Assessing the potential for niche market development to contribute to farmers' livelihoods and agrobiodiversity conservation: Insights from the finger millet case study in Nepal

Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges

“…Small-scale PACS schemes have been implemented for quinoa (Narloch et al 2011a&b) in Peru and Bolivia, amaranth (Drucker et al, 2018) and potato in Peru, maize in Ecuador, and beans and maize in Guatemala (Padulosi and Drucker, 2018). Hypothetical applications have also been undertaken in India (Krishna et al, 2013) and Nepal (Pallante et al, 2016) for minor millets, and Zambia for crop wild relatives (Wainwright et al, 2019). This has led to the emergence of a body of work related to the application of the concepts of PES to the conservation of ABD per se.…”

“…This has led to the emergence of a body of work related to the application of the concepts of PES to the conservation of ABD per se. A range of related conservation and use management topics that contribute to the broader PES literature have also been explored, such as: addressing distributional/social equity issues and accounting for local concepts of fairness (Narloch et al, 2012 andMidler et al, 2015); prioritisation (Samuel et al, 2013); conservation target setting, monitoring (Dulloo et al, 2016); facilitating value chain development (Pallante et al, 2016;Drucker and Appels, 2016); and identifying potential conservation service purchasers (Drucker et al, 2013). PACS may also be seen as an 1 Biodiversity for food and agriculture or "agrobiodiversity" is a subcategory of biodiversity that corresponds to "the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain the ecosystem structures, functions and processes in and around production systems, and that provide food and non-food agricultural products" (FAO, 2013in FAO, 2019 instrument for the de facto implementation of Farmers' Rights (Clancy and Vernooy, 2014), by facilitating the sharing of benefits in a cost-effective manner with high levels of social justice and without having to depend on/wait for commercial product development.…”

The Economic Reality of Underutilised Crops for Climate Resilience, Food Security and Nutrition: Assessing Finger Millet Productivity in India

“…Ongoing research under the ISCB, using consumer auctions, shows that there is an increased willingness to pay for an improved finger millet with higher iron availability. A study by Pallante et al [11] illustrated the potential for developing niche markets for finger millet. These opportunities, however, depend on how effectively and widespread consumer information regarding the beneficial nutritional aspects can be communicated and reach specific target groups of consumers, for instance those affected by anaemia or young people.…”

“…There is an apparent lack of awareness regarding its nutritional qualities among consumers. Furthermore, inadequate support by decision-makers has resulted in limited investment into research and development, as well as extension services [2,11]. Neglect of minor millets means that farmers growing them obtain lower returns as compared to other crops; however, there are substantial opportunities for increasing productivity and general economic performance.…”

Prospect and potentiality of finger millet in Nepal: Nutritional security and trade perspective

“…An average of 14,402-ton millet is required in addition to edible millet grain production in Nepal. Despite such importance, production and consumption are decreasing as a result of, inter alia, the expanding availability of more profitable crops, and a lack of awareness regarding its nutritional qualities by urban consumers, and limited R&D dedicated to this crop (Pallante et al, 2016). One of the declining production and productivity is also due to low financial return finger millet as compared to many cash crops such as coffee which has 3.3 times higher return than for millet production in Nepal (GoN, 2017).…”