Virtual Event – 4-5 November 2021
The Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 4 and 5 November 2021.
The virtual event aims to provide a neutral forum for FAO Members, partners, industry and opinion leaders, and other stakeholders to engage in focused dialogues on how best to make quality seeds of preferred productive, nutritious and resilient crop varieties available to farmers. In addition, it will generate evidence for actions towards the realization of the goals of FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-31: for the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment and a Better life, thus contributing to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDGs 2 and 1.
The Crop Trust will be joining the conference as co-chairs of Theme 2’s Parallel Sessions 2.1 & 2.2.
Theme 2
The full range of the diversity of our crops should be safeguarded, their heritable variations characterized, variants evaluated for agronomic performance and associated data published.
Known as plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), this diversity is conserved in situ – whereby crop wild relatives, which are repositories of novel traits, and wild food plants, which are sources of micronutrients, are safeguarded in their native habitats where they may continue to evolve adaptive traits; on-farm – through enhanced intra- and inter- specific diversity of crops, including farmers’ varieties/landraces; and ex situ – whereby PGRFA are safeguarded under partially or wholly controlled conditions in specific genebank facilities or areas outside their natural habitats.
The conference will be a forum for reviewing the state of knowledge of crop diversity, the overall status of its conservation and availability and its underpinning role in resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. The sessions of this theme will further explore the overarching need for enhanced access to the conserved resources and the mechanisms for equitable and fair benefit-sharing mechanisms.
The event will be webcast live here.