Danny Hunter

A global approach to crop wild relative conservation: securing the gene pool for food and agriculture

SummaryIn light of the growing concern over the potentially devastating impacts on biodiversity and food security of climate change and the massively growing world population, taking action to conserve crop wild relatives (CWR), is no longer an option — it is a priority. Crop wild relatives are species closely related to crops, including their progenitors, many of which have the potential to contribute beneficial traits to crops, such as pest or disease resistance, yield improvement or stability. They are a critical component of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), have already made major contributions to crop production and are vital for future food security; their systematic conservation in ways that ensure their continuing availability for use is therefore imperative. This is a complex, interdisciplinary, global issue that has been addressed by various national and international initiatives. Drawing on the lessons learnt from these initiatives we can now propose a global approach to CWR conservation, the key elements of which are: (1) estimating global CWR numbers, (2) assessment of the global importance of CWR diversity, (3) current conservation status, (4) threats to CWR diversity, (5) systematic approaches to CWR conservation, (6) CWR informatics, and (7) enhancing the use of CWR diversity.

Dietary species richness as a measure of food biodiversity and nutritional quality of diets

Significance Current research linking biodiversity and human diets has used metrics without justification from a nutritional point of view. Diet species richness, or a count of the number of different species consumed per day, assesses both nutritional adequacy and food biodiversity of diets for women and children in rural areas. The positive association of food species richness with dietary quality was observed in both the wet and the dry season. Food biodiversity contributes to diet quality in vulnerable populations in areas with high biodiversity. Reporting the number of species consumed during dietary assessment provides a unique opportunity to cut across two critical dimensions of sustainable development—human and environmental health—and complements existing indicators for healthy and sustainable diets. Biodiversity is key for human and environmental health. Available dietary and ecological indicators are not designed to assess the intricate relationship between food biodiversity and diet quality. We applied biodiversity indicators to dietary intake data from and assessed associations with diet quality of women and young children. Data from 24-hour diet recalls (55% in the wet season) of n = 6,226 participants (34% women) in rural areas from seven low- and middle-income countries were analyzed. Mean adequacies of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, calcium, iron, and zinc and diet diversity score (DDS) were used to assess diet quality. Associations of biodiversity indicators with nutrient adequacy were quantified using multilevel models, receiver operating characteristic curves, and test sensitivity and specificity. A total of 234 different species were consumed, of which <30% were consumed in more than one country. Nine species were consumed in all countries and provided, on average, 61% of total energy intake and a significant contribution of micronutrients in the wet season. Compared with Simpson’s index of diversity and functional diversity, species richness (SR) showed stronger associations and better diagnostic properties with micronutrient adequacy. For every additional species consumed, dietary nutrient adequacy increased by 0.03 (P < 0.001). Diets with higher nutrient adequacy were mostly obtained when both SR and DDS were maximal. Adding SR to the minimum cutoff for minimum diet diversity improved the ability to detect diets with higher micronutrient adequacy in women but not in children. Dietary SR is recommended as the most appropriate measure of food biodiversity in diets.

Enabled or Disabled: Is the Environment Right for Using Biodiversity to Improve Nutrition?

How can we ensure that 9 billion people will have access to a nutritious and healthy diet that is produced in a sustainable manner by 2050? Despite major advances, our global food system still fails to feed a significant part of humanity adequately. Diversifying food systems and diets to include nutrient-rich species can help reduce malnutrition, while contributing other multiple benefits including healthy ecosystems. While research continues to demonstrate the value of incorporating biodiversity into food systems and diets, perverse subsidies, and barriers often prevent this. Countries like Brazil have shown that, by strategic actions and interventions, it is indeed possible to create better contexts to mainstream biodiversity for improved nutrition into government programs and public policies. Despite some progress, there are few global and national policy mechanisms or processes that effectively join biodiversity with agriculture and nutrition efforts. This perspective paper discusses the benefits of biodiversity for nutrition and explores what an enabling environment for biodiversity to improve nutrition might look like, including examples of steps and actions from a multi-country project that other countries might replicate. Finally, we suggest what it might take to create enabling environments to mainstream biodiversity into global initiatives and national programs and policies on food and nutrition security. With demand for new thinking about how we improve agriculture for nutrition and growing international recognition of the role biodiversity, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents an opportunity to move beyond business-as-usual to more holistic approaches to food and nutrition security.

Securing sustainable and nutritious food systems through mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity: an interdisciplinary study

Abstract Background Urgent reform of our food systems is needed if they are to provide high quality nourishment and at the same time protect the environment. Agriculture, food systems, and diets have been greatly simplified over the past century. Policies and investments have been too focused on maximising productivity and economic returns of a few major staples. So much so that global production of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds falls way short of what is required globally. Agricultural and food policies and actions have become disconnected from nutrition policies and programmes, calling for urgent realignment of food systems to focus on nourishing people while sustaining the planet. Focusing in Brazil and India, our work aimed to show that sustainable solutions for transforming food systems are indeed possible. Methods In Brazil, nutritional composition analysis of 65 prioritised native fruit species was carried out in partnership with several public universities and research institutes using FAO/INFOODS methodologies with data made available through a National Composition Database within the Information System on Brazilian Biodiversity (SiBBr). In India, participatory variety selection, improved cultivation practices, value addition, and marketing and public awareness campaigns were tackled along with capacity building of local community members. Lobbying for millets supportive policies was pursued at state and national level. Findings In Brazil, preliminary results indicate that many of the analysed priority native fruits are more nutritionally rich compared with the five most commonly consumed fruits. These findings were instrumental in the passing in 2016 of a new Ordinance on Sociobiodiversity, which officially recognises the nutritional value of these species and which contributes to the mainstreaming of nutritious underutilised species into relevant policies and programmes. In India, public campaigns leveraging healthy and cultural appeal of millets are creating new demand. Drudgery reduction in cultivation, availability of high quality seed and grains, and enhanced processing technology are revitalising their value chains. Successful policy advocacy contributed to the amendment of the National Food Security Act in 2013, which by introducing millets in the Public Distribution System has opened unprecedented opportunities for their nationwide popularisation. Interpretation In Brazil, by addressing critical data gaps, these findings, and other actions, have been important in influencing the national policy landscape, especially in relation to targeting the diversification of school feeding and food procurement, as well as the development of new supporting policies such as the abovementioned ordinance on sociobiodiversity. In India, interdisciplinary and intersectorial approaches played a strategic part in removing bottlenecks hindering the use of millets. A mix of resilience, nutrition, healthy, cultural, and income generation appeal associated to these crops helped to raise their visibility among policy makers. These projects also showed that an Agrobiodiversity Index to help policymakers to decide how to use agrobiodiversity for sustainable choices in support of nutritious food systems would be a highly benefiical instrument. Funding United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), European Union (EU).