When diversity comes together: Cidra papa and peach palm, two crops with much to tell
Peach palm and cidra papa have long been part of Colombia’s farms and food traditions, yet much of their potential remains unexplored. At a four-day workshop in Palmira, farmers, seed guardians, and researchers brought together local knowledge and science to explore how these crops could enrich diets, support rural livelihoods, and conserve agricultural diversity.
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When diversity comes together: Cidra papa and peach palm, two crops with much to tell
Peach palm and cidra papa have long been part of Colombia’s farms and food traditions, yet much of their potential remains unexplored. At a four-day workshop in Palmira, farmers, seed guardians, and researchers brought together local knowledge and science to explore how these crops could enrich diets, support rural livelihoods, and conserve agricultural diversity.
What if some of the opportunities to build more diverse and resilient food systems were already growing in our territories? Along a fence, climbing among other crops, there may be a cidra papa that a family has conserved for generations. On a farm in San José del Palmar, a peach palm may be part of a story that enabled a family to find new opportunities to make a living from the land.
These are very different realities. But both speak to something Colombia has in abundance: diversity.
For four days, this diversity became the meeting point for women and men farmers, seed guardians, researchers, and national and international experts gathered at the Alliance Bioversity International & CIAT Americas Campus in Palmira for the workshop “Opportunity crops: Peach palm and cidra papa – Participatory variety evaluation with tricot and nutritional characterization,” held within the framework of the Power of Diversity Funding Facility, an initiative of Crop Trust, with the participation of the Alliance Bioversity International & CIAT and AGROSAVIA.
The technical objective was ambitious: to jointly design participatory Tricot trials and advance the nutritional component for both crops, integrating the knowledge of experts, researchers, and seed guardians.
But something else happened.
During those days, there was fruit on the tables, family stories, questions, tastings, science, and a strong desire to learn. And one thing became clear: conserving diversity also means listening to those who have kept it alive.