"She-Power" behind agrobiodiversity

Editor's note: Over the past century, many local varieties have been abandoned by farmers and replaced with high-yielding cultivars. As a result, there is an incredible loss of agrobiodiversity. However, women can be a strong force to reverse this trend, as Zhang Linxiu, director of UN Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership says in her speech. What is the wisdom of women in agricultural activities? How to empower women to protect agrobiodiversity? Zhang Linxiu will share with you her views.

Hello and welcome to China Talk. My name is Zhang Linxiu, and I am director of the United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership. Let me ask you something, how can empowering women better enhance agrobiodiversity? You may ask, why should we single out women? Well, it all begins with a seed.

I will start with a story of Stone Village in Lijiang, in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Zhang Xiuyun is a farmer breeder, and she tended the land as her ancestors did, using the same seeds that were passed down from generation to generation. But that was to change. 

About 10 years ago, we partnered with the Farmers' Seed Network, an NGO, to provide training to local women in traditional agrobiodiversity conservation. Xiuyun attended the training sessions and paired up with a team of breeders. She soon learned to collect, classify and select landrace varieties. She became an expert in her own right. 

Over the past decade, she has bred and tested 49 varieties of corn. There are now seeds named after her, among which "Xiuyun No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3", and they have made their way in the United States, Peru and India. Xiuyun herself has also had the opportunity to travel abroad four times to visit Latin America and Europe. She used the seeds brought back from abroad as well as the traditional varieties in China to make improvements and bred new corn seeds after two or three years of trial and error. With a higher germination rate and less corn straw, these seeds are more suitable for mountain crops. Moreover, corn cobs are full, and the harvest is plentiful. 

Xiuyun now leads a team of women breeders in the village. The varieties they produced are tailored to natural conditions of the region with high climate resilience. Xiuyun and her co-breeders produce these new seeds, but they also protect traditional varieties. In 2016, the Stone Village established its own seed bank. It's managed by the village's women team. The seed bank has already preserved 113 local varieties to this day, and 63 varieties have been registered. The seed bank takes seriously its mission to safeguard traditional varieties and crops in the village. Xiuyun is among those women who take frontline role in preserving agrobiodiversity.

Unfortunately, in recent years, about 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers around the world have abandoned many local varieties in favor of genetically single, high-yielding cultivars. Only three crops, rice, maize and wheat currently provide more than 50 percent of the world's calories, while 12 crops that together with five animal species provide 75 percent of the world's food today. Why is that bad? Because long-term cultivation of a single crop means more crop pests, not to mention nutrient deficiencies, lower soil fertility, and ultimately, reduced system resilience.

But research has shown that empowering women in rural areas can have a fundamental impact on preserving crops variety. In many places, women are increasingly in charge of agricultural production, as men leave for the cities to seek more lucrative jobs. As a result, women are left to tend the land. More importantly, they have now become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to agrobiodiversity.

It's not just agrobiodiversity. The Convention on Biological Diversity also considers gender inclusion to be a "game changer" for achieving biodiversity goals faster. A recent report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggests that if women had greater decision-making power or management over land, it could lead to an increase of nearly $1 trillion in global GDP. This would help bring down the number of food-insecure people globally by 45 million and reduce biodiversity loss. 

Preserving and passing down local varieties is one thing, but it is more important to help farmers build resilience. Our joint team has set up "community seed banks" in dozens of communities across the country to help local villagers, especially female farmers, use traditional knowledge and work closely with scientists to preserve and breed crop varieties that are more resilient to climate threats such as drought. 

One example of such resilience in the face of external shocks is how they managed to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. During the early days of the lockdown, while most of the rural communities missed the planting season due to limited access to commercial seeds, the farmers in these villages were lucky enough to use seeds from the community seed banks. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that many ecosystems have passed the point of no return, and it's already undermining the well-being of nearly 40 percent of the world's population. In this context, women are on the frontline of climate and conservation action. It also means they face greater risks. Worldwide, women do more than 70 percent of water management and collection work, and make up an average of 43 percent of the agricultural workforce in developing countries. But the reality is that many of our policies are gender-neutral and do not take into account women's specific features, as well as their perception of the ecosystems and their expectations in terms of behavior. This is a real concern given that women tend to have a limited voice in environmental decision-making. 

When China became the Chair of the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, we began to share our experiences with the negotiation parties of the Convention, such as taking into account the role of remote communities and the role of women in biodiversity conservation. It played a positive role in the Kunming-Montreal-Global Biodiversity Framework. In terms of climate and environmental action, green transition and disaster prevention and mitigation, the needs and rights of women and girls must be fully addressed. They should be protected and empowered to strengthen the resilience of the entire social-ecological system. 

Let's equip women with good education and skill training. Let's improve health and other basic service provision for women. And let's increase women's access and decision-making power when it comes to land, water and other resources. These changes will be so essential to help women, and all of us, in the fight against climate change and the protection of our ecosystems and biodiversity. 

Thank you so much.

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