Features GENES IN THE FIELD On-Farm Conservation of Crop Diversity PEOPLE, PLANTS, AND PATENTS The Impact of Intellectual Property on Trade, Plant Biodiversity, and Rural Society The Crucible Group SEEDING SOLUTIONS: VOLUME 1 Policy Options for Genetic Resources (People, Plants, and Patents Revisited) The Crucible II Group SEEDING SOLUTIONS: VOLUME 2 Options for National Laws Governing Access To and Control Over Genetic Resources The Crucible II Group

Resource-poor farmers, a large number of whom are women, produce as much as 20 percent of the world's food, and they may well hold the key to increasing biological and cultural diversity. For in their struggle simply to survive -- and produce -- on poor soils with limited resources, small farmers continue to allow plant varieties to evolve. The result is that these farmers have become custodians of diversity, maintaining the genetic variation that is essential to the continued evolution and adaptation of plant genotypes.

• Improving Technology Development through Gender Analysis (Global), Phase II
  

• The Gender Dimensions of Biodiversity Use and Conservation