Over 75,000 Indian farmers benefit from cultivating improved native varieties of twenty crops.

Rana, J.; Dsouza, S. (2025) Over 75,000 Indian farmers benefit from cultivating improved native varieties of twenty crops. Study #ASI - 2401. Rome (Italy): Bioversity International; Cali (Colombia): CIAT. 5 p.

The Alliance and its partners, through the UNEP-GEF project, tested 4,491 native varieties of 20 crops following a crowdsourcing approach. The team conducted 1,021 mother trials and 5,935 baby trials to identify potential native varieties suited to diverse farming needs. As a result, over 75,000 farmers (45,727 women) are now growing 246 improved native varieties of 20 crops across nearly 90,000 hectares in four agroecological regions in India, contributing to sustainable and nature-based agricultural production. Further scaling is ongoing within and beyond India.