Recently, the Project Preparation Grant (PPG) inception workshop was held in Beijing to support preparation of a full Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project titled “On-farm conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity of crops originated in China. It was co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Department of Science, Technology and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the PRC (MARA).

Deputy Director of Rural Energy & Environment Agency of MARA Wu Xiaochun chaired the workshop. Deputy Director-General of the Department of Science, Technology and Education of MARA Li Bo and Assistant-Representative of FAO China Zhang Zhongjun delivered opening statements. The workshop was attended by over 30 participants.

In his speech, Li Bo congratulated concerned officials on the start of cooperation between MARA and FAO in preparation of the first GEF grant-funded project after the concept note of the proposed project was approved by GEF. He pointed out that China is one of the countries in the world with highly rich biodiversity and is also one of the eight major centres of origin of the world's crops. However, fitting in the global trend, recent years have seen dramatic loss of China’s biodiversity with many valuable crop species now facing the threat of extinction. He cautioned that many valuable local species selected and nurtured by our ancestors have gradually disappeared from the agricultural production systems posing new challenges to the protection of agricultural biodiversity and germplasm resources. “The on-farm genetic diversity project aims at proper protection and utilization of important crop genetic resources. It will lead to development of innovative methods and techniques for protection of globally important agricultural biodiversity and its utilization for strengthening food security,” Li Bo added.

Assistant Representative of FAO China Zhang Zhongjun highlighted that “since its establishment in 1945, FAO has actively promoted the application of integrated methods such as agricultural biodiversity conservation and climate smart agriculture. As of today, FAO has implemented more than 180 GEF projects worldwide. Since 2014, eight GEF projects have been designed and implemented in China, involving wetland and biodiversity conservation, sustainable management of forestry resources, water ecological protection and watershed management”.

Referring to the proposed project Zhang Zhongjun showed confidence that through targeting the species of rice in Yunnan province, millet in Hebei province, and soybean in Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces, the project would allow achieving the expected results and strengthen policies and developing a mechanism of long-term incentives. Being the first GEF project symbolizing the cooperation between FAO and MARA at the country level, he said its success would lay a concrete foundation for the joint development and implementation of more GEF projects in the future. 

Professor Yang Qingwen, a local agricultural biodiversity expert, introduced the project design concept, expected outputs and implementation routine of the project. Dr. Arshiya Noorani, agricultural officer on plant genetic resources in FAO headquarters, introduced FAO’s technical advantages, information platforms and international exchanges on agricultural biodiversity. Finally, Ms. Li Ling, GEF project officer in FAO China, introduced the work plan, output report and schedule of the project design and development phase.

In the following sessions, Ma Dechao, project manager from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative office in China, introduced the communication and coordination mechanism among international executive agencies in the knowledge management module, which was led by FAO in the GEF 6 partnership planning for agricultural sustainable development. Later on, representatives from various provinces introduced selection of project site and exchanged their opinions on the implementation of the projects.

Finally, Xu Xuewan, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department of MARA made concluding remarks. Xu pointed out that the aims of the project meet the strategic objectives of the long-term planning of the agricultural and rural development of the Chinese government. He expected that the project would benefit the livelihoods of local farmers while protecting the biodiversity of local agriculture.