Matching seeds to needs

CLIMATE change is imposing an unprecedented threat to livelihoods and food security with great impacts over time and across locations.
This will seriously affect millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on subsistence agriculture.
The Tsukuba Declaration, on adapting agriculture to climate change, unanimously declared that throughout the Asia-Pacific, climate change would significantly increase regional temperature, reduce water availability and erode coastal land as the sea level rises.
PNG is known to experience cyclic wet and dry periods induced by El Niño, which could severely curtail crop production by reducing the duration of cultivation and increasing threats from pests and diseases. In small-scale or subsistence communities, a single crop failure can spell disaster for farmers and their families.
Already, there appears to be an intensification of pest and disease problems in PNG, including late blight on potatoes and leaf scab on sweet potatoes.
Projected reductions in the length of growing seasons could force large regions of marginal agriculture completely out of production, with a reduction in yield of 50% in some countries by 2020.
Adaptation strategies are urgently needed.
PNG needs to match seeds to the needs of farmers for adaptation in times of climate change.
In a new intervention, agricultural stakeholders are focusing on matching local varieties of sweet potato and taro with regions in PNG that are under greatest threat from the phenomenon. This initiative on agricultural biodiversity was launched in Lae last month.
The project, titled “Matching seeds to needs: Using locally available varieties for adapting to climate change and improving the livelihoods of poor farmers in PNG”, will be undertaken in PNG by NARI and key stakeholders over the next three years. It is funded by Bioversity International-UK to the value of US$300,000.
The other partners included the Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA), PNG Women in Agriculture Development Foundation (PNGWiADF), Alele Fresh Produce and the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (Fiji). 
Under the initiative, the regions in PNG under greatest threat from climate change would be identified, and results from global climate models would be used to predict future climates in these regions.
Based on these climate models, varieties of sweet potato and taro that are well adapted to the predicted future climates would be matched to these target areas so that they can continue to produce yields under predicted future climatic conditions. Seeds of these adapted varieties would be made available to farmers through community-based seed multiplication and delivery systems with the help of local agribusinesses.
With seeds adapted to their needs, resource-poor communities would be able to sustain agricultural production despite changes in climate conditions.
By working with the partners, including local communities and women’s groups, the project’s activities will strengthen the resilience of agricultural systems by identifying heartier, more stress-resistant varieties of sweet potato and taro currently being conserved to ensure small farmers, who maintain native staple crop diversity, do not fall deeper into poverty.
The overall impact would be that local communities, and their food production systems, would successfully adapt to changes in climate, maintaining or even improving their food security and improving their livelihoods.
Sweet potato and taro were chosen because they are among PNG’s most important staple crops. Sweet potato alone accounts for 66% of total staple crop production in the country.
Research, supported by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is already underway in PNG to screen highland sweet potato germplasm for stresses. Other complementary work included an ongoing project on sweet potato pests and diseases, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research.
For taro, a NARI programme is identifying and using varieties that are resistant to leaf blight and also identifying high-yielding nutritious varieties.
Under the arrangement, bioversity will be responsible for collecting and conservation of target crop varieties, climate predictions and application of state-of-the-art models for identifying well-adapted genetic diversity. NARI would provide planting materials, associated information and personnel in the field. The institute would also be responsible for identifying the most useful varieties which could ensure farmers sustain, and even increase, production in future despite changing climatic conditions.
The Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees will maintain elite lines selected through this project from national collections and make available planting materials and information to breeders, researchers and farmers in PNG and other countries.
Technical contributions, including training, would be provided through complementary funding from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, a multinational organisation.
PNGWiADF will play a key role in ensuring the participation of women farmers in germplasm selection and dissemination, assisted by FPDA and Allele Fresh Produce.
The first step in this process would be to identify the new challenges posed by climate change for the cultivation of sweet potato and taro in some of the most threatened areas of PNG. This will couple global and regional climate modelling with crop-suitability models to describe future climatic conditions for target zones and identify production constraints for sweet potato and taro.
Using new approaches, conserved materials would be evaluated for tolerance to environmental stresses associated with climate change, such as drought, high salt content in soil, pests and disease infestation. 
Using state-of-the-art geographic information system technology, environmental data and information management, the conserved varieties would be matched to the specific needs of farmers in areas predicted to experience these conditions in the future.
Indigenous farming communities would be mobilised to apply their traditional knowledge, and participatory research would involve local communities in identifying suitable planting materials.
By compiling and interpreting information about the geographic origins and genetic make-up of these materials, plant breeders and farmers in PNG would produce crop varieties that are productive despite future changes in climate.
By improving the resilience and adaptation of agricultural systems in PNG, this project would safeguard both the food security and livelihoods of local farmers.