Climate conversations - A turn to old crop varieties for tough times

Bioversity International, a center of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) helps farmers to rediscover old local varieties of crops as part of their new project, reports Alertnet.

The "Seeds for Needs" project, which is endorsed by Ethiopia's Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and the National Agricultural Research Institute offers a tool for farmers that helps them to choose the seeds which are suitable for them. In Ethipia at the start of the project, local women were involved in selecting the crop breeds that are the most adapted to the changing climate.

However in other regions, such as Colombia, as temperatures gradually rise due to the climate change, people simply switch to plating different crops. (For example planting peppers and pineapples instead of coffee).

The mentioned projects will be showcased at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event of the Rio+20 summit.