A week long training workshop on Evolutionary Plant Breeding for the National Project Stakeholders is underway at Gelephu. The on-farm conservation Project on Evolutionary Plant Breeding “Use of genetic diversity and Evolutionary Plant Breeding for enhanced farmer resilience to climate change, sustainable crop productivity, and nutrition under rain-fed conditions” is supported by IFAD through Biodiversity International. It is an International project coordinated by Biodiversity International, Rome and will be implemented in six countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Iran, Uganda, Ethiopia and Jordan). The project will focus on the conservation and sustainable use of rice and bean on-farm diversity in the proposed project sites exploiting the concept of evolutionary plant breeding.
The objectives of the training workshop are to enhance the capacity of the national project stakeholders on evolving concepts of evolutionary plant breeding, on-Farm crop genetic diversity assessment and seed systems, and social ecological assessment. The training workshop is organized by the National Biodiversity Centre, Serbithang, with technical support from the International Project Coordinating Unit, the Bioversity International, Rome. It is attended by the participants from the Regional Agriculture Research and Development Centres and the extension officials from the proposed project sites. The project will be implemented in 6 sites covering five Dzongkhags representing four agro-ecological zone. The project will identify climate resilient technologies for conservation, development and sustainable use of crop diversity.
