This document discusses mechanisms for mobilizing biodiversity for food and nutrition. It outlines three key approaches: 1) documenting and supporting home gardens which are important hotspots of biodiversity and food sources, 2) strengthening community management of agricultural biodiversity through participatory strategies, and 3) promoting dietary diversity in school children by developing school gardens and linking school meals to small local producers. Overall, the document advocates raising awareness of biodiversity's contribution to nutrition and incorporating related approaches into livelihood and food security programs.

1. ANNEX F:
Mechanisms for mobilizing biodiversity
for food and nutrition
Teresa Borelli
Programme Specialist
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2. 2

3. Approaches for mobilizing BFN
 Participatory
 Gender-sensitive
 Food-based
Women produce 60-80% of
the food consumed locally in
developing countries
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4. Mechanisms & approaches
1. Documenting and supporting home gardens
2. Strengthening community management of agricultural
biodiversity
3. Promoting dietary diversity in school children by
developing school gardens and linking school meals with
small-scale local producers
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5. Mechanisms & approaches
1. Documenting and supporting home gardens
2. Strengthening community management of agricultural
biodiversity
3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by
developing school gardens and linking school meals with
small-scale local producers
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6. Homegardens –
neglected hotspots of biodiversity
•Fruit
•Vegetables
•Medicinal plants
•Herbs
•Spices
•Livestock
•Poultry
•Fisheries
•Beekeeping
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7. A few stats
Project – “Enhancing the contribution of home gardens to on-
farm management of plant genetic resources and to improve
the livelihoods of Nepalese farmers”
Aim: to explore the role of home gardens in community
empowerment, food security, livelihood and biodiversity
conservation
Although they occupy only 2% of the family’s total land holdings
they are rich in biodiversity (87 species) and provide 60% of
dietary diversity requirements.
(Gautam et al., 2006)
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8. Home gardens –
neglected hotspots of biodiversity
• Also important in urban
and peri-urban areas
• 800 million people already
involved in urban
horticulture
• Mainly Asia, Africa and
Central and South
America
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9. Efforts to promote traditional home gardens
 Documenting local food systems and promoting research
projects focusing on biodiversity in home gardens
 Strengthening community management of biodiversity,
local markets and seed systems
 Encourage participation of farmers and indigenous
communities in developing policies and programmes
 Promote knowledge transfer among communities and
between communities and research institutions
 Ensuring accessibility of local communities to land and
the genetic resources they develop
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10. Training resources available
Aimed at agricultural and community development workers
Improving nutrition through home gardening
A training package for preparing field
workers in Southeast Asia (1995)
Improving nutrition through home
gardening – A training package for
preparing field workers in Africa (2001)
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11. Mechanisms & approaches
1. Documenting and supporting home gardens
2. Strengthening community management of agricultural
biodiversity
3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by
developing school gardens and linking school meals with
small-scale local producers
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12. Community management of
agrobiodiversity
Community Biodiversity Management (CBM) is a
community-driven participatory approach that empowers
farmers and communities to organize themselves and to
develop strategies and plans that support on-farm
management of agricultural biodiversity.
(Sthapit et al., 2008)
Developing local CBM strategies for the conservation and
sustainable use of biodiversity can:
• Encourage dietary diversity
• Improve access to source of vitamins and minerals
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13. Good practices to enhance and
conserve on-farm diversity
• Community actions: biodiversity fairs, diversity kits
• Capacity building of community knowledge
centres: community biodiversity registers, seed
banks, farmers’ field schools
• Participatory plant-breeding (PPB) to improve
landraces and make them more marketable
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14. Mechanisms & approaches
1. Documenting and supporting home gardens
2. Strengthening community management of agricultural
biodiversity
3. Promoting of dietary diversity in school children by
developing school gardens and linking school meals with
small-scale local producers
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15. The importance of school gardens
• Providing pupils with
knowledge and skills
• Lowering the on sustainable
cost of agricultural practices
schooling and
school feeding • Environmental
education
• Income Economic Educational
generation • Changing attitudes
towards agriculture
• Increasing school
attendance
Nutritional
• Improving food diversity to combat malnutrition
• improving food security
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16. School Gardens Constraints
Seed availability Land availability
Access to water
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18. Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF)
 Help alleviate hunger
 Exist in almost all high- and middle-income
countries and majority of low- and lower-
middle-income countries
However… WFP’s HGSF does not highlight the
importance of dietary diversity and the contribution
to biodiversity to food and nutrition
Opportunity for linking school feeding
programs to local small-scale farmers
can be developed into a mechanism for
mobilizing and delivering biodiversity
for food and nutrition
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19. Mainstreaming nutrition education
into national curricula
 Importance of nutritional education as an intervention to
complement other approaches to mobilizing agricultural
diversity
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20. Efforts to mobilize BFN
 Raise awareness of the contribution of biodiversity for
food and nutrition among all stakeholders
 Adapt the approaches mentioned to socio-economic
and cultural context being targeted
 Incorporate the approaches into livelihoods and food
security and development programs
 Provide information, tools, resources needed for their
implementation
 Promote the sustainable production of local and
indigenous foods and their cultural, ecological and
nutritional values
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