On the other hand, supporting diverse local farming systems and folk varieties as a basis for sustainable agriculture does not mean a return to an idealized, pristine indigenous agriculture. All small-scale, traditional systems cannot be assumed to have been sustainable in the past, and many may not be adapted to present or future conditions. This is because their social, biological, and physical environments have been so greatly changed by colonialism, international markets, population growth, environmental degradation, climate change, migration, and international conflict. This means that in working for indigenously-based sustainable agriculture, flexibility is essential, including adaptation to diverse local conditions, with a major focus on local experimentation. It also means using the most current information and techniques from Western scientific plant breeding and agriculture, without linking these to the profit-maximizing values and overall organization of industrial agriculture. Perhaps most important is the empowerment of local farmers and communities by supporting their control of their folk varieties, farming systems, and indigenous knowledge (Amanor et al. 1993, Cromwell et al. 1993).

Given the continuing threat to the conservation and use of folk varieties by indigenous and small-scale farmers, specific measures to safeguard these varieties for sustainable agriculture at the community level may be needed. Where appropriate such measures could include

• documentation of folk varieties by farmers, in collaboration with outsiders where appropriate, including indigenous knowledge about their selection, cultivation and use, and genetic and agronomic characteristics
• education of agronomists, formal plant breeders, local communities, and in some cases local farmers and students, concerning the contribution of folk varieties to food production, yield stability, natural resource conservation, nutrition, history and culture
• increasing the availability and planting of folk variety seeds through encouraging seed exchange networks and seedbanks at the community level, and exploring opportunities for local commercial production of folk varieties for food and planting material
• improving the maintenance and performance of folk varieties through collaboration with formal plant breeders; and
• establishing control by farm communities over their folk varieties, and indigenous knowledge about them, through policies for seed collecting and use of folk variety seeds, food products, names, and knowledge by outsiders.
  

The incorporation of folk varieties into the development of locally-based and locally-controlled agriculture may be the best approach not only to conserving the genetic diversity in folk varieties and the farming systems that contain them, but to supporting sustainable farming systems grounded in local environments and cultural values.