Eco-efficient agriculture

Our food system is built on the traits contained in crop wild relatives. Researchers are now using geographic information systems to help protect this valuable genetic resource.

All the domesticated crops grown in farms all around the world today have evolved from wild plant species. But very few people give much thought to these crop wild relatives, even though they are critical to our global food security.

The peanut (Arachis hypogaea), for example, was domesticated somewhere in the border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia by local indigenous groups around 3,000 years ago. The new crop arose from the fortuitous crossing of three wild species, each providing traits that were favourable for cultivation and human consumption. Almost every crop we cultivate across the world has a similar story.

Crop wild relatives are the foundation of our agricultural system. And we still need them. They grow in the fields and the natural ecosystems that we see every day, but often go unnoticed. More recently, however, some people have started to take notice. For a number of reasons, crop wild relatives are going through something of a renaissance at the moment.

Crop breeders use wild relatives when crossing plant varieties to bring in novel traits that might, for example, introduce greater resistance to pests and diseases, or provide resistance to extreme climate conditions. The breeders use seeds from species samples that have been collected in the wild. But the sad truth is that many species have not been collected, or are facing extinction in the wild due to the loss of natural habitats. We therefore need to make a concerted effort to ensure that we do not lose these vitally important traits, which can help humanity produce more and better crop harvests.

Efficiency

At the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), we are now using geographic information systems (GIS) to predict where important species might be found. Collectors can then use global positioning systems (GPS), loaded with the data, to locate the vulnerable species and collect their seed. The CIAT analyses have helped to raise the profile of crop wild relatives and ensure that greater attention is paid to their conservation.

There are, for example, a total of 69 species of crop wild relatives that are in some way related to the cultivated peanut. Of these, 17 species are under significant threat of extinction from the expansion of the agriculture in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. Our analyses have demonstrated that a further 15 species are significantly threatened with extinction from climate change.

These alarming figures have brought attention to the problem and encouraged a number of national and international initiatives. The urgent need to conserve species has led to the establishment of a number of projects to collect seeds from species under threat, and to include these species in conservation plans for national parks and other protected areas. For example, the Global Crop Diversity Trust has just announced a Collecting Award Scheme, to fund groups to visit areas where crop wild relatives are under particular threat, and collect the seeds for storage in genebanks.

Crop wild relatives provide a unique opportunity to show the great value of conserving biodiversity. Our entire food system is built on the unique traits that they contain. For other plant and animal species, our analyses are showing similar threats. We are losing natural ecosystems at a rapid rate, and many important wild species are being lost.

These species include insect species that provide a service to agriculture by pollinating crops and increasing our harvests. They include natural enemies to agricultural pests and diseases, which reduce crop losses. They include wild berries and fruits that can provide communities with nutrition in difficult times. Yet we are losing a great number of important species at a rapid rate.

CIAT have also been using GIS to look at how climate change might cause increased rates of extinction of these species, and the results are grim. We predict that over the next 40 years, climate change alone could mean that we will lose as much as 20% of all species – one in five wild species. Think of five animals you are familiar with, and one of them could be lost from the planet. That means that your children and grandchildren will never see that animal.

So what can we do about it? CIAT is working to develop eco-efficient agriculture. This is a vision for agriculture where it continues to be productive and provide food and nutritional security to all including the world’s poorest, but at the same time is efficient in the use of inputs (less fertilizer, fewer pesticides) and provides environmental sustainability.

We need a productive agricultural system to provide enough food and nutrition, and we need to conserve the wild species upon which continued productivity depends. It isn’t easy, but we need to learn to value biodiversity. In doing so, we will ensure that our domesticated crops will have the resources to adapt and survive future environmental changes.

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Andy Jarvis is programme leader, decision and policy analysis, at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (www.ciat.cgiar.org)