BSF projects support small-scale farmers’ access to a wide range of seeds that are adapted to their needs. Small-scale farmers, scientists and breeders tap into the International Treaty’s global gene pool of millions of different genetic materials to undertake research and develop new adapted varieties through participatory plant breeding. Projects focus on in-situ and on-farm management, improvement and conservation, and create linkages with broader ex-situ conservation efforts.

Project examples:

• In Kenya and Tanzania, farmers and researchers collaborated to identify genes in cassava varieties that help to improve resistance and tolerance to different stresses. A wide range of farmers work with the resulting improved cassava materials. Among them are farmers who were not previously cultivating these varieties, because they were not available or were unsuitable for their growing conditions.
• In Guatemala, in an area suffering from food shortages due to lost yields, a project is working with indigenous communities to increase the availability and diversity of resilient crops. As a result of participatory breeding efforts, adapted varieties of beans and corns, with important nutritious value, have been released at regional level. The project has resulted in increased availability of food for farming families throughout the year.

Several projects funded under the BSF work to improve local seed value chains and make a wide range of adapted and improved varieties available to small-scale farmers. A number of projects strengthen the capacities of plant breeders in collaboration with small-scale farmers to develop high-quality varieties that are particularly adapted to socio-environmental conditions and of high quality. Besides local seed value chains, projects focus on enhancing the use of PGRFA products in local food value chains.

Project examples:

• In Uganda, farmers increased their productivity and income by increasing the value of sorghum and pearl millet varieties through the production of bio-based products. In a pilot, smallholder farmers and the private sector successfully created a niche market and business opportunities for bio-based products such as sorghum syrup as a nutritional organic sweetener.
• In a district in Ecuador, where family farming is the main source of food and income, this project facilitates access to locally adapted seeds through the establishment of bio-knowledge centres and strengthened farmer enterprises. The project benefits more than 1 500 farmers and reintroduces native and better-adapted plant species for household consumption and commercialization.

Benefit-sharing Fund projects facilitate access to and use of PGRFA, which in turn generates new materials for farmers and for wider exchange through the Multilateral System. In addition to the exchange of plant genetic resources and corresponding data in the Global Information System (GLIS), the Benefit-sharing Fund focuses on knowledge management and exchange from the local to regional and global levels. To this end, the BSF works to improve the capacities of partners to document and disseminate knowledge on innovations for PGRFA management. Knowledge and lessons learned are shared within and beyond projects at regional and global level, to allow others to benefit and to inform policy and planning.

Project examples:

• In Zimbabwe, varieties of cowpea and pearl millet accessed through the International Treaty’s Multilateral System have been reintroduced to farmers’ fields and saved and exchanged via community seed banks. Vice versa, germplasm that was adapted or collected in projects is being duplicated and conserved in national and international gene banks, or, frequently, in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Examples include these Malian rice varieties and these wheat varieties from Serbia.
• Recognizing the importance of a common standard to identify plant genetic resources, this project in Indonesia updated the software and management system of the Indonesian gene bank. The project also developed a plug-in that facilitates the assignation of identifiers via a central metadata registry, which benefits the exchange and management of plant genetic resources globally. As part of the project, the team shared its experience with colleagues from six partnering countries and trained them in working with Digital Object Identifiers.