Talk and QandA with Hannes Dempewolf, from the Crop Trust - Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery

How can we safeguard our futures against hunger and poverty? Crop diversity is one of humanity’s most potent weapons in this fight; our planet's insurance policy, housing the wealth of traits that plant breeders and farmers may need in the near or far future to adapt our food crops to unforeseen challenges. It is central to food security, underpinning today’s production. It provides the raw material needed for ensuring continuing supplies tomorrow, in the face of a rapidly changing world.

Join the Crop Trust’s Senior Scientist Hannes Dempewolf as he talks about the importance of genebanks in safeguarding and making available this global common good to those who can use it to help us feed a growing population, today and tomorrow, whilst facing the uncertainties that come about due to climate change.

He will discuss how the wise use of crop genetic diversity in developing improved crops can also contribute significantly to protecting the environment, as well as how it can help ensure not only a stable and sustainable supply of sufficient quantities of food, but also plays a major role in ensuring its quality.

Hannes Dempewolf studied Plant Science at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in Scotland and completed his PhD training in Botany at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Before joining the Crop Trust, he led several field research projects on plant genetic resources in Peru, the Caribbean, Kenya and Ethiopia. His scientific interest focuses on the evolution, maintenance and conservation of agrobiodiversity, the importance of such diversity for farming communities, and the role it can play for sustainable development and food security in times of a rapidly changing climate.

This talk will take place online on Zoom. Details will be emailed to you in advance of the date