Focus on: Smallholder Innovation for Resilience (SIFOR)

This five-year project (2012-2017) aims to strengthen biocultural innovation for food security in the face of climate change, in China, India, Kenya and Peru.

This five-year project aims to strengthen biocultural innovation for food security in the face of climate change. It will improve the food security and resilience of small-scale farmers by supporting their innovation systems and traditional knowledge to thrive, and by linking farmers with scientists, in four focal countries.

Case studies and partners
In each country, coordinating organisations are supporting participatory action-research led by indigenous farmers.

• In China, the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy is working with 21 villages in the karst mountains, an area rich in waxy maize and rice.
• In India, Lok Chetna Manch is working with 10 Lepcha and Limbu villages in the central and eastern Himalayas, an area rich in rice and millets.
• In Kenya, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute is working with 27 coastal Mijikenda villages, an area rich in indigenous vegetables and maize.
• In Peru, Asociacion ANDES is working with five Quechua communities in the Potato Park, Cusco, which is home to 1,430 varieties of native potato.

Project advisory committee
A European project advisory committee has been set up to provide strategic advice and to strengthen European developing country research partnerships. It brings together five leading experts:

• Dr Linda Collette, Secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
• Dr Ronnie Vernooy, Bioversity International;
• Professor Graham Dutfield, Leeds University;
• Professor Janice Jiggins, Wageningen University; and
• Geoff Tansey, agriculture and intellectual property expert.