Consumption of Resilient Orphan Crops & Products for Healthier Diets (CROPS4HD ) is an international collaborative project of three NGOs co-funded by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) under the SDC’s Global Programme on Food Security. Starting in 2021, it will run for ten years. CROPS4HD collaborators are SWISSAID, FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture), and AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa).
The overall goal of the project CROPS4HD is to (1) improve food security and nutrition of smallholder farmers, especially women, through (2) sustainable use and conservation of farmers’ varieties/landraces focusing on neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and (3) respecting agroecological approaches.
For CROPS4HD, in order to understand and work on the current seed and food systems, three factors are key: CROPS4HD identifies (a) underlying factors that are out of the project’s direct influence such as climate change but will address them, inter alia, via agroecological approaches. It recognizes (b) socioeconomic and (c) biophysical driving and restraining factors, which the project seeks to influence in a way that the resulting (d) seed and food systems outcomes coincide with the project outcomes.
Local and Global
CROPS4HD implements the project in East Africa (Tanzania, i.e. Lindi, Morogoro, Mtwara, Pwani, Ruvuma), Central Africa (Chad, i.e. Guera, Logone Oriental, Mandoul, Mayo-Keppi Quest), West Africa (Niger, i.e. Dosso, Tillabéri) and South Asia (India, i.e. Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal) to cover a broad range of different socio-economic contexs with respect to global health security indices, gross domestic product, burden of malnutrition, rural development and peasants’ income security.
The project unfolds its potential and leverage to influence global policy frameworks to adopt and embrace peasant seed systems as an important pillar for food security and agrobiodiversity. If success and effectiveness can be demonstrated on the local level, broad and strong alliances of like-minded actors will emerge; then, global policy levels will adopt the project’s goals and other countries will replicate the practice.
Results and Outlook
CROPS4HD is ambitious and realistic: In 15 years, CROPS4HD will have established sustainable alternative direct marketing opportunities for 1’200’000 peasants and contributed to a growing awareness of more and more consumers on diversified healthy diets and sustainable local food systems including the reintroduction of neglected species and peasants’ varieties in everyday meals. Peasants in these countries will be free to save, share, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds without fear of legal action. UPOV91 will no longer be the benchmark for African Plant Variety Protection and national seed laws. By then, emerging legal frameworks recognize and value peasants’ cultivars and Peasant Seed Systems. Agrobiodiversity in more than 50 local food systems will have considerably increased through the reintroduction of minimum 16 orphan crops in local markets as well as at seed guardians/seed producer level; the number of characterized genetic resources will have increased tenfold.
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Liechtensteinischer Entwicklungsdienst (LED)
SWISSAID
AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa)
Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
World Vegetable Center (WVC)
Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES)
GRAIN
Research Coordination
