7 months ago
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The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) convened a strategical treatment connected agrobiodiversity initiatives to commemorate the World Food Day connected Thursday.
Eighteen probe institutions and universities took portion successful the meeting, chaired by KSBB chairperson N. Anil Kumar, to reappraisal the advancement and formulate steps for akin projects successful the State.
The treatment focused connected a multi-institutional programme launched successful 2022 to identify, conserve and beforehand chaotic and under-utilised edible plants crossed the State. The participating institutions including Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institution, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Central Tuber Crops Research Institute and Kerala Agricultural University presented findings and recommendations for argumentation integration.
The gathering centred connected implicit 1,400 chaotic edible taxon that person been documented, including 280 legume landraces, 240 chaotic edible fruits, 96 tuber species, 320 leafy rootlike accessions, 70 millet varieties, 42 mushroom species, 80 banana cultivars, implicit a 100 seaweed species, and much than 200 edible dye-yielding flowers.
It besides delved into 3,554 instances of accepted cognition recorded from 336 tribal cognition holders, and underscored the request for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) safeguards.
According to authoritative sources, the recommendations volition beryllium collated to hole a State argumentation to conserve and mainstream chaotic and under-utilised edibles. The precedence areas volition see end-to-end worth summation from germplasm to market, assemblage nurseries and decentralised propagation, integration with nationalist wellness and schoolhouse nutrition programmes, codified ABS and IPR protocols for equitable benefit-sharing, and marketplace improvement and procurement mechanisms.
KSBB volition coordinate with manufacture stakeholders, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) , Institute of Advanced Virology and the Centre of Excellence successful Nutraceuticals to accelerate liable commercialisation of value-added products. A information slope is besides planned to showcase Kerala’s biodiversity enactment and marketplace imaginable successful functional foods and sustainable agriculture, an authoritative said.
KSBB subordinate caput V. Balakrishnan and KSCSTE subordinate caput A. Sabu were among those who addressed the gathering.
