What Happened
- The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) is actively promoting over 20 native Indian crop varieties, working with farmers across four agro-ecological zones.
- The initiative targets traditional varieties of crops including rice, maize, kidney bean, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon pea, sesame, mustard, and cumin.
- The programme spanned seven years and involved collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
- Four regions covered: Western Himalayas, Western Arid and Semi-Arid Region, Central Plateau Region, and the Northeastern Region of the Eastern Himalayas.
- A crowdsourcing approach facilitated participatory varietal selection of over 5,000 new varieties, with farmers trialing technologies directly on their own farms.
- The Alliance also implements community seed banks under the Seeds for Needs Programme to ensure farmer access to diverse, climate-adapted crop varieties.
Static Topic Bridges
Plant Genetic Resources and Biodiversity Conservation
Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) are the foundation of food security and agricultural adaptation. They include traditional varieties (landraces), wild relatives of crops, and improved cultivars. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol govern access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), to which India is a signatory, facilitates multilateral sharing of crop genetic material.
- Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norway): "Doomsday vault" holding 1.3 million seed varieties as backup
- National Gene Bank of India (NBPGR, New Delhi): Conserves over 450,000 accessions of crop genetic material
- CBD: 1992; Nagoya Protocol: 2010 (entered force 2014) — ABS (Access and Benefit Sharing) framework
- ITPGRFA (Plant Treaty): Multilateral system covers 64 major food and forage crops
- India's Biological Diversity Act, 2002: Regulates access to biological resources and traditional knowledge
Connection to this news: Alliance Bioversity-CIAT's work in India directly operationalises the CBD's mandate by conserving and promoting traditional crop varieties that might otherwise be lost to commercial monoculture.
Participatory Varietal Selection and Community Seed Banks
Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) is a farmer-centered approach where smallholders evaluate and select crop varieties that best suit their local conditions, instead of receiving top-down recommendations from research stations. Community Seed Banks (CSBs) are locally managed storage facilities where farmers collectively save and exchange traditional seeds, reducing dependence on commercial seed markets and preserving genetic diversity.
- Over 5,000 traditional varieties trialed through crowdsourcing approach under this programme
- Community seed banks have been established across multiple states in India under the Seeds for Needs programme
- India has approximately 1,400+ community seed banks (various estimates)
- PVS ensures varieties are adapted to local agro-ecological conditions — critical for climate resilience
- Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 (PPV&FR Act): Recognises and protects farmers' rights to save, use, and exchange seeds
Connection to this news: The initiative exemplifies PVS at scale — using crowdsourcing to rapidly screen thousands of traditional varieties, with community seed banks ensuring the selected varieties remain accessible to farmers over time.
Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Food Security
Climate change is disrupting agricultural productivity through erratic rainfall, droughts, floods, and temperature extremes. Traditional crop varieties often carry traits — drought tolerance, pest resistance, flood endurance — that have been lost in high-yielding but genetically narrow modern varieties. Promoting native varieties builds agricultural resilience and reduces the vulnerability of India's food system to climate shocks.
- India loses ~$3.75 billion annually to climate-linked agricultural disruption (estimates vary)
- Green Revolution varieties (dwarf wheat, HYV rice) prioritised yield over genetic diversity — creating vulnerability
- CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research): Global network of which Alliance Bioversity-CIAT is a member; focuses on food security research
- PM-AASHA and National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013: India's food security architecture depends on stable crop production
- India ratified the Paris Agreement (2015): NDCs include climate-resilient agriculture as an adaptation goal
Connection to this news: Promoting 20+ native Indian crop varieties is directly an adaptation strategy — each variety represents a tested response to specific local stressors that commercial breeding cannot easily replicate.
CGIAR System and India's Agricultural Research
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a global partnership of 15 research centres working on food and agriculture. Alliance Bioversity-CIAT is one such centre. ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) is India's apex body for agricultural research, with 102 institutes and 710 KVKs (Krishi Vigyan Kendras).
- Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT merged in 2019
- CGIAR centres in India: CIMMYT (wheat/maize), ICRISAT (dryland crops), IRRI (rice), IWMI (water)
- ICAR-NBPGR: National custodian of India's plant genetic resources
- India is the second most crop-biodiverse country after China (estimated 47,000 plant species)
- National Biodiversity Authority (NBA): Regulates use of biological resources under Biological Diversity Act, 2002
Connection to this news: The ICAR-Alliance Bioversity-CIAT collaboration represents the institutional bridge between India's national gene bank holdings and on-farm conservation by smallholder farmers.
Key Facts & Data
- Number of native Indian crop varieties being promoted: 20+
- Varieties trialed through participatory crowdsourcing: 5,000+
- Duration of the UNEP-ICAR-Alliance programme: 7 years
- Four agro-ecological zones covered: Western Himalayas, Western Arid/Semi-Arid, Central Plateau, Northeastern Himalayas
- Crops targeted: rice, maize, kidney bean, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon pea, sesame, mustard, cumin
- India's NBPGR gene bank: 450,000+ accessions
- PPV&FR Act, 2001: Protects farmers' rights to save, use, exchange seeds
- Svalbard Global Seed Vault: 1.3 million seed varieties stored