Use Of Agricultural Biodiversity Research Articles

Feeding the world better: crop diversification to build sustainable food systems

Today, major changes are required in global agricultural systems to produce enough healthy food for all, while preserving the quality of land, air and water and safeguarding biodiversity. But producing enough while simultaneously protecting the environment is a particularly complex equation. Agroecology, a key principle of which is the use of agricultural biodiversity, is a promising pathway to achieve these changes. Extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence demonstrates the agricultural and environmental effectiveness of agroecological practices and confirms their capacity to meet the demands of global production in the long term. Among the possible diversification strategies, agroforestry, intercropping and crop rotation can all significantly increase production and enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services (soil quality, pest and disease control, water use and quality). This evidence can serve as a basis for new public policies to be introduced from the local to the global level. The implementation of such policies is crucial in climate-vulnerable regions where demand for food is growing, such sub-Saharan Africa.

Three Decades of Safeguarding and Promoting Use of Agricultural Biodiversity: Changing Global Perspectives, Paradigm Shifts and Implications

Three Decades of Safeguarding and Promoting Use of Agricultural Biodiversity: Changing Global Perspectives, Paradigm Shifts and Implications

Traditional Production Landscapes for Sustainable Development Mainstreaming Agricultural Biodiversity in East Java Indonesia

Abstract: Mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes ensures conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Mainstreaming integrates biodiversity in existing or new programs and policies, both cross-sectoral and sector-specific. The conventional model of agricultural production with limited diversity in production systems and use of high chemical input has taught us a valuable lesson as it is adversely impacting the environment, the essential ecosystem services, the soil health and the long term sustainability of our food systems. Using a qualitative participant observation approach, our study investigated four distinct traditional East Java production landscapes to gage (i) the farming communities’ response to institutional policies, programs and agricultural biodiversity-related activities in traditional East Java production landscapes and (ii) opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in smallholder traditional East Java farming systems. Results indicate that the top-down decision-making regime is the least effective towards achieving sustainable development in traditional East Java farming landscapes and that farmers’ experiential knowledge on participatory biodiversity management, maintenance and use for sustainable development are of critical importance to East Java’s agriculture and economy. Reclaiming agriculture’s spiritual roots through organic farming and locally grown food emerged as key, including the need for designing and implementing a more sovereign food system. Revisiting traditional smallholder farming under the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learned for repurposing East Java’s agricultural policy are also highlighted.

Mainstreaming Agricultural Biodiversity in Traditional Production Landscapes for Sustainable Development: The Indian Scenario

Mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes ensures conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, the key objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the projects supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF). Mainstreaming integrates biodiversity in existing or new programs and policies, both cross-sectoral and sector-specific. The conventional model of agricultural production with limited diversity in production systems and use of high chemical input has taught us a valuable lesson as it is adversely impacting the environment, the essential ecosystem services, the soil health and the long term sustainability of our food systems. Using a qualitative participant observation approach, our study investigated four distinct traditional Indian production landscapes to gage (i) the farming communities’ response to institutional policies, programs and agricultural biodiversity-related activities in traditional Indian production landscapes and (ii) opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in smallholder traditional Indian farming systems. Results indicate that the top-down decision-making regime is the least effective towards achieving sustainable development in traditional Indian farming landscapes and that farmers’ experiential knowledge on participatory biodiversity management, maintenance and use for sustainable development are of critical importance to India’s agriculture and economy. Reclaiming agriculture’s spiritual roots through organic farming and locally grown food emerged as key, including the need for designing and implementing a more sovereign food system. Revisiting traditional smallholder farming under the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learned for repurposing India’s agricultural policy are also highlighted.

AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION PLANNING

Abstract Climate change is one of the biggest threats to food production worldwide. Recently, an increasing number of initiatives have embraced the concept of climate smart agriculture to respond to climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges. A central component of this approach is the use of agricultural biodiversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels for increasing productivity, adaptability and resilience of agricultural production systems. This paper analyses the extent to which the use of agricultural biodiversity is included in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) developed by 50 least developed countries to guide their actions in relation to climate adaptation. The results of the analyses indicate that in the majority of the NAPAs, agricultural biodiversity has not been incorporated in a comprehensive manner and that increased efforts can be done at national and international levels for effectively making agricultural biodiversity work for most vulnerable countries’ adaptation to climate change. Key words: agrobiodiversity, NAPAs, smallholder farmers, developing countries, climate change adaptation

Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD)-How Informal and Formal Seed Systems Can Work Together for the Conservation and Use of Agricultural Biodiversity

Agricultural biodiversity conservation and its availability for use are central to robust seed systems that support food security, poverty eradication and resilience to climate change. Recognising that smallholder farmers source seed of different qualities from a diversity of seed systems has resulted in the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) approach that supports the development of a pluralistic seed sector, which provides smallholder farmers with quality seed of the varieties they desire. The focus of the ISSD approach on the importance of different seed sources to cater for the diversity in demand by farmers offers also opportunities for better and more balanced support for both in situ and ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources, and strengthened use of agricultural biodiversity on farmers’ fields and in both community and commercial seed development programmes.

English

Three major physical resources in the world comprise land, water and the biological diversity. Agricultural biodiversity is an important component of biodiversity, which has a more direct link to the well being and livelihood of mankind than other forms of bio¬diversity. In fact, it is one of our most fundamental and essential resources, one that has enabled farming systems to evolve since the birth of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Food plant and animal species have been collected, used, domesticated and improved through traditional sys¬tems of selection over many generations. The resulting diversity of genetic resources developed by early farmers now forms the basis on which modern high yielding and disease resistant varieties have been produced to feed the growing human population, expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “agricultural biodiversity in¬cludes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological biodiversity that constitute agro-ecosystems: the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are neces¬sary to sustain key functions of the agricultural ecosystem, its structure and processes”. The effective conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity is very important in ensuring sustainable increases in the productivity and produc¬tion of healthy food by and for mankind as well as contrib¬uting to increased resilience of agricultural ecosystems. Key words: Agricultural biodiversity, ecosystem, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), domestication, human population, variability.

Agricultural Biodiversity in Southern Brazil: Integrating Efforts for Conservation and Use of Neglected and Underutilized Species

Brazil is one of the most biodiversity rich countries in the world, including a wealth of agricultural biodiversity in both wild and cultivated forms. This is particularly noticeable in southern Brazil, home to a wide array of underutilized food species whose genetic diversity is maintained mostly by farmers through on-farm management practices. Farmers’ contribution in safeguarding and keeping alive traditional knowledge (TK) essential for recognizing, cultivating, valorising and consuming these resources is critical to their conservation. Part of this diversity, a rich basket of native fruits and landraces of vegetables and grains, is also maintained through ex situ collections managed by Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and its partners. This article discusses the integrated efforts for in situ/on-farm and ex situ conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity in southern Brazil. This diversity represents an important cultural heritage, since its use, cultivation and associated knowledge result from the dynamic history of the Brazilian population, including colonisation and immigration by several different ethnicities. Many of these species are sources of genes that convey tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, as a result of the combined action of natural selection and artificial selection by farmers in agricultural systems with low inputs and diverse environmental conditions. Due to their importance for food security, use in breeding programs, high nutritional value, and potential for income generation, Embrapa has taken responsibility for the ex situ conservation of these species. The genebanks that safeguard against the loss of these resources do also play an important role in the restoration of this germplasm to farming communities.

Climate Change and the Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources

Over the next decades, agricultural production practices will change significantly and become more sustainable while they also respond to the need to contribute to reducing malnutrition and hunger and meeting the challenges of climate change. The enhanced use of agricultural biodiversity will play an essential role in this process, providing improved adaptability and resilience in agro-ecosystems. Plant genetic resources, a major component of agricultural biodiversity, play a key role in improving agricultural production and productivity. They are also essential to coping with climate change. As a result of climate change, increased efforts will be needed to conserve the diversity of crops and their wild relatives, and both in situ and ex situ conservation strategies will have to be adapted to meet changing environmental conditions and the need to secure biodiversity threatened by changing climate and altered production practices. Improved use of plant genetic resources will be essential, and this is likely to require increased national and international movements of resources to ensure that adapted germplasm is available to meet changing production environments. Greater emphasis will also need to be placed on evaluation for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and on properties such as adaptability, plasticity, and resilience, which can help maintain productivity under changing environmental conditions.

Dynamic management of crop diversity: From an experimental approach to on-farm conservation

In agricultural systems, biodiversity includes diversity within species and among species and provides many benefits for production, resilience and conservation. This article addresses the effects of a strategy of in situ conservation called dynamic management (DM) on population evolution, adaptation and diversity. Two French DM initiatives are considered, the first one corresponding to an experimental context, the second to an on-farm management. Results from a study over 26 years of experimental DM of bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) are first presented, including the evolution of agronomic traits and genetic diversity at neutral and fitness related loci. While this experiment greatly increased scientific knowledge of the effects of natural selection on cultivated populations, it also showed that population conservation cannot rely only on a network of experimental stations. In collaboration with a farmers’ network in France, researchers have begun studying the effects of on-farm DM (conservation and selection) on diversity and adaptation. Results from these studies show that on-farm DM is a key element for the long-term conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. This method of in situ conservation deserves more attention in industrialised countries.

Ethical Considerations in Agro-biodiversity Research, Collecting, and Use

Humans have always played a crucial role in the evolutionary dynamics of agricultural biodiversity and thus there is a strong relationship between these resources and human cultures. These agricultural resources have long been treated as a global public good, and constitute the livelihoods of millions of predominantly poor people. At the same time, agricultural biodiversity is under serious threat in many parts of the world despite extensive conservation efforts. Ethical considerations regarding the collecting, research, and use of agricultural biodiversity are currently topics of great concern. For example, easy access to genetic resources for breeding purposes is important, but international agreements and legal frameworks are necessary to ensure adequate recognition of the contributions of local communities and traditional farmers in creating and nurturing these resources. Here, we assess ethical principles in the context of existing codes of conduct that are relevant for agro-biodiversity researchers. We aim to create awareness among scientists and policy makers who are concerned with agro-biodiversity research and its potential impact on local communities. We encourage a serious assessment of the ethical principles presented here and hope to facilitate an integration of these principles into the reader’s personal ethical framework. Key ethical principles considered here include the importance of obtaining prior informed consent, equity, and the inalienability of rights of local communities and farmers.

The reliability of product-specific eco-labels as an agrobiodiversity management instrument

This paper seeks to understand why multinationals prefer to launch a label specific to their own product and examines how reliable these product-specific eco-labels are. A new methodology is applied to assess the extent to which eco-labels live up to claims about their contribution to conservation and the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Product-specific eco-labels are considered as industry self-regulation and all three regulatory stages are studied: the planning, implementation and outcome stage. There are major differences between the product specific eco-labels in the degree in which agrobiodiversity management is part of the normative labeling schemes. Although there are some problems of reliability, such as transparency in the implementation stage and the monitoring in the outcome stage, the degree of reliability of product-specific labels is comparable with eco-labels of international labeling families. The conclusion is that only one of the product-specific eco-labels examined here is reliable when examined in the light of all three stages. The main reason why multinationals establish a product-specific eco-label instead of adopting one from an existing labeling family is that they want to profile themselves as distinct from other companies. The unique character of a product-specific label creates a market opportunity for them.

Access to plant genetic resources for genomic research for the poor: from global policies to target-oriented rules

Applied genetics combined with practical plant breeding is a powerful tool in agricultural development and for food security. The Green Revolution spurred the world's potential to meet its food, feed and fibre needs at a time when vast regions were notoriously food-insecure. Subsequent adaptations of such strategies, from the late 1980s onwards, in order to develop new plant varieties in a more participatory way, have strengthened the focus on applying technology to farmers' diverse needs, feeding research results into a variety of seed systems. During these developments, there were no major legal impediments to the acquisition of either local or formal knowledge or of the building blocks of plant breeding: genetic resources. The emergence of molecular biology in plant science is creating a wealth of opportunities, both to understand better the limitations of crop production and to use a much wider array of genetic diversity in crop improvement. This ‘Gene Revolution’ needs to incorporate the lessons from the Green Revolution in order to reach its target groups. However, the policy environment has changed. Access to technologies is complicated by the spread of private rights (intellectual property rights), and access to genetic resources by new national access laws. Policies on access to genetic resources have changed from the concept of the ‘Heritage of Mankind’ for use for the benefit of all mankind to ‘National Sovereignty’, based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, for negotiated benefit-sharing between a provider and a user. The Generation Challenge Programme intends to use genomic techniques to identify and use characteristics that are of value to the resource-poor, and is looking for ways to promote freedom-to-operate for plant breeding technologies and materials. Biodiversity provides the basis for the effective use of these genomic techniques. National access regulations usually apply to all biodiversity indiscriminately and may cause obstacles or delays in the use of genetic resources in agriculture. Different policies are being developed in different regions. Some emphasize benefit-sharing, and limit access in order to implement this (the ‘African Model Law’), while others, in recognition of countries' interdependence, provide for facilitated access to all genetic resources under the jurisdiction of countries in the region (the Nordic Region). There are good reasons why the use of agricultural biodiversity needs to be regulated differently from industrial uses of biodiversity. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, provides for facilitated access to agricultural genetic resources, at least for the crops that are included in the Treaty's ‘Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing’. Ratification of the Treaty is proceeding apace, and negotiations have entered a critical stage in the development of practical instruments for its implementation. Although the scope of the Treaty is all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, there are important crops that are not covered by its Multilateral System. Humanitarian licences are being used to provide access for the poor to protected technologies: countries may need to create such a general humanitarian access regime, to ensure the poor have the access they need to agricultural genetic resources.