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Agricultural biodiversity or agrobiodiversity

History of term

It is not clear when exactly the term agrobiodiversity was coined nor by whom. The 1990 annual report of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR, now Bioversity International) is one of the earliest references to biodiversity in the context of agriculture. Most references to agricultural biodiversity date from after the late 1990s once popularized by Thrupp (1998) and Altieri (1999) in the context of agroecosystems and ecosystem services.

While similar, different definitions are used by different bodies to describe biodiversity in connection with food production. CGIAR tends to use agricultural biodiversity or agrobiodiversity, while the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) uses 'biodiversity for food and agriculture' and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) uses the term 'agricultural diversity'. The CBD more or less (but not entirely) excludes marine aquatic organisms and forestry in its usage because they have their own groups and international frameworks for discussion of international policies and actions. Decision V/5 of the CBD provides the framing description.

Levels of agrobiodiversity

Genetic diversity

Genetic diversity refers to the variety and variability within a species. It can refer to the naturally occurring genetic variability within and between populations of a species, for example wild relatives of food crops, or to the variability created by humans, for example farmer-developed traditional crop varieties called landraces, or commercially bred varieties of a crop (e.g. different apple varieties: Fufi, Golden Delicious, Golden Pippin, etc.). There is considerable genetic diversity in all food crop species [how much?] Genetic diversity is important as different genes give rise to important traits, such as nutrient composition, hardiness to different environments, resistance to pests, or ample harvests. Genetic diversity is considered to be decreasing due to agricultural modernization, changing land use and climate change, among factors. However, some researchers maintain that while some individual genes are being lost, total diversity is maintained through breeding, natural selection and human selection. Genetic diversity is not static but is constantly evolving in response to changes and according to human intervention, whether farmers or breeders.

Species diversity

Species diversity refers to the number and abundance of different species used for food and agriculture. The number of species considered to contribute to food alone ranges from XXX to XXX depending on definitions. A conservative estimate is that about 6,000 species are commonly used for food. Food systems today are made up of [figures from FAO SOW ] also animal species and fish species, fungi . Associated species are the insects, weeds, worms, birds, that interact with crops in the field to have positive (earthworms aerating soils) or negative (earthworms eating roots) outcomes. Agrobiodiversity includes also species found in the wild that contribute to food and agriculture. For example foods sourced from the wild, such as fruits, mushrooms, fish, bark, insects, game, or herbs are considered part of agrobiodiversity. The number of species used worldwide is considered to be decreasing, although individual consumers, particularly in high income countries, may have access to unprecedented diversity through new value chains for crops that once were only eaten locally (Khoury et al). For example, quinoa was once only eaten in the plateaux of the Andes and is now grown and eaten worldwide.

Aquatic diversity is also an important component of agricultural biodiversity. The conservation and sustainable use of local aquatic ecosystems, ponds, rivers, coastal commons by artisanal fisherfolk and smallholder farmers is important to the survival of both humans and the environment. Since aquatic organisms, including fish, provide much of our food supply as well as underpinning the income of coastal peoples, it is critical that fisherfolk and smallholder farmers have genetic reserves and sustainable ecosystems to draw upon as aquaculture and marine fisheries management continue to evolve.

[landscapes -- NOT IN DEFINITION -- PART OF ECOSYSTEMS?]

Ecosystem diversity

Ecosystem diversity refers to the variety and variability of different components in a given geographical area (e.g. landscape, country, planet). In the context of agrobiodiversity ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity within and between agroecosystems: e.g. pastures, ponds and rivers, planted fields, hedges, trees and so on. [HELP!]

Contributions of agrobiodiversity to food and agriculture

Introduction

Contributions from agrobiodiversity to food and agriculture are usually categorized by their contribution to ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are the services provided by well functioning ecosystems (agroecosystems and also wild ecosystems such as forests or grasslands) to human wellbeing (Millennium Ecosystem assessment) . They are usually clustered into four broader categories: provisioning (direct provision of goods such as food and water), supporting (the services that are needed for agriculture to be healthy, such as soil), regulating (regulating natural processes needed in agriculture such as pollination, carbon capture or pest control), or cultural (continuing a traditional heritage , for example through local cuisine).

Provisioning

Agrobiodiversity's contribution to provisioning services is mainly as food. Food biodiversity is "the diversity of plants, animals and other organisms used for food, covering the genetic resources within species, between species and provided by ecosystems." Historically at least 6,000 plant species and numerous animal species have been used as human food. This number is considered to be decreasing now, resulting in concerns about long-term diet diversity. Food biodiversity also covers subspecies or varieties of crops, for example the many forms of the Brassica oleracea species (cauliflowers, different broccolis, cabbages, Brussel sprouts, etc.). Many species which have been overlooked by mainstream research ('orphan' or 'neglected and underutilized' species) are rich in micronutrients and other healthful components. Also within species, there is a wide variety of nutrient composition, which can contribute to human nutrition. Other provisioning services are the provision of wood, fibre, fuel, water and medicinal resources.

Sustainable production of food and other agricultural products emphasising both strengthening sustainability in production systems at all levels of intensity and improving the conservation, sustainable use and enhancement of the diversity of all genetic resources for food and agriculture, especially plant and animal genetic resources, in all types of production systems.

Supporting

Agrobiodiversity's contribution to supporting services is providing the basic conditions for other ecosystem services. The main service is to maintain genetic diversity of crops and species. Genetic diversity is important in order to maintain adaptability to new and changing climate and weather conditions. Genetic diversity is the basis of crop and livestock improvement programmes, which breed new varieties of crops and livestock in response to consumer demand and farmers' needs. [mention crop wild relatives here] A second supporting service is to maintain the habitat of wild biodiversity. Agrobiodiversity can support wild biodiversity through the use of field margins, riparian corridors, hedgerows and clumps of trees, which provide habitat and connect habitats for wild biodiversity.

Biological or life support to production emphasising conservation, sustainable use and enhancement of the biological resources that support sustainable production systems, particularly soil biota, pollinators and predators

Regulating

Agrobiodiversity makes several contributions to regulating services, which control the natural processes needed for a healthy agroecosystem. Pollination, pest controls and carbon capture are examples.

Ecological and social services provided by agro-ecosystems such as landscape and wildlife protection, soil protection and health (fertility, structure and function), water cycle and water quality, air quality, CO₂ sequestration, etc.

Polllination

XX% of all crops rely on pollinators. Agrobiodiversity contributes to the health of pollinators by: (a) providing habitat for them to live and breed; (b) providing non-chemical biological options for pest control (see below) so that insecticide use can be reduced, and insect pollinators not damaged; (c) providing a symbiotic relationship of constant flower production, with crops flowering at different times, so that the pollinators have constant access to nectar-producing flowers.

Pest control

Agrobiodiversity contributes to pest control by (a) providing a habitat for pests' natural enemies to live and breed in; (b) providing wide genetic diversity which means it is more likely that genes contain resistance to any given pathogen or pest, and also that the plant can evolve as pests and diseases evolve. Genetic diversity also means that some crops grow earlier or later, or in wetter or drier conditions, and so the crop might avoid the pest or pathogen.

Carbon capture

Agrobiodiversity contributes to carbon capture if used as part of a package of agroecological practices, for example by providing cover crops which can be dug into the land as green manure, maintaining tree stands and hedgerows, protecting the integrity of soils so that they continue to house local microbes.

Cultural

Agrobiodiversity is central to cultural ecosystem services in the form of food biodiversity, which is central to local cuisines worldwide. Agrobiodiversity provides locally appreciated crops and species, and also unique varieties which have a cultural meaning. For example, the red rice developed by Chinese farmers over generations to use in celebrations is an example of cultural biodiversity. Another example is the local food fairs in Italy, epitomized by Slow Food, which celebrate local food varieties (e.g. Cinta di Siena pigs, or the lentils from Onano). In addition, some traditional cultures use agrobiodiversity in cultural rituals, e.g. the offering of a certain citrus fruit in shrines in [Thailand CHECK].

Loss of agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity is threatened by changing patterns of land use (urbanization, deforestation), agricultural modernization (monocultures and abandoning of traditional, biodiversity-based practices); Westernization of diets and their supply chains. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288324326_Genetic_Diversity_and_Erosion-A_Global_Perspective It has been estimated that biodiversity as a whole is being lost at 100–1000 times the natural background rate (Chivian and Berstein in Sustaining life on earth. How human health depends on biodiversity. Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, Chivian and Berstein in How our health depends on biodiversity. Center for Health and the global environment. Harvard medical school, Boston, 2010; Pimm et al. in Science 344, 2014).(Butchart et al. in Science 328:1164–1168, 2010 This extends also to agricultural biodiversity. Agrobiodiversity loss leads to genetic erosion, the loss of genetic diversity, including the loss of individual genes, and the loss of particular combinations of genes (or gene complexes) such as those manifested in locally adapted landraces or breeds.

Consequences of agrobiodiversity loss

Genetic vulnerability occurs when there is little genetic diversity within a population of plants. This lack of diversity makes the population as a whole particularly vulnerable to disease, pests, or other factors. The problem of genetic vulnerability often arises with modern crop varieties, which are uniform by design. An example of the consequences of genetic vulnerability occurred in 1970 when corn blight struck the US corn belt, destroying 15% of the harvest. A particular plant cell characteristic known as Texas male sterile cytoplasm conferred vulnerability to the blight - a subsequent study by the National Academy of Sciences found that 90% of American maize plants carried this trait.

Reduced agrobiodiversity causes, and is caused by, changes in human diets. Since the mid-1900s, human diets across the world have become more diverse in the consumption of major commodity staple crops, with a corollary decline in consumption of local or regionally important crops, and thus have become more homogeneous globally. The differences between the foods eaten in different countries decreased by 68% between 1961 and 2009. The modern 'global standard' diet contains an increasingly large percentage of a relatively small number of major staple commodity crops, which have increased substantially in the share of the total food energy (calories), protein, fat, and food weight that they provide to the world's human population, including wheat, rice, sugar, maize, soybean (by +284%), palm oil (by +173%), and sunflower (by +246%). Whereas nations used to consume greater proportions of locally or regionally important food biodiversity, wheat has become a staple in over 97% of countries, with the other global staples showing similar dominance worldwide. Other crops have declined sharply over the same period, including rye, yam, sweet potato (by -45%), cassava (by -38%), coconut, sorghum (by -52%) and millets (by -45%).

Conservation

Attempts to conserve or safeguard usually focus on species or genetic level of agrobiodiversity. Conservation of genetic diversity and species diversity can be carried out ex situ, which means removing the materials from their growing site and looking after them elsewhere, or in situ, which means that they are conserved in their natural or cultivated site. (dulloo, hunter borelli 2010) While these two approaches are sometimes pitted against each other as either/or, both have merits. Conservation practitioners recommend integrating both methods, according to the purpose of conservation, threats, uniqueness of diversity, etc.

in situ conservation

In situ conservation means conserving species, breeds and varieties in farmers' fields or in the wild where they naturally occur as crop wild relatives or managed plant populations. Conserving in situ has the benefit that species can continue to evolve in response to natural and human pressures. It is also a way to conserve the maximum number of species and varieties. For trees, in situ conservaiton is considered the most appropriate method since most trees' seeds cannot be conserved ex situ, and because there are XXXXX tree species, each with multiple populations, so too many to identify and collect. In situ conservation requires the resources of willing farmers and land managers, but apart from that are low cost. They can make use of community seedbanks to ensure availability of high quality seed. However, species and varieties conserved in situ can be vulnerable to climate changes, land use changes and market demand. Smallholder farmers and rural communities are often custodians of agrobiodiversity. Home gardens are repositories of high levels of species diversity, and traditional landraces contain wide genetic diversity. Smallholder farmers represent xxx of all farmers, producing xxx of the world's food, so their contribution to in situ conservation is considerable. Having limited access to synthetic inputs, their fields are often organic by default not design. A meta-analysis of studies comparing biodiversity noted that, when compared to organic cropping systems, conventional systems had significantly lower species richness and abundance (30% greater richness and 50% greater abundance in organic systems, on average), though 16% of studies did find a greater level of species richness in conventional systems. mention NUS

certain countries are centres of origin or centres of diversity, and the focus of most in situ conservation efforts

Ex situ conservation

Ex situ conservation means removing species, breeds or varieties from where they are normally found and keeping them safe in a managed environment: botanical garden, seedbank, genebank, or herbarium. Ex situ conservation is considered the safest way of maintaining genetic diversity, since it is preserved in perpetuity and can no longer change. Most of hte world's major crops have been extensively collected and conserved in genebanks. Collections are replicated as an insurance in case of damage to one genebank. In addition, most globally important collections have a back up in the Svalbard seed vault. One weakness of ex situ conservation is that it is costly to maintain seeds and germplasm healthily in perpetual storage. In addition, coverage of the diversity neglected and underutilized crops or crop wild relatives is very limited. Genetic materials maintained ex situ can no longer adapt. Ex situ conservation is not typically used for trees or livestock, although spermbanks do exist, as do collections of some trees, such as bananas.

ecosystem level conservation

There are limited initiatives that focus on conserving entire landscapes or agro-ecosystems. One is 'Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems' (GIAHS),

Opportunities

nature-based solutions, new green deal, agroecological approaches. also on large farms -- field borders on large farms. Context of SDGs, linking to food and nutrition

Policy context

CBD

CITES

Treaty

UPOV

IPBES

Issues around agrobiodiversity

A resource for development or keeping people poor

Public awareness?

as resources or as components

homonymns and homo wotsit

is GD actually decreasing?