Agrobiodiversity Index scores show agrobiodiversity is underutilized in national food systems

Jones, Sarah K.; Carmona, Natalia Estrada; Juventia, Stella D.; Dulloo, M. E.; Laporte, Marie‐Angélique; Villani, Chiara; Remans, Roseline

doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00344-3

Cited by 31 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Crop species diversity tends to be greater in tropical than in temperate areas and in coastal than in continental regions, and there is a clear limit to increasing crop diversity in cold environments. Therefore, it is not sensible to expect or call for similar levels of diversity across very different regions, and it cannot be assumed that all countries have the same diversity potential (Jones et al 2021), just as is the case with crop yield potential.…”

Section: Constraints On Crop Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity

Merlos

Hijmans

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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High levels of crop species diversity are considered beneficial. However, increasing diversity might be difficult because of environmental constraints and the reliance on a few major crops for most food supply. Here we introduce a theoretical framework of hierarchical levels of crop diversity, in which the environmental requirements of crops limit potential diversity, and the demand for agricultural products further constrain attainable crop diversity. We estimated global potential, attainable, and current crop diversity for grid cells of 86 km2. To do so, we first estimated cropland suitability values for each of 171 crops, with spatial distribution models to get estimations of relative suitability and with a crop model to estimate absolute suitability. We then used a crop allocation algorithm to distribute the required crop area to suitable cropland. We show that the attainable crop diversity is lower in temperate and continental areas than in tropical and coastal regions. The diversity gap (the difference between attainable and current crop diversity) is particularly large in most of the Americas and relatively small in parts of Europe and East Asia. By filling these diversity gaps, crop diversity could double on 84% of the world’s agricultural land without changing the aggregate amount of global food produced. It follows that while there are important regional differences in attainable diversity, specialization of farms and regions is the main reason for low levels of local crop diversity across the globe, rather than our high reliance on a few crops.

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Section: Constraints On Crop Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High crop species diversity is considered important for agriculture sustainability (Jones et al 2021) because of its positive association with food production stability and resilience (Gaudin et al 2015, Renard andTilman 2019). However, it is unclear how much diversity would be enough or desirable and how this varies between locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity

Merlos

Hijmans

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…This lack of information on on-farm and in situ diversity, as well as regarding its availability in public domains, severely limits the ability to properly track changes in agrobiodiversity over time. The Agrobiodiversity Index being developed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT [24] illustrates this issue, as the indicator for varietal diversity on farms cannot be applied as there exists no publicly available information at the global nor country level, except for data that are contained in ex situ collections and that are publicly available at the global level, such as Genesys [55]. Thus, the difficulty concerns how we can capture the on-farm varietal diversity from the field and make this information available for the systematic monitoring of on-farm varietal diversity to ensure that decision and policymakers take appropriate actions for the conservation of agrobiodiversity on farms and with farmers.…”

Section: Monitoring Trends In Varietal Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, efforts to reach these targets have failed due to the lack of an internationally agreed upon set of indicators that satisfactorily measures the state of genetic diversity, especially for on-farm crop and varietal diversity, as well as due to a lack of existing data on genetic and varietal diversity [13,20]. Furthermore, a study developing an Agrobiodiversity Index for monitoring the status of agrobiodiversity in food systems also identified the lack of consistent, robust, and global data for several important components of agrobiodiversity, including on-farm varietal diversity [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varietal Threat Index for Monitoring Crop Diversity on Farms in Five Agro-Ecological Regions in India

et al. 2021

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Our knowledge about the status of agrobiodiversity on farms is still very limited. While several studies to assess the crop genetic diversity on farms have been undertaken, there are no systematic documentation and monitoring practices for varietal diversity in space and time. Achievement of the agrobiodiversity Aichi Target 13, established under the Biodiversity Strategy Plan 2011–2020, have failed due to the lack of existing data on varietal diversity at country, regional and global levels. Here, we propose a method for calculating the Varietal Threat Index using the four-cell analysis (FCA) participatory methodology at different geographical scales to monitor changes in the varietal diversity on farms and to compare between areas. We tested the method with datasets collected from the UN-Environment GEF project implemented in India, in which data on crop and varietal diversity were collected across seven states in India, covering five agroecological regions. Results showed that landraces are still commonly grown in the study sites, especially in the central and western regions, and that more than 50% of landraces are considered threatened, suggesting that conservation interventions are required to prevent large-scale genetic erosion. A long-term monitoring framework for varietal diversity in India is proposed.

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“…Consequently, the current status of agrobiodiversity and related actions evidences the need for an increased research effort to support understanding of the role of agrobiodiversity in agri-food systems and territorial paths [26][27][28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agrobiodiversity-Oriented Food Systems between Public Policies and Private Action: A Socio-Ecological Model for Sustainable Territorial Development

et al. 2021

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The international and European literature and institutional contexts are fostering agrobiodiversity as the foundation of a new paradigm for localized agri-food system development and sustainability. Accordingly, new systemic and holistic theoretical approaches and conceptual models are needed. This paper aims to identify and apply a new conceptual framework contributing to the understanding of how the restoring and valorization of underutilized or neglected landraces can act as a trigger for sustainable territorial development. A new holistic model was designed for the characterization and analysis of agrobiodiversity-oriented food systems. We consider the model innovative in enhancing the conceptualization of the adoption of a socio-ecological systems approach. We applied the model to a representative case study involving the localized agri-food system of the Valtiberina Red Onion, a threatened plant landrace cultivated in Tuscany, Italy. A participatory action–research approach was followed, involving both public and private stakeholders. As the main outcome of the paper, we demonstrated the capability of our new SES model by identifying and describing the assets, drivers, human action processes and generated beneficial effects concerning the development and reproduction of landrace-based quality valorization virtuous circles. Our research findings highlighted the model as an innovative tool for the analysis of agrobiodiversity-oriented food systems sustainability. Significantly, the model was designed to identify the combined role of public policy and private action in supporting the implementation of coherent management mechanisms and effective governance settings.

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Agrobiodiversity Index scores show agrobiodiversity is underutilized in national food systems

Cited by 31 publications

References 67 publications

Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity

Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity

Varietal Threat Index for Monitoring Crop Diversity on Farms in Five Agro-Ecological Regions in India

Agrobiodiversity-Oriented Food Systems between Public Policies and Private Action: A Socio-Ecological Model for Sustainable Territorial Development

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