Abstract
Agricultural biodiversity has hitherto been valued almost exclusively as a source of traits that can be used in scientific breeding programs to improve the productivity of crop varieties and livestock breeds. We argue that it can make a far greater contribution to increased productivity. In particular, a wider deployment of agricultural biodiversity is an essential component in the sustainable delivery of a more secure food supply. Diversity of kingdoms, species and genepools can increase the productivity of farming systems in a range of growing conditions, and more diverse farming systems are also generally more resilient in the face of perturbations, thus enhancing food security. Diversity can maintain and increase soil fertility and mitigate the impact of pests and diseases. Diversity of diet, founded on diverse farming systems, delivers better nutrition and greater health, with additional benefits for human productivity and livelihoods. Agricultural biodiversity will also be absolutely essential to cope with the predicted impacts of climate change, not simply as a source of traits but as the underpinnings of more resilient farm ecosystems. Many of the benefits of agricultural biodiversity are manifested at different ecological and human scales, and cut across political divisions, requiring a cross-sectoral approach to reassess the role of agricultural biodiversity in sustainable and secure food production.
Highlights
Agricultural biodiversity includes those components of biological diversity relevant to food and agriculture as well as the components of biological diversity that constitute the agro-ecosystem
Agricultural biodiversity is often seen as something to conserve as a source of traits that can be used to improve breeds and varieties
While this is certainly true, we argue that agricultural biodiversity as such is an important asset that delivers substantial benefits in many different realms and that there is increasing evidence that diversity per se needs to be a central element of sustainable agricultural development
Summary
Agricultural biodiversity includes those components of biological diversity relevant to food and agriculture as well as the components of biological diversity that constitute the agro-ecosystem It exists at several levels, from the different ecosystems in which people raise crops and livestock, through the different varieties and breeds of the species, to the genetic variability within each variety or breed. Farms specialize in livestock or crops, reducing the number of species; fields are enlarged, reducing the extent of field margins and hedgerows; soil amendments enhance the uniformity of soils; and monocultures of genetically uniform individuals tend to dominate Within this framework, agricultural biodiversity is often seen as something to conserve as a source of traits that can be used to improve breeds and varieties (see, for example, [1,2,3,4,5,6] for this approach in several different realms). Johns and Sthapit [16] discuss in detail what they call ―population-level synergies linking biodiversity conservation and human nutrition in developing countries‖
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