Crop Cousins, promise for the future
COUSIN is the European Union-funded project on the use and conservation of wild species for more sustainable, resilient and nutritionally valuable agriculture
Latest News
FOAG and UNIL publish two studies on the evaluation Swiss in situ programme for CWR of fodder plants.
A program dedicated to meadows conservation and the wild relatives of fodder plants is running and gather more than 1300 surfaces in the whole country. Farmers are actively supported to conserve these surfaces. A survey to evaluate the farmer's motivation to...
Study Day in collaboration with the Southwest Section of the Accademia dei Georgofili (Florence)
On February 25, 2025, the COUSIN project was presented by the University of Catania (UNICT) during a study day dedicated to the management and use of plant and microbial germplasm collections, hosted by the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence. The conference...
CUADERNO DE CAMPO CEIP SAN MARTÍN Garganta la Olla 2025-2026
Cuaderno de campo is an educational field notebook created by Aprisco to directly connect agroecology research in northern Extremadura with local educational community. The notebook emerges from a collaboration between Aprisco and the San Martín preschool and...
Discovering Crop Wild Relatives with COUSIN video scribing
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The journey of plant domestication
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The importance of Crop Wild Reltives
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The characterization of Crop Wild Relatives unveiled
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The use of Crop Wild Relatives in breeding
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The Crop Wild Relatives Conservation Strategies explained
CWRs, a promise for the future
Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) are often seen as the COUSINs of domesticated crops given their close kinship and their role as important sources of natural genetic variation. In this sense they represent a valuable resource for the urgently required agroecological transition. Such a transition results in more diverse, sustainable and nutritious food, in line with the EU Green Deal policy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, CWRs can be important allies. In fact, currently 75% of the world’s food is generated from only twelve plant species and since the 1900s, some 75% of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left their diverse set of local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties. From this perspective, Crop Cousins are a promise for the future.
Cousin’s brochure contains the description and goals of the project. It is available in multiple languages, download the one you prefer and share it!
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