As crop varieties with valuable nutritional and adaptation traits vanish, the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity by farmers is the only sustainable mechanism to protect them, according to the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat).
William D Dar, director general of Icrisat, said the Asia Pacific region was seeing the largest number of threatened species, including many that were selected by earlier generations for their special taste, appearance or other characteristics. He called for assistance to farmers in marketing the agro diversity, to be complemented by genebanks.
However, there are still pockets of biodiversity that can improve human well-being, said Dar, mentioning the spices and teas grown in Kerala, Sri Lanka and the Himalayan foot hills, among others. "Use it so that we do not lose it," he said.
Icrisat's new strategy would focus on increasing productivity of staple foods and converting farm deficits into surpluses for the market.
Conservation of agro biodiversity was also the focus of an international symposium organised recently by the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (Apaari), as part of the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, according to an Icrisat release on Monday.