Prizes and awards may be established to honor custodian/guardian farmers, including women and youth*, and farming communities for outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA in their fields and farming systems according to local practices. Such prizes and awards may be conferred, for example, at the occasion of events that attract public attention; they may include cash prizes, certificates, plaques, medals, or token gifts.

Prizes and awards can help raise public awareness of the importance of conserving and sustainably using PGRFA and encourage awardees to continue and further expand their work. In the longer term, public awareness may result in opportunities for custodian/guardian farmers and farming communities to generate additional income from the conservation and use of PGRFA and/or raise additional funds for their activities.

Women’s and men’s contributions to the conservation, management and use of PGRFA may focus on different crops, uses or types of activities, which may be useful to consider in the preparation of eligibility criteria and terms of participation.

When establishing awards, the awarding authority or organization may want to carefully assess any related risks of unagreed use or appropriation of specific PGRFA and/or associated traditional knowledge held by the awardee(s) and respect customary laws and protocols.

Legal requirements may need to be observed in cases where samples of seed or other propagating materials of specific PGRFA conserved or developed by applicants are deposited with the awarding authority or organization, or if associated traditional knowledge is disclosed.

Example(s) of possible measures:

  • Recognition and rewards to farmers and farmer-breeders under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 (India/Asia). Click here
  • Award for farmers who conserve genetic resources (Indonesia/Asia). Click here
  • The Golden Pea award (Sweden/Europe). Click here

 

* Based on the guidance provided by the Expert Group, the descriptions of options in this document consider gender for relevant options, in line with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030 and the submissions to the Inventory received. IT/GB-9/22/13.3.