Knowledge Management Portal

MountainHER wants to put rural women front and center as the true drivers for social and economic progress in remote mountain communities of Algeria, Croatia, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. Barley and durum wheat are the target crops, and traditional foods and malt products the target value chains. The project will promote sustainable business models that better distribute profits along super-short value chains - and involve women’s associations. Existing governance system of the women’s associations will be revised to unlock their full economic potential, and to offer equal and advantageous conditions for all their members.

The role of women’s associations in converting farm harvests into high-value food and malt products will be supported to generate 10 to 100 times more income than the simple harvest. Adequate connection with physical retailers and digital markets will be ensured, while in parallel, preliminary consumer appreciation studies will be conducted to assess the potential for gaining market shares.

MountainHER provides training and tools to favor the purchase of local harvests at higher prices by the women associations. In exchange, farmers are prompted to produce following agro-ecological practices, which are on one hand more respectful of the environment, and on the other, can generate higher prices for the food produced.

The project aims to scale achievements of the Dissemination of Interspecific ICARDA Varieties and Elites through Participatory Research project, which was run under the Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) project, to improve the food security, resilience and livelihoods of wheat and barley farmers. Activities will include: evaluating and delivering CWR-derived lines of durum wheat and barley developed by DIIVA-PR in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria and Sudan; assessing field landraces of barley and durum wheat for various traits of interest in these countries; and incorporating the best germplasm identified into crosses and assessing them for performance and farmer preferences through participatory actions.

In the last few decades, dietary habits of low- and middle-income countries have shifted away from local, traditional foods and towards an increasing consumption of fast foods rich in sugar and fat and low in essential nutrients. This is creating an increasing occurrence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in these countries. The promotion of healthier diets such as the Mediterranean Diet, which includes the consumption of traditional foods like whole grains, has been identified as a potential solution.

MEDWHEALTH proposes to develop durum wheat-derived products typical of the Mediterranean Diet with improved nutritional value.

AGENT aims to transform genebanks from living archives into bio-digital resource centers, equipped to meet the needs of a changing world. Plant genetic resources hold the key for adapting crops to a changing climate, which we are increasingly facing worldwide. In order to facilitate the educated selection and utilization of plant genetic resources in breeding and agriculture, a systematic effort towards the identification and incorporation of these valuable resources is of crucial importance. The establishment of a global network will sustainably unlock the genetic diversity of food crops for future generations and make them intuitively accessible for modern breeding programs.

This project is collaborating with the WWCS project of Caritas in Tajikistan - From reactive response to informed management: Leveraging weather, water and climate services for sustainable rural livelihoods and well-being in Tajikistan - to provide scientific backstopping. The support will focus on the development of methodologies and protocols for tracking outcomes envisioned within the WWCS initiative. The thematic focus and multi-stakeholder approach of the project embody a level of complexity that necessitates the engagement of novel scientific, government and business partners.