Agricultural Biodiversity Is Essential for a Sustainable Improvement in Food and Nutrition Security

Frison, Emile; Cherfas, Jeremy; Hodgkin, T.

doi:10.3390/su3010238

Cited by 442 publications

(304 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Harvesting and trading WEPs can result in rural employment and income generation (Shackleton and Shackleton 2004;Akinnifesi et al 2005; Keller et al 2006;Agea et al 2007;Barucha and Pretty 2010;Legwaila et al 2011). In other studies, the incorporation of WEPs in cropping systems has increased agro-biodiversity, enhanced production and mitigated the effects of environmental shocks, pests and diseases (Moore and Raymond 2006;Tilman et al 2006;Venter et al 2007;Frison et al 2011;Mahapatra and Panda 2012;Asif and Kamran 2013). Furthermore, WEPs are adapted to the local and sometimes harsh environmental conditions where other cultivated species would fail (Bradford 2010;Flyman and Afolayan 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary contribution of Wild Edible Plants to women’s diets in the buffer zone around the Lama forest, Benin – an underutilized potential

et al. 2014

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Rural populations in developing countries face food insecurity and malnutrition despite being surrounded by extraordinary biodiversity. The international community increasingly recognizes the role of agro-biodiversity and Wild Edible Plants (WEPs) in their contributions to managing risk and building resilience and sustainable food systems. Studies on real contributions of WEPs to peoples' diets, however, are uncommon. This study assessed the contribution of WEPs to diets of women living in the buffer zone of the Lama forest in southern Benin. During the long dry season, a cross-sectional survey was carried out on 120 women, covering their knowledge and attitudes towards WEPs and two non-consecutive 24-h recalls of their WEP consumption. Contribution of WEPs to total dietary intake was low due to infrequent use and small portion sizes. The highest nutrient contributions of WEPs measured were for copper (13.9 %) and iron (4.6 %) but the majority of the women had intake values below the Estimated Average Requirements (EARs) for these elements -copper 65 % and iron 91 % Women's dietary diversity was significantly higher among WEP consumers than non-consumers, mainly due to higher consumption of dark green leafy vegetables. WEPs were less consumed as a replacement for other foods but rather as a complement to the diet. The study population generally appreciated WEPs, while some constraints were reported regarding preparation, conservation and commercialization. Before widely promoting WEP consumption in order to exploit their dietary potential, additional investigations are needed into their nutrient composition, cultural and market value, their sustainable harvest levels and possible integration into innovative farming systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary contribution of Wild Edible Plants to women’s diets in the buffer zone around the Lama forest, Benin – an underutilized potential

et al. 2014

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“…The result has been a dramatic homogenization of the global agricultural system (Khoury et al 2014). Just 12 crops and 14 animal species make up 98% of agricultural food supply while just three crops -wheat, maize and rice -supply over half of global calories (Prescott-Allen & Prescott Allen 1990;Frison et al 2011;Sunderland 2011). While agricultural policies focusing on staple crop yields have helped reduce the prevalence of hunger, more attention must be paid to dietary quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest foods and healthy diets: quantifying the contributions

Rowland

Ickowitz²,

Powell

et al. 2016

Envir. Conserv.

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SUMMARYForested landscapes provide a source of micronutrient rich food for millions of people around the world. A growing evidence base suggests these foods may be of great importance to the dietary quality of people living in close proximity to forests -especially in communities with poor access to markets. Despite widespread evidence of the consumption of forest foods around the world, to date, few studies have attempted to quantify the nutritional contributions these foods make. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the consumption of forest foods can make important contributions to dietary quality. We investigated the dietary contributions of wild forest foods in smallholder dominated forested landscapes from 37 sites in 24 tropical countries, using data from the Poverty and Environment Network (PEN). We compared quantities of forest foods consumed by households with dietary recommendations and national average consumption patterns. In addition, we compared the relative importance of forests and smallholder agriculture in supplying fruits, vegetables, meat and fish for household consumption. More than half of the households in our sample collected forest foods for their own consumption, though consumption patterns were skewed towards low-quantity users. For high-quantity consuming households, however, forest foods made a substantial contributions to their diets. The top quartile of forest food users in each site obtained 14.8% of the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and 106% of the reference quantity of meat and fish from forests. In 13 sites, the proportion of meat and fish coming from forests was greater than from domestic livestock and aquaculture, while in 11 sites, households procured a greater proportion of fruits and vegetables from forests than from agriculture. Given high levels of heterogeneity in forest food consumption, we identify four forest food use site typologies to * Correspondence: Amy Ickowitz e-mail: A.Ickowitz@cgiar.org characterize the different use patterns: 'forest food dependent', 'limited forest food use', 'forest food supplementation' and 'specialist forest food consumer' sites. Our results suggest that while forest foods do not universally contribute significantly to diets, in some sites where large quantities of forest foods are consumed, their contribution towards dietary adequacy is substantial.

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“…Nutritional diversity is now widely recognised to be a key factor for adequate diets likely to satisfy the complex human nutritional needs (55)(56)(57)(58) . Evidence of the valuable outcomes of diversity in decreasing malnutrition, morbidity and mortality (6,59) is completed by indications of positive correlation with child growth and survival (60,61) . The importance of nutrient diversity for human wellbeing calls for dietary diversification.…”

Section: Reduction In Agrobiodiversity and Simplification Of Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural biodiversity, social–ecological systems and sustainable diets

et al. 2014

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The stark observation of the co-existence of undernourishment, nutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity, the triple burden of malnutrition, is inviting us to reconsider health and nutrition as the primary goal and final endpoint of food systems. Agriculture and the food industry have made remarkable advances in the past decades. However, their development has not entirely fulfilled health and nutritional needs, and moreover, they have generated substantial collateral losses in agricultural biodiversity. Simultaneously, several regions are experiencing unprecedented weather events caused by climate change and habitat depletion, in turn putting at risk global food and nutrition security. This coincidence of food crises with increasing environmental degradation suggests an urgent need for novel analyses and new paradigms. The sustainable diets concept proposes a research and policy agenda that strives towards a sustainable use of human and natural resources for food and nutrition security, highlighting the preeminent role of consumers in defining sustainable options and the importance of biodiversity in nutrition. Food systems act as complex social-ecological systems, involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Nutritional patterns and environment structure are interconnected in a mutual dynamic of changes. The systemic nature of these interactions calls for multidimensional approaches and integrated assessment and simulation tools to guide change. This paper proposes a review and conceptual modelling framework that articulate the synergies and tradeoffs between dietary diversity, widely recognised as key for healthy diets, and agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions, crucial resilience factors to climate and global changes.

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Agricultural Biodiversity Is Essential for a Sustainable Improvement in Food and Nutrition Security

Cited by 442 publications

References 83 publications

Dietary contribution of Wild Edible Plants to women’s diets in the buffer zone around the Lama forest, Benin – an underutilized potential

Dietary contribution of Wild Edible Plants to women’s diets in the buffer zone around the Lama forest, Benin – an underutilized potential

Forest foods and healthy diets: quantifying the contributions

Agricultural biodiversity, social–ecological systems and sustainable diets

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