Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Textbook Routledge Handbook of Agricultural Biodiversity First Edition Danny Hunter Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Routledge Handbook of Agricultural Biodiversity First Edition Danny Hunter Ebook All Chapter PDF
https://textbookfull.com/product/routledge-handbook-of-arabic-
second-language-acquisition-first-edition-alhawary/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-handbook-of-the-
ethics-of-consent-first-edition-edition-muller/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-handbook-of-
translation-studies-and-linguistics-first-published-edition-
malmkjaer/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-handbook-of-
contemporary-philosophy-of-religion-first-issued-in-paperback-
edition-graham-robert-oppy/
Measuring Arthropod Biodiversity: A Handbook of
Sampling Methods Jean Carlos Santos
https://textbookfull.com/product/measuring-arthropod-
biodiversity-a-handbook-of-sampling-methods-jean-carlos-santos/
https://textbookfull.com/product/routledge-handbook-of-
international-cybersecurity-eneken-tikk/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-handbook-of-
contemporary-existentialism-routledge-handbooks-in-
philosophy-1st-edition-kevin-aho/
https://textbookfull.com/product/routledge-handbook-of-public-
diplomacy-second-edition-nancy-snow/
https://textbookfull.com/product/routledge-handbook-of-global-
sport-1st-edition-john-nauright/
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF
AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY
The world relies on very few crop and animal species for agriculture and to supply its food needs.
In recent decades, there has been increased appreciation of the risk this implies for food security
and quality, especially in times of environmental change. As a result, agricultural biodiversity has
moved to the top of research and policy agendas.
This Handbook presents a comprehensive overview of our current knowledge of agricul-
tural biodiversity in a series of specially commissioned chapters. It draws on multiple disciplines
including plant and animal genetics, ecology, crop and animal science, food studies and nutrition,
as well as social science subjects which explore the socio-economic, cultural, institutional, legal
and policy aspects of agricultural biodiversity. It focuses not only on the core requirements to
deliver a sustainable agriculture and food supply, but also highlights the additional ecosystem ser-
vices provided by a diverse and resilient agricultural landscape and farming practices. The book
provides an indispensable reference textbook for a wide range of courses in agriculture, ecology,
biodiversity conservation and environmental studies.
Danny Hunter is a Senior Scientist in the Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems Initia-
tive at Bioversity International, Rome, Italy, and is a member of the Healthy Food Systems node,
Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Australia.
Luigi Guarino is currently the Director of Science at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He has
been a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and worked
for the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (now Bioversity International), and for the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (now the Pacific Community) in the Middle East, Africa,
the Caribbean, Latin America and the South Pacific.
Charles Spillane is the Established Professor (Chair) of Plant Science, and Head of the Plant and
AgriBiosciences Research Centre (PABC) at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Professor Spillane’s Genetics and Biotechnology Lab works on both fundamental and applied
research on plant and agricultural biosciences.
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
The editors pay particular tribute to the late Juliana Santilli who worked
tirelessly for legal protection for the users of agricultural biodiversity and the late
Bhuwon Sthapit who contributed significantly to the development of on-farm
conservation and community biodiversity management. Their work has not
only enriched this Handbook but also the lives of the many farmers and farming
communities they supported.
CONTENTS
Contributors xii
PART 1
Biological resources for agricultural biodiversity 13
vii
Contents
PART 2
The origins and history of agricultural biodiversity 145
PART 3
The value of agricultural biodiversity 253
viii
Contents
PART 4
Agricultural biodiversity: human health and well-being 343
25 Agricultural biodiversity for healthy diets and healthy food systems 401
Jessica E. Raneri and Gina Kennedy
PART 5
The drivers of agricultural biodiversity 417
ix
Contents
34 Seed systems: managing, using and creating crop genetic resources 535
Niels P. Louwaars
PART 6
Safeguarding agricultural biodiversity 547
x
Contents
Index 680
xi
CONTRIBUTORS
Devin M. Bartley: Senior Fishery Resources Officer, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy.
Fenton Beed: Regional Director, AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (East and Southeast
Asia), Bangkok, Thailand.
David Boshier: Senior Research Associate, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK, and Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
Ian K. Dawson: Associate Fellow, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya.
Walter Simon de Boef: Senior Program Officer, Seed Systems, Access & Markets Initiative,
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Agricultural Development Strategy, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Fabrice DeClerck: Senior Scientist, Agricultural Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Rome, Italy.
xii
Contributors
Thomas Dubois: Regional Director, AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (Eastern and
Southern Africa), Arusha, Tanzania.
Ehsan Dulloo: Programme Leader, Conservation and Availability of Genetic Resources, Bio-
versity International, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius.
Sunday Ekesi: Principal Scientist and Head of Plant Health Theme, International Centre of
Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya.
Dag Endresen: Senior Engineer, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Norway,
University in Oslo Natural History Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Komi K. M. Fiaboe: Senior Scientist, Plant Health Theme, International Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya.
Barbara Gemmill-Herren: Focal Point for the International Pollinators Initiative, 2010–2015,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy.
Geoff M. Gurr: Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,
Fuzhou, China and Graham Centre, Charles Sturt University, Orange, Australia.
Matthias Halwart: Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy.
Jean Hanson: Leader, Forage Diversity Project, International Livestock Research Institute, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.
Robert Henry: Director, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University
of Queensland, Brisbane St Lucia, Australia.
xiii
Contributors
Verina Ingram: Assistant Professor FNP and Senior Researcher, Department of Environmental
Sciences, Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Matthias Jaeger: Value Chain/Market Specialist, International Center for Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT), Cali, Colombia.
Gina Kennedy: Theme Leader, Diet Diversity for Nutrition and Health, Bioversity Interna-
tional, Rome, Italy.
Harriet V. Kuhnlein: Founding Director, Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and
Environment, and School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University, Montreal,
Canada.
Marcus A. Lana: Agricultural Engineer, Institute of Landscape Systems, Leibniz Centre for
Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany.
Kristian Le Mottee: Junior Research Fellow, School of Environmental & Rural Science, Uni-
versity of New England, Armidale, Australia.
Roger R. B. Leakey: Professor, Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit, Department of Marine
and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia.
Brenda B. Lin: Research Scientist, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO), Canberra, Australia.
Judy Loo: Science Domain Leader, Forest Genetic Resources and Restoration, Bioversity Inter-
national, Rome, Italy.
Isabel López Noriega: Legal Specialist – Scientist, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
Niels P. Louwaars: Plantum, Netherlands Association of Seed Companies, and Law and Gov-
ernance Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
xiv
Contributors
David E. MacHugh: Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Impact, Animal Genomics
Laboratory and Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, College of Health
and Agricultural Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Paul Marshall: Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland,
Brisbane St Lucia, Australia.
Wendy Lu McGill: PhD Scholar, Plant & AgriBiosciences Research Centre, National Univer-
sity of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Gennifer Meldrum: Research Fellow, Nutrition and Marketing Diversity, Bioversity Interna-
tional, Rome, Italy.
Clara I. Nicholls: Lecturer, International & Area Studies Academic Program, University of
California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Rodomiro Ortiz: Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Department of Plant Breeding,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden.
Gloria Otieno: Associate Expert, Genetic Resources and Food Security Policy, Bioversity Inter-
national, Rome, Italy.
Stefano Padulosi: Senior Scientist, Integrated Conservation Methodologies and Use, Bioversity
International, Rome, Italy.
Craig J. Pearson: Dean and Professor of Agricultural Policy, Ontario Agricultural College,
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Ivette Perfecto: George W. Pack Professor of Ecology, Natural Resources and Environment,
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich-
igan, USA.
David J. Perović: Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,
Fuzhou, China.
xv
Contributors
Prabhu L. Pingali: Director, Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative ( TCi) and Pro-
fessor of Applied Economics and Management, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics
and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
Jessica E. Raneri: Nutrition Research Specialist, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy, and the
University of Gent, Gent, Belgium.
Ramanatha V. Rao: Senior Adjunct Fellow, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the
Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave Sriramapura, Bengaluru, India.
Cristina Romanelli: DPA Student, Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Pub-
lic Policy (STEaPP), University College London, London, UK.
Per Rudebjer: Head (ad interim), Knowledge Management and Capacity Strengthening, Bio-
versity International, Rome, Italy.
Juliana Santilli (deceased): Lawyer and Public Prosecutor in the Federal District of Brazil,
Associate Researcher in Environmental Law, University of Brasília Center for Sustainable
Development, and co-founding member, Instituto Socioambiental (Brazilian civil society
organization).
Pitambar Shrestha: Program Officer, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Develop-
ment (LI-BIRD), Pokhara, Nepal.
Sajal Sthapit: Deputy Director of Programme Operations, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity,
Research and Development (LI-BIRD), Pokhara, Nepal.
Abishkar Subedi: Senior Advisor, Genetic Resources and Seed Systems, Centre for Develop-
ment Innovation, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Sevgan Subramanian: Senior Scientist, Plant Health Theme, International Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya.
Cristina Tirado: UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), University of
California, Los Angeles, USA.
Irene van Loosen: Consultant, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali,
Colombia.
xvi
Contributors
Nathalie van Vliet: Associate Researcher, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR),
Bogor, Indonesia.
John Vandermeer: Asa Gray Distinguished University Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Ronnie Vernooy: Genetic Resources Policy Specialist, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
Barbara Vinceti: Scientist, Forest Genetic Resources, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
xvii
INTRODUCTION
Agricultural biodiversity, the key to sustainable
food systems in the 21st century
Introduction
Agricultural biodiversity – the plants, animals and microorganisms that contribute to food and agriculture
and whose diversity is the result of interactions between people and their environment over many millennia –
represents one of humanity’s greatest resources. Yet, for the most part, we continue to underes-
timate its importance, let alone the important roles of agricultural biodiversity in ensuring the
sustainability of agriculture and food systems. Such systems need to be sustainable if humanity
is to deal with the major global challenges of the 21st century: securing universal access to suf-
ficient, healthy, safe food for a growing human population while not destroying the planet, and
doing so in a context where climate change is predicted to significantly reduce production and
food supplies from major crops, especially in Africa and South Asia (Burke et al., 2009).
Despite supplying large volumes of some agricultural commodities to markets, our agriculture
and food systems still fail to feed a significant part of humanity adequately in a nutritionally ade-
quate manner (Godfray et al., 2010). Approximately 795 million people globally are considered
to be ‘undernourished’, 2 billion people are considered ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’, while 2 billion
lack the vitamins and minerals needed for optimal nutrition. Many of our current food and
agricultural systems have severe negative impacts on the environment, leading to the degradation
and loss of ecosystems, including the associated biodiversity and ecosystem services they provide
( Whitfield et al., 2015). Both intensive and extensive agricultural systems can act as sources of
pollution, act as drivers of deforestation and can contribute to climate change (Godfray et al.,
2010; Pretty et al., 2010; Foley et al., 2011; Ray et al., 2013). The livelihoods, economic and
social well-being provided by agricultural systems to many rural communities worldwide dic-
tate whether farmers and their communities are forced to either hang in, step up or step out of
agriculture (Dorward et al., 2009). In parallel with the need to develop more equitable food and
agricultural systems, there is a need to transform the vast majority of current agriculture and
food systems to more diversified, more ecologically-sound systems with reduced environmental
footprints (Godfray et al., 2010; Pretty et al., 2010; Foley et al., 2011; Ray et al., 2013; Tittonell and
Giller, 2013; Godfray, 2015; Whitfield et al., 2015; Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems
for Nutrition, 2016; Haddad et al., 2016; IPES-Food, 2016; Lapena et al., 2016).
There are proposals for possible changes in the governance systems and incentivization regimes
that could, in theory, support the emergence of alternative, more diversified and sustainable food
1
Danny Hunter et al.
systems (IPES-Food, 2016). Current agricultural and food systems are complex with strong
inertia effects, including inertia effects due to concentration of power, path dependency, export
orientation, expectation of cheap food, short-term and compartmentalized thinking, feed-the-
world narratives and contested discourses regarding metrics of success (Vermeulen et al., 2012;
Garnett, 2013; Garnett et al., 2013; Lang and Heasman 2015; Haddad et al., 2016). Improving the
ways we conserve and sustainably use agricultural biodiversity in both production and consump-
tion systems will be essential in effecting sustainability transformations.
In this Handbook, we have sought to bring together a wide range of experts in all fields
relevant to addressing some of the challenges, from ensuring a robust understanding of what
agricultural diversity exists, through to case studies championing its use within different forms of
food production systems that aspire to be more sustainable, equitable and diversified. Many of the
contributors argue that such systems have the potential to ensure greater resilience, together with
healthier diets, more sustainable crop improvement and productivity and improved livelihoods,
health and well-being. In this introductory section, we briefly summarize the organization of this
Handbook and provide an outline of the key points that the authors of each chapter have made.
2
Introduction
pollinators, respectively. Finally, the agricultural biodiversity present in the soil is summarized by
Fenton Beed and colleagues in Chapter 8.
While each chapter documents the richness of biodiversity, it is clearly evident, as we enter
the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, that the world’s efforts in
conserving agricultural biodiversity are falling dramatically short. The recent 13th Conference
of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Cancun, Mexico, in
December 2016 highlighted a disappointing lack of progress on many of the Aichi Biodiversity
Targets, including Target 13:
The genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of
wild relatives, including other socio-economically as well as culturally valuable species,
is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing
genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity.
The consensus of COP13 was also a general lack of progress on mainstreaming biodiversity into
production systems, including agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Why is this so? We suggest a large part of the problem is the lack of effective inter-disciplinary
and cross-sectoral approaches. Society is consistently failing to recognize and realize the multi-
ple benefits that agricultural biodiversity can bring for sustainable development. Whether it is
climate change adaptation or poverty alleviation or better diets and nutrition, agricultural biodi-
versity can play a part, particularly when it is growing in farmers’ fields as well as safeguarded in
genebanks and accessible to all. Such benefits are not being realized across sectors and disciplines
as they should (Lapena et al., 2016).
Does the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offer an opportunity for a much better
unifying narrative for agricultural biodiversity and more diversified agricultural systems? Clearly,
agricultural biodiversity contributes to a number of the SDGs, but SDG2 in particular brings
together agricultural biodiversity, food security, sustainable agriculture and food systems and
better nutrition in a single goal. Yet it could be argued there is a need to better link targets and
indicators so that SDG2 goes beyond conventional measures of yield and productivity to better
promote and capture diversity and quality in agriculture and food systems and diets (Cassidy
et al., 2013; Allen et al., 2014; Johnston et al., 2014). SDG2 could be a rallying point for the
agricultural biodiversity community, and others, to realize the multiple benefits highlighted in the
previous paragraph through consideration of more effective inter-disciplinary and cross-sectoral
approaches, enabling environments and the necessary policy realignment to support dietary and
livelihood transformations enabled by agricultural biodiversity.
3
Danny Hunter et al.
agriculture occurred gradually over several millennia. A significant result of the domestication
process was an increased reliance of humans on a much-reduced diversity of plant and animal
species for their food supply and diet (Prescott-Allen and Prescott-Allen, 1990; Khoury et al.,
2014). The number of plants used for food by pre-agricultural human societies is estimated to
be around 7,000, but only a tiny fraction of the diversity of the plant kingdom, mostly grass and
legume species, were ever domesticated. It is striking that even in the 21st century, the decision
to ‘choose’ these handfuls of species by ancient farmers continues to dominate the world’s food
supply (Khoury et al., 2014).
The ‘discovery’ of the Americas in the 15th century boosted the inter-continental exchange
of plants and animals, and was generally beneficial to the diversity of food systems and diets. The
movement of exploitable plant resources was not only in the direction of the home countries, as
colonial powers also took plants from one tropical region of the world to another; for example,
the Portuguese took maize and cassava from America to Africa, and the Spanish took maize and
sweet potatoes across the Pacific (Gepts, 2006). Freed from disease pressures, these crops, not to
mention coffee and rubber, became incredibly important in their new regions (Gepts, 2012).
The Columbian Exchange was not without its downsides, however, with regards to agricul-
tural biodiversity; often, only a few plants per species were transferred. The introduced plants had
a limited genetic base that we now realize seriously constrained their exploitation (Gepts, 2012).
The cultivation of a small number of susceptible potato varieties contributed to the outbreak of
the pathogen Phytophthora infestans in Europe (Fry and Goodwin, 1997; Tyler et al., 2006; Cooke
et al., 2012). This disease was to have its most devastating impact in Ireland in the mid-19th cen-
tury with the Great Famine, a canonical example of the perils of over-reliance on limited crop
species and varietal diversity by economically vulnerable populations with no access to alternative
food supplies (Bourke, 1993; Fraser, 2003).
In developing countries, efforts to introduce modernized agriculture and agrifood models
through the Green Revolution from the 1960s onward, with the aid of increased irrigation, pes-
ticides, fertilizer and improved varieties, paved the way for huge production increases of cereals
(Conway, 1998; Evenson and Gollin, 2003). These contributed to saving millions from hunger
and starvation (Evenson and Gollin, 2003; Pingali, 2012), with perceptions that promotion of
a limited number of high-yielding varieties contributed to the loss of landraces from farmers’
fields (Smale, 1997).
Today, agriculture, food systems and diets are largely dependent on roughly a dozen plant spe-
cies originally chosen and domesticated by early Neolithic farmers (Khoury et al., 2014). These
crops, together with a half a dozen or so animal species, are today estimated to supply 75% of the
world’s food, the big three cereal staples – rice, maize and wheat – alone currently providing 60%
of the world’s food energy intake (Khoury et al., 2014). Within species, there has also been a sig-
nificant narrowing of the diversity of varieties cultivated in farmers’ fields or available in markets.
Part 2 of the Handbook, The origins and history of agricultural biodiversity, describes the historical
development of our current, threatened agricultural biodiversity. Paul Gepts (Chapter 9) pro-
vides a detailed summary of our current understanding of the genetic changes involved in the
course of crop domestication, an area where major advances have been made, albeit with many
questions remaining to be addressed. The particular issues associated with the domestication of
clonal crops are then considered by Peter Matthews (Chapter 10). This chapter highlights the
risks of limited genetic diversity in such essential staples as cassava and banana/plantain, and the
resulting threats from the spread of diseases and from climate change. David Williams (Chapter 11)
and Prabhu Pingali (Chapter 12) address two of the most significant events in the history of
agricultural biodiversity – the Columbian Exchange, and the Green Revolution, respectively.
Finally, Part 2 concludes with two important chapters which outline the role of agroecological
4
Introduction
strategies. The first, by Miguel Altieri and colleagues (Chapter 13) considers the importance of
polycultural systems while the second, by Roger Leakey (Chapter 14), focuses on the key role
that trees play in agroecology.
5
Danny Hunter et al.
Gennifer Meldrum and Stefano Padulosi (Chapter 18) focus on the many thousands of edible
plants that have been neglected by agricultural and rural development but which have significant
potential to be better exploited for the benefit of humankind. These neglected and underutilized
species remain an important resource for many farming communities living in marginal areas
where the Green Revolution has been less successful due to difficult growing conditions and poor
access to irrigation and other inputs (Mayes et al., 2012). They argue that improving the yields,
processing and marketability of these neglected crops would enhance their contribution to the
food security and livelihoods of resource-poor farmers who depend on them for subsistence, as
well as supporting adaptation of agriculture to climate change.
Brenda Lin (Chapter 19) describes the importance of agricultural biodiversity for ensuring
resilience and food security of farming systems. Inevitably, the need for resilience is becoming
ever more urgent due to the growing pressures of climate (Howden et al., 2007; Rickards and
Howden, 2012). This section of the Handbook is brought to a conclusion by Simon Attwood
and colleagues (Chapter 20), who demonstrate that the different approaches towards determining
the value of agricultural biodiversity presented are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they
are mutually reinforcing.
6
Introduction
and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity to safeguard ecosystem services is not only a promising
pathway to long-term environmental and human health, but also an essential element for sus-
tainable development. The authors argue that a focus on agrobiodiversity can not only help
ameliorate the critical drivers of biodiversity loss and the incremental impacts of climate change,
but in doing so it can contribute to improved health outcomes while bolstering ecosystem and
human resilience. Romanelli and Tirado conclude with a call for more and better integrated
and interdisciplinary approaches to exploring biodiversity and human health linkages, high-
lighting the rise of holistic approaches such as EcoHealth ( Wilcox et al., 2004) and One Health
(Zinsstag et al., 2011), which seek to connect human health with the health of other species and
ecosystems. These are approaches with which the agricultural biodiversity community is now
beginning to engage.
Romanelli and Tirado also highlight the importance of insect pollinators for provision of
ecosystem services and their contribution to the nutritional value of our food supply, showing
that without this service, large numbers of people would be vulnerable to serious nutritional
deficiencies. Wendy Lu McGill and colleagues (Chapter 22) take this a step further by elab-
orating the nutritional benefits of the direct consumption of insects and the contributions
edible insects can make to healthy and sustainable diets (Van Huis, 2013). They point out
that, despite preconceived notions about eating insects being a minority activity, it is more the
norm than the exception at the global scale. Edible insects provide a safe, nutritious source of
micronutrients and protein for an estimated 2 billion people in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and
Latin America.
Juliana Santilli (Chapter 23) reviews how legal instruments aimed at safeguarding cultural
heritage can be used to promote biodiversity-rich agricultural systems and traditional foodways
(Forson and Counihan, 2013), whether tangible (agroecosystems, cultivated plants) or intangible
(agricultural techniques, practices and knowledge). She singles out two particular international
legal instruments, the UNESCO (1972; 2003) Convention for the Protection of the World Cul-
tural and Natural Heritage and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage, as having multiple benefits, not only conserving and promoting agrobiodiversity and
food diversity, but also many other elements of human health and well-being, especially among
local and Indigenous communities, a theme taken up by the next chapter.
Indigenous peoples’ food systems and cultures often demonstrate a remarkable complexity and
diversity built upon many generations of nurturing and conserving a rich agricultural biodiver-
sity heritage (Anaya 2004). Yet, Indigenous peoples, irrespective of geography, suffer higher rates
of poor health compared with non-indigenous peoples, and poor diet is identified as a significant
risk factor for premature death among many Indigenous groups (Stephens et al., 2005). These
are themes taken up by Harriet Kuhnlein (Chapter 24), who surveys the diversity of traditional
food systems of Indigenous peoples and the vast collective knowledge rooted in historical con-
tinuity within their territories. In some instances, knowledge of local food resources has been
documented to include up to 390 plant and animal species, many of them uncultivated foods
harvested from the wild within an ecosystem that may be only a few square kilometres in area. Yet
this knowledge and the historical connection to local territories is under threat from major social,
economic and environmental changes. In particular, she highlights that people’s migration away
from their homelands to urban areas for employment, or simply by being forced out by settlers
and colonists, often sets in motion a series of events that have a serious impact on Indigenous
peoples’ access to their traditional food base. With this can come significant dietary change, with
possible health consequences leading to chronic disease.
Jessica Raneri and Gina Kennedy (Chapter 25) then explore the possible impact pathways that
can increase the availability of diverse and nutrient-dense foods for consumption by households.
7
Danny Hunter et al.
They survey the significant differences in macro- and micronutrient content which exists not
only among all agrobiodiversity species but also within species, highlighting that this could mean
the difference between a diet being adequate or inadequate in the nutrients the body requires.
Raneri and Kennedy conclude by trying to unravel the barriers to better understanding the role
of biodiversity for improved diets.
8
Introduction
The final chapter of this section, by Niels Louwaars (Chapter 34), considers the importance
of understanding seed systems as a contributing factor to the maintenance of agrobiodiversity. It
also analyses how important regulatory frameworks influence seed systems.
The need for conservation: that which is important will not save itself !
The final section of the Handbook, Part 6, Safeguarding agricultural biodiversity, addresses the key
question that arises from the foregoing – given that we will need agricultural biodiversity more
and more and in perpetuity, how should agricultural biodiversity best be safeguarded for current
and future generations? The main underlying theme is our consideration that both the ex situ/in
situ and the conservation/use dichotomies are unhelpful and have contributed to unnecessary
polarization within the field.
At a time when biodiversity is being lost in many places, as noted in Part 1, Bhuwon Sthapit
and colleagues (Chapter 35) point out that there are farmers who continue to actively maintain
and employ agricultural biodiversity on their farms, and who possess specialized knowledge
about its characteristics and uses. They call for their recognition as ‘custodian farmers’ and for
their current and future role in the conservation and continued evolution of agricultural bio-
diversity to be more systematically researched and recognized. Such a role could include the
production of basic seed on behalf of community seedbanks or even private seed companies.
Ex situ conservation approaches are summarized by Ehsan Dulloo and colleagues (Chapter
36), including technical considerations related to long-term storage of propagules. This chapter
is complemented by Ronnie Vernooy and colleagues (Chapter 37), who discuss the specific
importance of community seed banks, which they describe as locally governed and managed,
mostly informal, institutions whose core function is to conserve, restore, revitalize, strengthen and
improve local seed systems. They also stress that many community seed banks strive to regain,
maintain and increase the control of farmers and local communities over seeds and to strengthen
cooperation among farmers, and between farmers and others involved in the conservation and
sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity.
Chapters 38 and 39 further elaborate this theme by grounding conservation within the con-
text of communities of ‘ownership’ and ‘memory’. Dan Taylor (Chapter 38) revisits the notion
of farmer custodianship of agricultural biodiversity and the knowledge and innovation that
underpins it as an expression of farmer identity. Taylor points out that to be a farmer is a state-
ment of practice and place that is both relational and contextual, in which seeds are embodied
with cultural meaning, as well as being instrumental in food and farming outcomes. Farmers
reinvent their identities in the process of seed conservation, and in the generation and selection
of crop diversity. Virginia Nazarea (Chapter 39) argues that from plant exploration worldwide
to conservation in genebanks the discourse of crop biodiversity conservation has been dominated
by landscapes of loss that promote the principle of containment in cold storage, in perpetuity for
humankind. By evoking landscapes of remembrance, she challenges this narrative, emphasizing the
everyday practices and sensory memories that crops and other culturally significant plants inhabit
and evoke. Nazarea argues that these compelling and enduring practices, sensations and senti-
ments have much relevance to the conservation of biodiversity and calls for greater examination
of the interplay between loss and remembrance in biodiversity conservation.
A case study of the use of agricultural biodiversity as the basis for a participatory plant breed-
ing program in Cuba is presented by Humberto Ríos Labrada and Juan Ceballos-Müller (Chap-
ter 40), which highlights the re-engagement of farmers into plant breeding and crop diversity
conservation as well as strengthening local innovation systems. Johannes Engels and Per Rudebjer
(Chapter 41) consider the broader institutional framework and capacity needed for effective
9
Danny Hunter et al.
conservation and use of agrobiodiversity (again encompassing both in situ and ex situ approaches)
(Spillane et al., 1999), and show how this raises two major challenges: (1) the need to operate
across multiple sectors, and (2) to integrate agricultural biodiversity into research and develop-
ment agendas within each sector, be it agriculture, forestry, biodiversity conservation or nutrition.
Dag Endresen (Chapter 42) provides an in-depth account of how the information generated
by conservation approaches can be stored, managed and made available. This is an important
issue, as there is a significant risk that accessibility of data related to conserved agrobiodiversity
could become a bottleneck to its subsequent use. What happens to the records that are generated?
Can farmers view them online? Can they be used by practitioners of agroecology as well as by
molecular breeders?
Finally, Patrick Mulvany (Chapter 43) promotes the place of communities in ensuring sus-
tainable use of agricultural biodiversity, in a chapter entitled, ‘Biodiversity Is Given Life by Small-
Scale Food Providers: Defending Agricultural Biodiversity and Ecological Food Provision in the
Framework of Food Sovereignty’, and which serves in some ways as a summary of the future
challenges within the field. Mulvany argues that given the inter-dependencies described for
agricultural biodiversity and ecological food provision developed in the framework of the food
sovereignty movement (Bernstein, 2014; Jansen, 2015; McMichael, 2015), the food sovereignty
movement needs to give as high a priority to defending access to, and control over, agricultural
biodiversity as it does currently to defending peasant seeds.
References
Allen, T., Prosperi, P., Cogill, B. and Flichman, G. (2014) ‘Agricultural biodiversity, social–ecological systems
and sustainable diets’, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol. 73, pp. 498–508.
Anaya, S. J. (2004) Indigenous Peoples in International Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Balmford, A., Green, R. and Phalan, B. (2012) ‘What conservationists need to know about farming’, Proceed-
ings of the Royal Society of London B–Biological Sciences, vol. 279, pp. 2714–2724.
Bernstein, H. (2014) ‘Food sovereignty via the “peasant way”: A sceptical view’, Journal of Peasant Studies,
vol. 41, pp. 1031–1063.
Bourke, A. (1993) ‘The Visitation of God?’: The Potato and the Great Irish Famine, Lilliput Press Ltd., Dublin,
Ireland.
Burke, M. B., Lobell, D. B. and Guarino, L. (2009) ‘Shifts in African crop climates by 2050, and the impli-
cations for crop improvement and genetic resources conservation’, Global Environmental Change, vol. 19,
pp. 317–325.
Cassidy, E. S., West, P. C., Gerber, J. S. and Foley, J. A. (2013) ‘Redefining agricultural yields: From tonnes
to people nourished per hectare’, Environmental Research Letters, vol. 8, p. 034015.
Clough, Y., Barkmann, J., Juhrbandt, J., Kessler, M., Wanger, T. C., Anshary, A., Buchori, D., Cicuzza, D.,
Darras, K. and Putra, D. D. (2011) ‘Combining high biodiversity with high yields in tropical agroforests’,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 108, pp. 8311–8316.
Conway, G. (1998) The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century, Cornell University
Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Cooke, D. E., Cano, L. M., Raffaele, S., Bain, R. A., Cooke, L. R., Etherington, G. J., Deahl, K. L., Farrer, R.
A., Gilroy, E. M. and Goss, E. M. (2012) ‘Genome analyses of an aggressive and invasive lineage of the
Irish potato famine pathogen’, PLoS Pathogens, vol. 8, p. e1002940.
Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Penguin, London, UK.
Dorward, A., Anderson, S., Bernal, Y. N., Vera, E. S., Rushton, J., Pattison, J. and Paz, R. (2009) ‘Hanging in,
stepping up and stepping out: Livelihood aspirations and strategies of the poor’, Development in Practice,
vol. 19, pp. 240–247.
Doss, C. (2014) ‘If women hold up half the sky, how much of the world’s food do they produce?’, pp. 69–88
in A. R. Quisumbing, R. Meinzen-Dick, T. L. Raney, A. Croppenstedt, J. A. Behrman and A. Peterman
(eds.), Gender in Agriculture, Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland.
Evenson, R. E. and Gollin, D. (2003) ‘Assessing the impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000’, Science,
vol. 300, pp. 758–762.
10
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
hirveästi peläten, että Aljošan päättäväisyys katoaa. He kulkivat
ääneti, Rakitin ei edes uskaltanut alkaa puhella.
3.
Sipuli
— Itse sinä olet soma, Rakitin! Sanon sinulle, että odotan yhtä
semmoista pikku sanomaa. Heti kun sanoma tulee, lähden
kiitämään, — lennän tieheni, näette vain vilahduksen. Siksi olen
koristautunut, jotta olisin valmiina.
— Mitä virka-arvoa?
— Nytpä ovat Mitenjkan asiat hullusti, — ui, ui. Tietääkö hän vai
eikä tiedä?
— Mitäpä tietäisi. Ei tiedä ensinkään! Jos saisi tietää, niin tappaisi.
Mutta sitä minä nyt en ollenkaan pelkää, en pelkää nyt hänen
veistään. Ole vaiti, Rakitka, älä muistuta mieleeni Dmitri
Fjodorovitšia: hän on murskannut koko sydämeni. Mutta minä en
tahdo mitään tästä tällä hetkellä ajatellakaan. Aljošetskaa voin
ajatella, minä katselen Aljošetskaa… Hymyilehän minulle, kultaseni,
ilostu, hymähdä minun tyhmyydelleni, minun riemulleni… Hymyilipä,
hymyili! Kas miten ystävällisesti katsoo. Minä, tiedätkö Aljoša, olen
kaiken aikaa ajatellut, että sinä olet minulle vihainen
toissapäiväisestä, sen neidin takia. Koira minä olin, niin se on…
Mutta hyvä on kuitenkin, että kävi niin. Se oli paha ja se oli hyvä, —
hymähti Grušenjka äkkiä mietteissään, ja jokin kova piirre vilahti
äkkiä hänen hymyssään. — Mitja kertoi hänen huutaneen: »Piiskaa
pitäisi semmoiselle!» Minä loukkasin häntä silloin pahasti. Hän kutsui
minut luokseen, tahtoi voittaa, viekoitella suklaallansa… Ei, se on
hyvä, että kävi niin, — naurahti hän taas. — Mutta minä pelkään
vain, että sinä suutuit…
Sisälle tuli Fenja ja pani pöydälle tarjottimen, jolla oli avattu pullo ja
kolme täytettyä pikaria.
Hän otti pikarin, Aljoša otti omansa, joi pienen kulauksen ja pani
pikarin jälleen paikalleen.
— Mitenkä niin?
— Mutta nyt ole vaiti, Rakitka, kaikki se, mitä nyt sanon, on
semmoista, mikä ei ole sinun korviasi vasten. Istuudu tänne
nurkkaan ja pidä suusi kiinni; sinä et rakasta meitä, ole siis vaiti.