What do we do in the Agro-biodiversity team?
Our goal is to learn more about the biodiversity cultivated in mountain areas and generate opportunities for local development.
The goal of our team is to highlight the value of traditional fruit and vegetable crops and help them reach consumers through short marketing chains. To achieve this goal, we study agro-food networks and alternative business models, such as ecological shops or bulk stores, organic cooperatives, networks of agro-ecological producers, etc.
Our second main goal is to create a catalogue of the local varieties in La Alpujarra (Granada), with information that may be helpful to any person interested in growing these crops. With a view to identifying local crop varieties, we collaborate with farmers in La Alpujarra, who provide us with old seeds. This genetic material is being grown in experimental farms and orchards in Sierra Nevada. By doing so, we test the behaviour of every species, and present the products to consumers at the different events we hold.
Our project in numbers
Learn more about the scope of our project.
Our project in numbers
Learn more about the scope of our project.
Descubre como la salud de los ríos empeora debido a la actividad humana.
Desde su nacimiento en la cabecera de los valles glaciares de Sierra Nevada, el estado de los ríos empeora debido a la actividad humana.
Gira tu dispositivo
How do our actions benefit society?
We foster the conservation of local crops and highlight their value.
Thanks to our study, we generated a database on species and varieties of local crops, which contains information about their botanical and agricultural traits. This is essential to grow them successfully and contribute to their conservation.
Besides, we are creating a seed bank to facilitate the access to this genetic resource and the exchange between producers.
We will also share with the scientific community and with society at large our view on alternative market outlets, to understand how they work and the potential they have to get local varieties across to consumers.
It is worth noting that our work contributes to raising awareness in consumers, and promotes the purchase of products that foster looking after the environment, biodiversity and the survival of the rural world.
Besides, we organize communication activities for the population concerned, meetings with farmers, and on-line actions on social networks (Project: Alpujarra’s local crop varieties on Facebook and Twitter). We also organized and co-organized several events, in particular the XIX Feria de la Biodiversidad Agrícola de Andalucía (XIX Agricultural Biodiversity Fair of Andalucía) in Cádiar, La Alpujarra.
Data generated by the team
Learn more about the data we are generating- Database on Alpujarra’s local crop varieties.
