Mainstreaming nutrient dense traditional crops and management of

crop biodiversity for nutrition sensitive agriculture in the mountains of Nepal*

Devendra Gauchan, PhD

Bioversity International, Nepal

A paper presented in “2nd International Conference on Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture in

the Mountains” Feb 27-28, 2018, Hotel Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal.

*This paper is derived from the on-going work of GEF UNEP Local Crop Project (LCP), Nepal (2014-2019) implemented

by Bioversity International in partnership with NARC, DoA and LI-BIRD funded through GEF UNEP..

Contributions of LCP team is highly acknowledged for developing this presentation.

Importance of Traditional Mountain Crops

• Traditional mountain crops (buckwheat, barley, beans, amaranths, finger millets, foxtail millet, pros millets) are nutrient dense, climate resilient, and grown default organic

• These crops make small mountain farmers less dependent on costly external inputs since they are tolerant to harsh cold environment, drought, poor soils and disease, pests

• Matures in very short period making food available early in lean season for resource poor food insecure households

• They are gluten free, rich in micronutrients, high dietary fibers and with rare amino acids and Vitamins, hence often called Himalayan Superfoods (www.himalayancrops.org)

• Unavailability of diverse quality seeds of adapted

improved varieties (due to lack of R&D, functioning seed system)

• Poor value chains and market linkages of traditional

nutrient dense crops with urban markets”

Major Constraints for the Promotion of Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture in Nepal

• Poor awareness of the value of traditional nutrient

dense crops among farmers, consumers and planners

• Lack of post-harvest (processing, food recipe preparation,

nutrition analysis) technologies and practices for the

traditional nutrient dense crops (e.g. millets, buckwheat)

GEF UNEP Project Districts and Site Information

Focus on high elevations> 1500 -3000 msl

Dominance of Traditional Crops in the Project Sites

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Amaranth Barley Beans Buckwheat Finger millet Foxtail millet Naked barley

Proso millet Cold tolerant Rice

Jumla Humla Lamjung Dolakha

%

HH

% Households Growing (N=328)

Project Intervention Approaches

• Develop technologies and generate diversity rich solutions using participatory approach to promote sustainable and resilient farming focusing nutrient dense traditional crops

• Focus on intraspecific crop diversity to manage pests and diseases, ecosystem services and adaptation to climate change

• Community seed banks establishment for strengthening local seed security and agrobiodiversity conservation

• Technology diversification for processing and value chain enhancement of traditional mountain crops

• Policy research and analysis for increased access and benefit sharing to mainstream good practices

Progress made in Technology Development

• To date 300 crop varieties of 8 crops are deployed and evaluated in the project sites for functional traits and overall agronomic performance

• A total of 35 superior varieties of 8 crops identified from on-farm evaluation and made available to 4,047 farmers’ through Diversity kits and seed multiplication.

• Participatory on-farm evaluation and selection of locally adapted crop varieties through participatory grass roots breeding and their promotion through the process registration

• Work is on-going for crop varietal mixture, disease diagnostic and ecosystem service studies and modification /piloting processing equipment and tools for reducing women drudgery

Modification /Piloting Processing Equipment & Nutrition Analysis of Traditional Crops

• Testing of baking and cooking quality and Nutrition Analysis is on-going to identify varietal differences on specific nutrition contents of underutilized nutrient rich mountain crops

• Project also piloted an electric finger millet threshers which is highly efficient, cost-effective and women friendly. It saves time by nearly 4 times and per kg threshing is NPR 3.5 as compared to NPR 8.5 for manual threshing

• Refinement of Proso millet threshing (hulling) is on-going using different machinery options and techniques to make it efficient and women friendly

Building Seed Systems of Traditional Nutrient Rich Crops

• Four community seed banks (CSBs) are established one in each project site (Jumla, Humla, Dolakha and Lamjung) for strengthening local seed system and promoting Conservation

• A total of 4.8 MT (3.8 MT local crop) seeds were produced and used as source for further multiplication and enhancing access and strengthening local seed systems

• Diversity Field Schools (DFS) and Diversity Fairs in each project sites are being implemented regularly with farmer groups on the use and promotion of diverse crop varieties

• Project is promoting linkages and mobilization of diverse seed actors from farmers and CSBs to seed dealers and seed companies to diversify availability of diverse seeds .

Community Seed Bank in Project Sites

1

1

1

1

Linking Diversity (Traditional Seed) Fairs with Food Fairs

• 4 Diversity Fairs (one in each project site) held in 2014-2016 by mobilizing local communities.

• Project has been participating and supporting organization of District level Food Fairs linking with traditional seed Fairs

• Partner CBOs of Project sites of Lamjung, Jumla and Humlabagged first prizes in Food Fairs

Diversity Fair (Traditional Seed Fair) is adopted to promote nutrition, climate

resilience and cultural value of traditional seeds and crop biodiversity

Promoting an Enabling Environment for Nutrition Rich Crops

• Project has developed mechanism for linking national genebank and NARC research centres with local communities and community seed banks to promote seeds /technologies of local crops

• Simplifying variety release /registration system of traditional crops and landraces for official listing and commercialization

• Work on integrating the value of traditional crops biodiversity in formal education system (curricula, lectures, school nutrition etc.)

• Policy review and analysis is on-going to recommend, harmonize and reform seed, agrobiodiversity and agricultural policies for the promotion of diverse adapted farmers varieties

• National-level interactive workshop, consultation meetings and training programms to enhance capacity of farmers and local stakeholders on promotion of traditional mountain crops

Mainstreaming Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture in Mountains

• Production enhancement through participatory variety selection, improvement and strengthening local seed system of climate resilient and nutrient rich traditional crops

• Processing enhancement through improvement & modification of post-harvest technologies and food recipe formulations for local nutrient rich crops

• Promotion with public awareness and technologies of organic farming, Geographical Indication and value addition & marketing

• Policy revisions and institutional building (eg, CSB) for the promotion of crops for climate resilience & nutrition interventions

Namaste and Thank You for your Attention !!

Email: d.gauchan@cgiar.org

Website: www.himalyancrops.org