Document types: Research
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The Role That Local Food Plants Can Play in Improving Nutrition Security and Reducing Seasonal Scarcity in Rural Communities: A Multi-Country Study
Local food plants contribute to dietary diversity, and hence, to food and nutrition security in rural households of low- and middle-income countries. However, their consumption and use are declining, in a favour of simplified diets or industrial foods. This paper presents data from the Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security programme, which aimed at improving nutrition […]
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The power lies in the hands of the small-scale farmers
The article on the SD=HS program in Uganda was featured in the Vice-Versa Global Communities in Uganda’s West Nile sub-region are taking innovative approaches to ensure food and nutrition security. Through initiatives like farmer field school (FFS), community seed banks, kitchen gardens, and cooking demonstration classes, they are rediscovering and utilizing Local Food Plants (LFPs) […]
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Case Studies from Laos
Sowing Diversity= Harvesting Security Phase II (2019-2022) The case studies presented under the Sowing Diversity equals Harvesting Security (SD=HS) Program in Laos from 2019-2022 showcase successful initiatives and outcomes in different provinces. The program has contributed to food security and economic well-being in the region. There are a total of six case studies that highlight […]
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Recipe book from Uganda collects local knowledge
The recipe book shows the preparation of Neglected and Underutilised Species By Andrew Adem, Programs Manager ESAFF Uganda Despite the efforts of the government and other stakeholders to tackle these issues, hunger and malnutrition remain serious problems in Uganda. With the rising rates of hunger and malnutrition as a result of food insecurity, its effects […]
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Strengths and weaknesses of organized crop seed production by smallholder farmer: A five-country case study
By B Dey , B Visser, HQ Tin, A Mahamadou Laouali, N Baba Toure Mahamadou, C Nkhoma, S Alonzo Recinos, C Opiyo and S Bragdon. In many countries, smallholder farmers play a key role in food crop seed production. So far, the community roles, operational structures, seed production efficiency, aspects of sustainability, and the social […]
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‘Advances in the Registration of Farmers’ Varieties: Four Cases from the Global South’ Agronomy, 11 November 2021
Over the last few decades, there has been a growing appreciation of crop varieties developed by local farmers, commonly referred to as farmers’ varieties. These varieties often have attractive characteristics for both producers and consumers, such as adaptability to harsh environmental conditions and high nutritional values. Yet they are usually not sold in formal markets, […]
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‘Agroecological Transitions: A Systematic Review of Research Approaches and Prospects for Participatory Action Methods’ Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 26 October 2021
There have been many calls for an agroecological transition to respond to food shocks and crises stemming from conventional food systems. A group of researchers, including SD=HS’s Gisella Cruz García, focus on participatory action research and transformative epistemologies, where communities are research actors rather than objects, have been proposed as a way to enhance this […]
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‘How regulatory issues on new breeding technologies can impact smallholder farmer breeding: Case study from the Philippines’ Plants People Planet, 25 May 2021
In this article, SD=HS team members Bram De Jonge, Bert Visser and Rene Salazar look at the impacts of breeding technologies regulations on smallholder farmers. The widespread use of patents on plants in low- and middle-income countries demonstrates the increasing privatisation of crop genetic resources. This potentially limits their use in farmer breeding, increasing the […]
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Recopilación de recetas de alimentos con especies subtulizadas de la Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, Guatemala
Guatemala como país megadiverso, cuenta como parte de su agrobiodiversidad con especies útiles para la alimentación que, por su bajo costo, sabor característico y alto contenido nutricional son una alternativa para contribuir a la seguridad alimentaria de las comunidades indígenas de la Sierra de de los Cuchumatanes, Huehuetenango. El consumo de tallos, hojas, raíces y […]
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‘Foods of Oppression’
Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 17 March 2021The growing recognition of food justice as an element of food studies inquiry has opened a productive vein that allows for analyzing the effects of oppression on traditional foods of Indigenous peoples. Writing together with Lisa Price and Nemer Narchi in the open-access “Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems”, SD=HS’s Gisella Cruz García provides a preliminary […]
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Diagnostic Assessment of Underutilized Species in Guatemala
The Cuchumatanes Range is located in the department of Huehuetenango in northern Guatemala, and is home to the Mam, Chuj, Q’anjob’al, Akateko, Awakateko, Chalchiteko, Popti, and K’iche’ linguistic communities. Up to 65% of the residents in the area live in poverty or extreme poverty; illiteracy rates hover around 60%, and 77% of children under the […]
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Baseline tool on nutrition and local food plants
This document aims at providing a guideline for the implementation of a baseline survey to capture information on nutrition and local food plants, which corresponds to the work on nutrition (third Pillar) of the “Sowing Diversity=Harvesting Security” Program (SD=HS). SD=HS is a global program, currently implemented by consortium partners in eight countries and coordinated by […]
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Living Links Connecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030 adopted by the global community in September 2015 are applicable to all countries with the commitment “that no one is left behind.” As an agenda for “people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership”, Agenda 2030 provides a vision for people and planet-centered, human rights-based, and gender-sensitive sustainable […]
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Women’s roles in biodiversity management
NB: A summary of this case study report was included in the UN report on ‘The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture’. Read more Indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers, a large percentage of whom are women, provide about eighty percent of the food consumed in almost all of the developing world, contributing […]
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Women, seeds and nutrition
technical report of the baseline surveyPhase 1 of the “Sowing diversity = Harvesting Security” (SD=HS) Programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Dutch National Postcode Lottery (NPL), was implemented between 2014 and 2018. Its objectives were to uphold, strengthen and mainstream the rights and technical capacities of indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers, and to influence […]
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The real seed producers: Small-scale farmers save, use, share and enhance the seed diversity of the crops that feed Africa
This report, developed by GRAIN, unpacks and explores farmer-managed seed systems and their contribution to food and seed sovereignty, including the benefits they provide to farming communities as a part of their sociocultural, economic, spiritual and ecological livelihoods. The report highlights, exposes and explores how these systems work. It builds on reports of the seed […]
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Reconceiving Public-Private partnerships to eradicate hunger: Recognizing small-scale farmers and agricultural biological diversity as the foundation of global food security
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have a long history in development rhetoric yet in general have not fulfilled the promises they have made in the form of increased economic gains (except for industry actors themselves), efficiency, and improved provision of traditionally “public goods.” Noting that food, biological diversity, and small-scale farmers are intersectional areas critical to ending […]
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The impact of national seed laws on the functioning of small-scale seed systems. A country case study
This study is one of the stock-taking activities undertaken under the SD=HS program, focusing on policies relevant to the functioning of small-scale farming systems. It aims to guide further work of the SD=HS program by assessing national seed laws in the eight countries covered by the program, to inform recommendations to ensure these laws better […]
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Evidences on the use of Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) to cope with food scarcity and climate change in the Peruvian Andes
This Briefing Note by Asociación ANDES and Oxfam Novib shows in detail the evidence for the use of Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) as a coping strategy in times of food scarcity because of climate change in the Peruvian Andes. The publication elaborates on challenges of climate change in the Andes, it shows the findings […]
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Consolidated baseline survey report: Women, seeds and nutrition
This report is the first presentation of the consolidated findings of the baseline studies in Vietnam and Zimbabwe for Pillar 3 of the SD=HS program. Pillar 3 has a special focus on neglected and underutilized species, as they have a potential to improve dietary diversity, may contribute to income generation, and may become more important in local […]