Quality seeds are important in crop establishment, yield increase, and low incidence of pests and diseases. However, with the challenge of climate change, seeds need to be climate-resilient as well. The development of these seeds can be fast-tracked through collaboration of different countries in the Southeast and South Asian region.
This type of collaboration will be discussed during the webinar, “Regional Cooperation for Building a Resilient Seed System in the Philippines” that will be organized by the International Potato Center (CIP) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); and co-organized by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD). It will be held on October 7, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/cipotato.
The Philippines, when it decides to be part of the regional cooperation, will benefit from this setup through acquiring field trial data of public sector varieties and information on varietal evaluation data from other Southeast and South Asian countries. Moreover, Filipino farmers can benefit from faster release of new climate-smart varieties.
This type of cooperation has already been done in other countries such as India and Bangladesh in 2013. It was extended to include Nepal in 2014. The three countries shared data from their respective field trials generated during the evaluation of varieties released in respective countries. The agreement eventually included Cambodia and Sri Lanka and also included other cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, sugarcane, and fiber crops. Myanmar and Bhutan eventually joined the cooperation.
India, which participated in the regional cooperation, released a bio-fortified potato variety, Yusi Maap within months, compared with Bhutan, which only released the variety after 15 years.
Topics of the webinar will specifically focus on the challenges faced by the seed sector brought upon by climate change; expected impacts of the Philippines when it joins the regional cooperation in the seed sector; and the potential challenges for joining the regional cooperation.
Panelists from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the Philippines will share their experiences and insights on the joining the regional cooperation in the seed sector. The webinar will be moderated and hosted by Dr. Sampriti Baruah, CIP Project Cooordinator for Asia.
Interested participants can register at http://bit.ly/Oct7reg.
For more information about the webinar, please visit: http://bit.ly/Oct7webinar.