Agro-diversity index needed for monitoring conservation, says Expert

Countries should develop and implement an agro-diversity index which will help in monitoring conservation and use of the vast agricultural diversity spread across the globe.

The first ever International Agro-biodiversity Congress held in the capital in its Delhi declaration also decided to urge the United Nations to nominate a day as Global Biodiversity Day.

It also called upon the countries to develop necessary legal and institutional mechanisms and fund them adequately to conserve agro-biodiversity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Congress on Monday.

According to the studies, the world is currently facing unprecedented wave of animal and plant extinction.

It is estimated that species are being lost at 1,000-10,000 times the rate at which extinction took place at any time during the past 66 million years.