By Dr. Priscila Henríquez, IICA, Specialist in the Management of Technological Innovation.
Washington. For over 10,000 years since people started domesticating plants, farmers have developed an impressive range of crops from more than 10,000 species. The resulting varieties are suited to different conditions; some tolerate drought, others resist flooding, while some are resistant to pests and diseases. Each variety possesses particular characteristics and cultivation requirements, and produces a specific type of product. A similar process took place in livestock to create different breeds of cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and other important sources of animal protein. The hard work of livestock keepers has rendered more than 5,600 breeds of 40 species of animals. Like the cultural value it represents, agrobiodiversity is priceless for the food security of millions of people.
Examples of remarkable agricultural diversity abound in the American hemisphere. Thousands of maize varieties have been grown and continue to flourish in Mexico because the people who grow them use them in many ways. A fraction of this diversity is represented at the National Genetic Resources Center in Jalisco where 22,931 accessions of maize and 600 of teosinte, its closest wild relative, are conserved and used in breeding programs.
Another example is quinoa, a crop native to the Andean region, which not only is a key component in the local diet but also has become an important export product. While many landraces of quinoa are kept and used by small farmers in diverse crop systems, the national Bolivian germplasm bank maintains 3,178 accessions, constituting the largest collection of quinoa in the world. Scientists work alongside farmers to improve this underutilized species in several environments developing multiple and nutritional products.
Lesser known traditional local crops and other edible wild plants are also important sources of food for rural inhabitants, especially when harvests of the main crops are poor or in times of crisis. Amaranth and chia seeds, chipilin and mora leaves, oca tubers, and anonas and jocotes fruits are a few examples of the local foods in several regions of Latin America. These products are usually in the hands of small producers and constitute an important component of their diets and a significant income source. Some neglected and underutilized species are good sources of important macro and micro nutrients that contribute significantly to improved nutrition.
Therefore, in situ and ex situ conservation are important and complementary strategies to maintain the local crop diversity. Landraces of important crops are kept by small farmers who depend on these assets for their livelihood, while the gene banks preserve crops diversity for the long term in specialized facilities. Coupled with sound breeding programs and support for local seed systems, in situ and ex situ conservation form the basis for value chain development.
Furthermore, agrobiodiversity conservation and its sustainable use become even more important in light of the risks posed by the changing climate. Agrobiodiversity plays an important role in small farmer’s adaptation by responding to the increasing climatic variability with crop variability. It provides farmers with more options to manage the more frequent climatic risks while contributing to strengthen the resilience of their farms.
For example, because most agriculture in Mesoamerica and the Andean region is rainfed, crops and animals are particularly vulnerable to ever increasing water scarcity. This has been experienced during the current drought caused by El Niño which has affected 2.5 million people in the Central American Dry Corridor, prompting the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic to declare an “agricultural alert”. Due to the unpredictability of climate change, farmers can no longer rely on the timing of seasons or the availability of rainfall to make planting decisions. Therefore, the adequate choice of crops and varieties becomes important to manage frequent droughts. Also, agroforestry and other cropping arrangements can be used to create more diverse, productive, healthy, profitable and sustainable land-use systems. Besides, a combination of crops and livestock on-farm prevents farmers from losing everything due to environmental stresses.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that developing new crop varieties and animal breeds better adapted to climate change particularly to high temperature and drought, and strengthening traditional indigenous knowledge systems and practices are sound strategies to reduce the risk of decreased food production and food quality.
Poor and marginalized farmers are the primary custodians of the agricultural biodiversity represented in traditional crops and varieties, and their associated traditional knowledge. Therefore the conservation and promotion of neglected and underutilized crops to manage weather challenges requires an integrated approach with a gender-sensitive and pro-poor focus.
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