agrobiodiversity@scale abc meeting

In 2011, the Hivos-OxfamNovib joint knowledge programmeagrobiodiversity@knowledged, initiated a journey to build a knowledge and experience community of farmers, practitioners and scientists working on agricultural biodiversity. Since then, there have been several milestones, from the inception of the agricultural biodiversity community (Thika, 2011), to the development of a shared vision and mission (Thailand, 2012), and working together on different knowledge products (India, 2013). Throughout the journey members have started to break barriers all over the world, sharing knowledge and collaborating on several levels, from exchange visits, to collaborative projects and joint policy influencing. The community has demonstrated that a diverse group of people and organisations can form a global movement based on a shared passion to transform the way we produce our food and give a voice to those women and men at the center of this process.

The next logical step for the agricultural biodiversity community was to open up the house to other stakeholders and sectors and come to co-created and co-owned ideas, products and commitments for agricultural biodiversity at scale. We know that agricultural biodiversity is essential for a future proof food system that supports livelihoods, produces sufficient healthy food and is climate resilient. What is needed to unleash its potential, scale up what works and transform the way we produce our food? What knowledge do we have, what experiences can we build on and what questions remain?