Horticulture, biodiversity and nutrition

Abstract

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB 2010). Around the world, people are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth, which is vital for current and future human well-being. IYB 2010 is focussing attention on the need to combat the loss of biodiversity by protecting, conserving and sustainably using food biodiversity. This special issue of Journal of Food Composition and Analysis (JFCA) focuses on horticulture in the context of biodiversity. Existing crop biodiversity and management practices for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) must include exhaustive characterization of the accessions in order to understand the role of crop biodiversity in agro-ecosystems and enhance its utility in the development of superior crop varieties that contribute to better human nutrition and health. Today’s horticulture-based agricultural systems need a continuous supply of new cultivars and improved varieties, drawn from the available gene pool, in order to enhance food security and achieve balanced nutrition for rural and urban poor, adapt to drastic climate changes and sustain production systems on marginal lands. IYB 2010 provides a unique opportunity to explore and recognize: (i) the existing biodiversity in horticultural crop varieties and their nutritional composition; (ii) the use of nutrient content among the criteria used in cultivar selection and promotion; and, (iii) the importance of nutritional differences within the species and the micronutrient superiority of some lesser-known cultivars and wild varieties over some more widely-utilized cultivars of horticulturebased crops.