The Project ‘Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering
the poor to manage risk’ will be implemented in Mali by the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), which
is the main research institute in the country in charge of agricultural research and development.
IER’s mandate is to undertake and facilitate research activities that contribute to better
performance of crop, animal, fish and tree resources to ensure food security and income
generation for the people of Mali. The institute puts farmers at the centre and uses participatory
approaches in all their activities related to plant and animal breeding, soil and water analysis,
pathology and entomology, sustainable cropping systems, integrated agricultural development,
capacity building, gender and development, natural resource management, agricultural
enterprises, food technology, and animal nutrition and genetic resources management,
conservation, and sustainable use
Through its Genetic Resources Unit, IER has worked in close collaboration with Bioversity
International since 1999. In the course of the joint implementation of several projects, the
partnership has strengthened the capacities of actors involved in the conservation and sustainable
use of plant genetic resources in Mali and developed approaches for seed diversity fairs, diversity
fields, diversity kits, community seed/gene banks and costing the benefits of conservation of
genetic diversity for major crops. The IFAD-EU NUS Project will build and expand on these efforts,
promoting use and cultivation of underutilized crops with high potential to strengthen food and
nutrition security and livelihood resilience of rural communities facing climate change.