PROJECTS...

Strengthening Farmer Networks for Food Security
This is a two-year project that aims to strengthen regional farmer networks. The project is funded by the European Union.

THE COLLECTIONS - projects diversify PMN expertise
The role of the Network in preserving, through use, the agricultural biodiversity of the Solomon Islands was recognised when they were approached about making field collections of the staple root crop, taro (collocosia species):

• The TaroGen project, supported by the European Union and the South Pacific Commission (now the Secretariat for the Pacific Community), sought to identify the diversity of taro species in use with a view to making available the better varieties. A Taro diversity Fair was successful in attracting village farmers and encouraging the sharing of taro varieties. A second diversity fair, this time at the village of Taro on northern Choiseul, took place in November 2003.
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• The Network undertook a Banana Diversity Collection Project in partnership with the Manivovo Rural Training Centre on the isolated weather coast of Makira, in the Solomons. A collection of banana species from which farmers can select and to which they can contribute varieties has been established.
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