Rural women in Peru key to adaptation of seeds to climate change

According to IPS, authorities should use the ancient indigenous knowledge that rural women of the Peruvian highlands possess in preserving seeds, as this information could be very useful in the process of designing effective climate change adaptation policies.

"Small-scale agriculture is one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change," said Elena Villanueva, with the Rural Development Programme of the Flora Tristán Centre, a local women's group. "Women suffer problems finding water, due to the disappearance of snow and ice on the mountaintops and to drought, or they lose their crops to severe frost and floods." She suggested that new strategies, such as community seed banks and seed patenting, should be developed to ensure that women's skills and practices are sustainable

The article highlights that local rural women "are not included in the design and application of policies at all levels".