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
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2: Flagship crops: Brassica – From Wild Relatives to Future Crops
The COUSIN project video, Flagship Crop – Brassica: From Wild Relatives to Future Crops, demonstrates how crop wild relatives can strengthen Brassica crops by improving their resilience, sustainability, and nutritional value, contributing to more resilient,...
1: From Wild Diversity to Resilient Agriculture: 2.5 Years of Progress and Impact
The COUSIN project is helping strengthen Europe's food system by conserving and promoting the use of crop wild relatives (CWRs) to support the development of more resilient and sustainable crops. By unlocking the potential of these wild species, the project...
Barley CWRs presented at Royal Highland Show
COUSIN partners from the James Hutton Institute presented findings from their work in the project on developing novel crosses between CWRs of barley and elite lines at the Royal Highland Show. The event took place in Edinburgh, UK between June 18th-21st 2026 and we...
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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