This loss of crop genetic diversity poses a grave threat to long-term food security. In much of the developing world, the conservation and use of plant genetic resources are and have always been the responsibility of women. As smallholder farmers, they are responsible for growing and collecting food. As providers of food and welfare for the household, it is their job to gather and use food, fodder, fuel, fibre and medicinal plants. For this reason, it is women who often determine which plant resources are conserved, used, grown, kept for home consumption or sold at the local market.
Women rely on, and where possible safeguard, the natural ecosystems and common property resources.
Their fields and home gardens are important sources of genetic diversity and represent, not only a capital asset with great potential, but also a means of countering the serious threat to agricultural biodiversity. Through practical experience, rural women have acquired a specific and in-depth knowledge of the value and diverse uses of a wide range of wild and domesticated plants. This has important implications for the conservation of genetic resources because the decision to conserve a plant variety and to favour the development of specific characteristics of certain plants, through selection and breeding, depends to a large extent on their perceived usefulness to the farm household and to the community as a whole. The experiences and practices of women as gatherers, cultivators, natural resource managers and providers of sustenance and health for their families constitute a substantial indigenous knowledge system that can contribute to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Many formal PGR conservation and use activities have lacked a gender dimension and have thus ignored this rich source of information on the knowledge, skills, and practices of women as managers and users of diversity.