Technical and/or organizational capacities are required for farmers to effectively implement practical measures for the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, including production and dissemination of seed, community seed banks, participatory plant breeding or variety evaluation, etc.

Capacity development may be an important component of such measures. Depending on the situation and needs of participants, capacity development may take various forms, including for example knowledge-exchange workshops, farmer field schools and other group-based methods. It may be useful to take possible differences in the interests, needs and concerns of women, men and youth into account to ensure that everyone can benefit equally. Media such as videos, posters, technical leaflets and brochures may be used to support such approaches.

Government representatives and stakeholders, including farmers’, community, research and civil society organizations, as well as international donors, may all play important roles in this regard, e.g. by funding and/or implementing such measures.

Example(s) of possible measures:

  • Capacity building and promotion of dynamic conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in traditional ecosystems of the Philippines/in situ conservation of traditional varieties (Philippines/Asia). Click here
  • Training and awareness-raising activities for farmers and their associations carried out by the Centre for Plant Genetic Resources of the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (CRF-INIA) (Spain/Europe). Click here
  • Establishing resilient community-managed seed systems (Cambodia, Philippines/Asia). Click here
  • Farmer Field Schools, as an extension approach to transfer technology with the help of farmer-to-farmer trainers using demonstration centers as learning points (Malawi, Zambia/Africa). Click here