established  (breadfruitpeople.com) where queries on this traditional crop are answered here.
• Affiliated Farmers’ Organizations of the Lanka Farmers’ Forum (LFF) and Ecological Agricultural Producers’ and Entrepreneurs Cooperative Society (EcoAPECoop) are working with smallholder food producer organizations and their members in nine districts of Sri Lanka. LFF members are practicing agroecology, which enhances agrobiodiversity, protects the environment, and uses traditional seed varieties, which tolerate pests, diseases, and climate change effects. Further, LFF farmers are adding value to their crops by converting them into food commodities to earn better income. For example, the Matale District Lanka Farmers Forum produces grain-based food products using different underutilized grain varieties under the brand name Pink Products. Now, the EcoAPECoop, the national level primary cooperative society markets these value-added farmers’ products under the “ApeCoop” brand. In addition, LFF farmers’ together with other farmers groups lobby for national and regional level policy changes to enable and protect the farmers’ rights to grow, conserve and market indigenous and traditional crop and seed verities. In 2013, these farmers succeeded in defeating the proposed Seed Act amendments that could have criminalized farmers who grow, conserve, and sell traditional food crops and seeds without registration.
• The Self Employed Womens’ Association (SEWA) in India has established a rural distribution network called RUDI, which buys local crops such as pulses, turmeric, spices, from their farmer members, and then process and package these in their RUDI centers, subsequently, it is distributed to rural women through women members called RUDIbens or to feeding centers for children. In addition, the RUDI-Kamala initiative aims to achieve food and nutrition security on a 100-mile concept on a decentralized supply chain. SEWA’s organic and traditional food-processing center, known as “Kamala,” has trained about five hundred women. These women have started making healthy dry snacks, and they are providing them in their villages.

However, we realize that there are still challenges in promoting these crops to the larger market, especially in urban communities. These crops are perceived to have low economic value, inferior, and poor peoples’ food. Cultivation of these crops remains low, as there are few researches and innovations done for its wider cultivation.  We have not received support in marketing these crops and good quality seeds are also not readily available. Governments’ resources and support are mostly channeled towards the cultivation of a few crops including a narrow range of staples. And due to such a bleak scenario, the number of farmers amongst us who are cultivating these crops are steadily declining, and we are afraid that the knowledge and practices on the cultivation of these indigenous crops will be lost, and along with it, the potential of these crops to contribute to the achievement of the ambitions of Agenda 2030.

But we would like to impress upon the authorities to support the revival and encouragement of such crops for the overall good of the ecology, biodiversity, food, nutritional, and income security in the face of increased climate variation, biodiversity loss, and compromised nutrition.

As organizations and cooperatives of family farmers and civil society in the Asia-Pacific region, we articulate our commitment to help in the massive promotion of indigenous, traditional, and local crops. We will conduct awareness-raising among our members to increase their motivation to cultivate indigenous crops, strengthen the capacities of our women members and encourage our youth members to get fully involved in the full value chain of indigenous crops, including seed production, and advocate for good policies and programs. Where these exist, we will facilitate partnerships with government, research institutions, CSOs, and development partners to improve sustainable production, processing and marketing of indigenous food crops. We will conduct learning exchanges and knowledge management workshops, documenting our experiences and capturing lessons learned from these experiences.

However, we will need the support of the government in terms of policies and incentives, of research institutions in terms of participatory research and innovation, of CSOs in terms of capacity building and technical assistance, and of development partners in terms of financing.

Thus, we call on our governments to:

• Secure our rights and control over natural resources, especially lands, waters, forests as we need these resources to invest long term in diversifying our farms, which includes the production of indigenous crops.
• Protect the biocultural diversity heritage which is important for the protection of such crops. The climate resilience of these food crops offers great climate adaptation strategies, which many fail to notice.
• Recognize our effort to conserve the forgotten crops and traditional practices that were passed on from ancestors to date using personal resources for the public. Our knowledge should be well documented and legally safeguarded. Special attention is extended to family farmers and incentivizing forgotten, neglected, and underutilized species. Farmers cooperatives or collectives should be viewed not only as economic entities but also as consumer groups.
• Develop and implement support programs and projects such as:
  • Provision of farm-to-market roads and electricity to areas devoted to traditional, local crops. And other agricultural infrastructure investment through government schemes with importance to traditional or forgotten crops.
• Mechanisms to resolve human and animal conflicts – protection against animals like wild boar/birds/elephants, etc.
• Recognition, awarding, and accreditation of farmer cooperatives or collectives involved in seed conservation and seed production specifically traditional paddy varieties.
• Incentives for production and processing activities of family farmers through their organizations and cooperatives, such as grants for seed conservation/seed banking, capital and loans for production, processing (to increase shelf life), and marketing (for buying logistics supplies and equipment) of local crops. Support subvention in value chains, collectivization, and certification locally.
• Adequately finance public research institutions for innovations on production, processing, marketing, cooking/consumption of these crops.
• Create markets for traditional local crops such as public procurement for school feeding programs or food assistance and market fairs. The inclusion of traditional foods in public food systems will provide region-specific opportunities and demand for traditional crops. It will also diversify farmers’ livelihood opportunities.
• Regulate markets, trade and prices, and minimum support price in a way that local crops will still be affordable, available, adequate for local communities and the domestic market.
• Awareness programs for the wider public on virtues of traditional crops especially highlighting nutritional aspects. Governments through their agriculture agencies or agriculture universities can publish statements in support of traditional paddy varieties to help farmers to access general markets.

We call on research institutions to:

• Collaborate with us and our organizations in developing solutions to address challenges related to the quality seed production, cultivation, processing, and marketing, packaging of the traditional varieties, and selected underutilized crop species (root and tuber crops, leafy but nutritious vegetables) to entice consumers and increase their market value. New methods and technology on all aspects to be researched on forgotten crops. Moreover, it is important to develop technologies that are appropriate and women-friendly. One example is small machinery for processing small grains like millets and indigenous crops. Processing machinery for millets can save a lot of women’s time and lessen the drudgery.  Community-based storage facilities at the village level are also much needed.
• Support the conservation and improvement of indigenous, local crop varieties and ensure that good quality seeds are made available and accessible to farmers. Geotagging to be made for traditional varieties based on local farmers’ experience and research work by NGOs and researchers. Seed storage structures and in situ conservation demonstration fields are to be developed in the farmers’ fields to access the performance of local varieties and documentation of characteristics is to be done.
• Assist seed enterprises of farmers’ organizations so they can multiply quality seeds and planting materials of indigenous crops.
• Conduct your experiments, research, and innovation in a participatory manner, with the equal participation of family farmers through their organizations in the research agenda, design, formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the research, using in-situ approaches as much as possible.
• Translate research outputs on traditional crops (nutritional content) to stimulate demand from consumers and the wider public and in turn, support the marketing of our products. Culinary diversity to be studied in detail, there are important aspects like traditional vessels and heat quotient used in traditional cooking which contributes immensely to the final taste of cooked foods.
• Include representatives of family farmer organizations and /or cooperatives in the governance structures of research programs.

We call on partner CSOs to:

• Support the establishment of a community seed bank that is critical to address challenges related to access and availability as well as sustainability issues.
• Massively conduct campaigns and public awareness programs to promote the consumption of indigenous, local crops for the health of the people and the planet.
• Strengthen capacities of family farmers’ organizations to provide services to their members in the area of production, processing, and marketing of traditional, local food crops.
• Launch and support awareness program on forgotten food for nutrition security through various media, festivals, educational workshops, highlighting forgotten food varieties and “telling stories of forgotten foods”. Local schools, nurseries, historical societies, parks, and botanical gardens not only grow but also feature the stories of these forgotten foods.
• Advocate for policies and programs that promote traditional food crops.

We call on development partners to:

• Invest in smallholder farmers and their organizations so they can be empowered to govern, manage and sustain their enterprises and services to their members through decentralization, the establishment of community-based enterprises around these crops, and through partnerships with other food systems actors.
• Support the diversification of farms that are resilient to shocks.
• Support the capacity building and training on value addition and product development around these crops.
• Support the organization of seed fairs, food fairs and exhibits, cooking classes, recipe demonstrations, and exchange visits of young food entrepreneurs and young farmers. And support us to cater to niche markets and industries for our ethnic foods such as millets, linseed, Niger, wild edible greens, yams, and medicinal rice.

We call on the private sector, consumers, and the public to:

• Value the work of family farmers by buying directly from farmers or our cooperatives and enterprises.
• Buy the product of the farmers with the price they have set to show appreciation to the product and to the work that they do.
• Support the awareness-raising on the nutritional and health benefits of indigenous and traditional food crops.
• Organize consumer action groups to be formed to support and collaborate with NUS farmers

The United Nations has declared 2019-2028 as the UN Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF). This decade is important as 70% of family farmers are in the Asia-Pacific region, and most of them are small-scale family farmers who are poor and don’t have enough to eat. The Global Action Plan of the UNDFF recognizes the multidimensionality of Family Farming, and when effective policies and programs are enacted, family farmers can provide an utmost contribution to a bio-diverse and resilient agriculture. We believe that with a strong, cohesive multi-stakeholder partnership with family farmers at the heart and at the center of bio-diverse agriculture through the promotion of traditional local crops, we can effectively implement the Global Action Plan of the UNDFF. thereby contributing towards the achievement of the SDGs, particularly SDG1 and 2.

Support organizations

ActionAid Bangladesh

Tarayana Foundation

M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and constituencies

• Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society (BIRDS), Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh
• Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
• Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, Meghalaya
• North East Slowfood and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), Shillong, Meghalaya
• Sanlak Agro Industries Private Limited, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
• Sevamandir, Udaipur, Rajasthan
• Shahaja Samrudha, Bengaluru, Karnataka
• Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
• Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN), Hyderabad

Download the Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Declaration here

Translations

Lao (Lao PDR) – Click to download

Bahasa (Indonesia) – Click to download

Bengali (Bangladesh) – Click to download

Urdu (Pakistan) – Click to download

Sinhala (Sri Lanka) – Click to download

Nepali (Nepal) – Click to download

Bhutan – Click to download

Hindi (India) – Click to download

Gujarati (India) – Click to download

Tajik (Tajikistan) – Click to download

Vietnamese (Vietnam) –  Click to download

Mongolian (Mongolia) – Click to download

Khmer (Cambodia) – Click to download