ABSTRACT
The heritage of locally adapted major and minor crops was created by female and male farmers using their own knowledge of the surrounding environment, their taste preferences, their cultural legacy and knowledge system and their ingenuity to find new solutions to new problems. Smallhold farmers in marginal areas – farmers that rely on a diverse portfolio of seeds as one of the few resources they have to meet their livelihood needs – are the custodians of genetic diversity and have the skills to adapt their resources to changing conditions. Under normal conditions, these farmers are touched marginally by new varieties and external inputs. On the one hand, they cannot always find the seeds and inputs that are needed, and when they are available, they can be too expensive for them or, more simply, they are not competitive with their existing seeds ( Jarvis et al., 2011). On the other hand, their seeds are well adapted to the marginal environment in which they live (Barry et al., 2007), and they are useful for buffering against biotic and abiotic stresses (Smale, 2006; Bhandari, 2009), climate change and changing market pressures (Smale, 2006) and for satisfying cultural and religious needs (Rana, Garforth and Sthapit, 2008).
