The agro-biodiversity and land restoration project (Ag-bio project) aims to mobilize agricultural biological resources to support targeted restoration interventions through diversifying farming systems and landscapes. The project builds on previous work of the two participating CGIAR Centers ICRAF and Bioversity, which independently assessed and promoted local fruit/nut tree species and crop varietal diversity, respectively, in several previous projects. For this project, specific sites have been jointly selected with national partners in Uganda and Ethiopia in areas where land degradation has occurred due to inappropriate land use practices, and where communities have been mobilized through earlier projects in diversifying their crop and food tree resources. A key component of the project will be based on working with national partners to support national and local systems’ ability to provide diverse and high quality planting material of suitable crop and food tree species/varieties, building on national partners’ community seed banks, seed networks and decentralized tree nurseries supported by Bioversity and ICRAF.

The specific project outputs include:
1. Assessment of current agro-biodiversity and identification of suitable priority food tree and crop species.

2. Development and validation of food tree and crop portfolios for optimal species and systems productivity and resilience.

3. Access to quality planting materials of validated food tree and crop portfolios for national partners for wide distribution to farmers.

4. Communication and capacity building of farmers and national partners.

5. Project coordination, partnership development and dissemination of scientific results.