Anniversaries are occasions to commemorate the past while looking to the future, to mark the evolution of “who we are” to “who we will be.” The International Potato Center (CIP) recently celebrated a significant milestone – the 50th anniversary of its founding.
In an event entitled Agrobiodiversity for people, the planet and prosperity, friends of CIP gathered virtually worldwide to focus on CIP’s relationship with Peru, the Andes and the region’s important role to play in food systems transitions building on its unique agrobiodiversity.
The event featured speakers from CIP, CGIAR and selected local partners who focused on the importance of agrobiodiversity to ensure food and nutrition security, social inclusion in market systems and environmental protection for highland communities in the future.
Karissa Becerra preparing picante de chocho.
(Photo: Manuel Tito Delgado)
CIP also used the occasion to launch two new books which celebrate the contribution of agrobiodiversity to our diets. These unique books are the result of a collaboration between over 100 researchers, chefs and photographers from the Andean region and beyond.
Clara Meza Gago, coordinator of the community management committee of the Nor-Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve, which comprises natural areas and farming communities in Peru’s Central Andes, told the audience that the publication of the books was a “a dream come true.”
“Through collaborations and capacity building with national partners and the private sector, CIP has helped more than two million smallholder farmers improve their yields with our potato varieties,” CIP’s Director General Barbara Wells (recently deceased) told the audience.
Source: CIP. Read the full story here
Cover photo: (from L to R) Carlos Apraricio (Ambassador of Bolivia to Peru), Ginya Truitt-Nakata (CIP’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean), Pietro Turilli (CIP’s Director of Resource Mobilization), Adolfo Perret (Chef, Peruvian Cuisine Ambassador). (Photo credit: Manuel Tito Delgado)
