how agriculture affects biodiversity

Can farming affect biodiversity?

 · Industrial Agriculture’s Impact on Wild Biodiversity Agriculture relies on natural processes and living things to create food, but often changes the environment around it. While farms can be managed in ways that minimize their damage to the environment around them, industrial agriculture’s focus on productivity means that too many farms are disruptive to wild …

How does agriculture impact our ecosystems?

What are the effect of agriculture on biodiversity? Agriculture is the largest contributor to biodiversity loss with expanding impacts due to changing consumption patterns and growing populations. Agriculture destroys biodiversity by converting natural habitats to intensely managed systems and by releasing pollutants, including greenhouses gases.

How does pest and disease affect agriculture?

 · Agriculture relies on biodiversity for pollination, the creation of genetically diverse plant and crop varieties, development of robust, insect or disease-resistant strains, crop protection and watershed control. In short, agriculture has a high level of dependence on the whole range of ecosystem services. Competition

What are the environmental impacts of Agriculture?

The biodiversity of the plants in a gum tree plantation is lower than that of a normal forest as there is only one plant being planted as well as the fact that gum trees require a lot of water which makes it harder for other plants to grow in that …show more content… There was a great amount of decaying vegetation on the plantation floor.

How does Agricultural affect biodiversity?

Greater biodiversity benefits agriculture through such effects as an increase in pollinators, the presence of species that reduce pests, and better soil quality. For example, work in ecology has demonstrated a strong link between biodiversity and the stability and productivity of ecosystems.

How does agriculture affect the ecosystem?

Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They also can remain in the environment for generations.

Does agriculture promote biodiversity?

With large swathes of the planet’s surface used to grow food, raise animals or produce products such as timber; the agricultural sector — if managed sustainably — can make significant contributions to protecting biodiversity, said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

How agricultural practices have led to a loss of biodiversity?

In addition to agricultural biodiversity, modern agricultural practices can also impact biodiversity in other ecosystems through several ways such as unsustainable demands on water (for irrigation for example), overgrazing, as well as excessive use of nutrients and chemical inputs to control weeds, pests and diseases …

What are the negative effects of agriculture?

Top 16 Negative Effects of Agriculture on the EnvironmentSoil/Land degradation.Deforestation.Biodiversity.Climate change.Pest problems.Industrial & agricultural waste.Irrigation.Livestock grazing.More items…•

How does agriculture contribute to a good relationship in an ecosystem?

Farmers routinely manage for greater provisioning services by using inputs and practices to increase yields, but management practices can also enhance other ecosystem services, such as pollination, biological pest control, soil fertility and structure, water regulation, and support for biodiversity.

How does farming affect biodiversity farming requires space so it primarily contributes to?

How does farming affect biodiversity? Farming requires space, so it primarily contributes to habitat loss/invasion/pollution. Also, fertilizers used in farming have high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, which can eventually lead to biodiversity/eutrophication/habitat fragmentation.

What is agricultural biodiversity conservation?

Agricultural biodiversity is the outcome of the interactions among genetic resources, the environment and the management systems and practices used by farmers. This is the result of both natural selection and human inventive developed over millennia.

How does agriculture reduce biodiversity?

Agriculture contributes to climate change and is affected by it. At the same time the continuing loss of biodiversity through over-exploitation of forests and degradation of ecosystems through widescale monoculture farming limits ecosystems’ ability to provide essential carbon capture.

What are the effect of agriculture on biodiversity?

Agriculture is the largest contributor to biodiversity loss with expanding impacts due to changing consumption patterns and growing populations. Agriculture destroys biodiversity by converting natural habitats to intensely managed systems and by releasing pollutants, including greenhouses gases.

Does increased biodiversity increase food production?

Biodiversity is essential to food and agriculture Biodiversity makes production systems and livelihoods more resilient to shocks and stresses, including those caused by climate change. It is a key resource in efforts to increase food production while limiting negative impacts on the environment.

What are negative effects of agriculture?

Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They also can remain in the environment for generations.

How does pollution affect biodiversity?

For example: pollutants such as sulfur can lead to excess levels of acid in lakes and streams, and damage trees and forest soils; atmospheric nitrogen can reduce the biodiversity of plant communities and harm fish and other aquatic life; ozone damages tree leaves and negatively affects scenic vistas in protected

Why is maintaining biodiversity important for agriculture?

Many livelihoods, such as those of farmers, fishers and timber workers, are dependent on biodiversity. Ecological life support— biodiversity provides functioning ecosystems that supply oxygen, clean air and water, pollination of plants, pest control, wastewater treatment and many ecosystem services.

How does biodiversity benefit food production?

Biodiversity is the basis of agriculture and our food systems. Agricultural biodiversity also performs ecosystem services such as soil and water conservation, maintenance of soil fertility, conservation of biota and pollination of plants, all of which are essential for food production and for human survival.

How does land use change affect biodiversity?

Biodiversity can benefit from agriculture. Making land productive often helps to attract greater biodiversity, while conversion of land for agro-forestry also encourages greater levels of biodiversity.

How does the global urban population affect agriculture?

Population Division estimates that, for the first time, the global urban population has outstripped the rural one, putting greater pressure on farmers to increase production to feed urban populations. In addition, the quest for carbon-neutral energy sources, as well as water scarcity, global food sourcing, fluctuating commodity prices and disproportionate government support to agricultural investment all collude to put further pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.

What is the challenge of agriculture?

The major challenge today therefore is to secure and increase agricultural yield while at the same time conserving biodiversity, ecosystems, and resources as well as maintaining a healthy base for those who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods . In other words, balancing agricultural productivity with the needs of ecosystems and biodiversity to ensure they are all able to deliver their services in a sustainable manner.

Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity is fundamental to agriculture, food production and sustainable development. For innovation in seeds, biodiversity is the crucial “raw material.” Therefore, biodiversity loss represents a significant business risk.

What are the threats to biodiversity?

Today, they face a plethora of common threats. Climate change is driving species loss and leading to desertification. Likewise, a growth in the number of alien invasive species is threatening biodiversity …

Where is the most biodiversity found?

It is estimated that a significant amount of the world’s wild biodiversity is found in or around agricultural landscapes. Historically, agriculture served to attract and create new strains of biodiversity. It led to the creation of new plant and seed strains, attracted new animal species and fashioned fresh habitats for biodiversity. Together agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystems constitute a finely interwoven mesh of cross-cutting impacts and challenges.

What would have happened if there were no agricultural technologies?

In the past 50 years, without the use of ever-improving agricultural technologies (seeds, crop protection products, fertilizers, mechanization, irrigation, etc.) a landmass of the size of North America would have had to be turned into farmland. Post-war needs shaped agricultural policy which tended towards increased productivity at the expense of wildlife and agro-ecosystem sustainability. Integrated technology knowledge only really came into its own in the 1980s and 1990s.

Changes In Surroundings: Have You Ever See A Forest?

You can see many living things in the forest. All these trees are living things. You can see many nonliving things too. The soil is a nonliving thing.

Sloth Research Paper

Sloths usually only go the forest floor to defecate, this makes them very vulnerable but when in the trees their color, slow movement and the algae on them acts as camouflages.

Panda Bear Deforestation

Panda ‘s main food source is bamboo. This stumps scientists since bamboo is not high in nutrients and is not easily digested by the bear. That means that the panda has to eat an awful lot of it to get the nutrition it needs to live. Pandas will eat 50 – 60 pounds of bamboo a day.

The Pros And Cons Of Sir Walter Buffalo Grass

These days, numerous natural grass turf varieties are available in the market; however, none can compete against Sir Walter Buffalo turf when it comes to withstanding the harsh weather of Australia. Sir Walter Buffalo turf can endure the hot Australian climate and still blossom with soft, green and healthy grass.

Guns Germs And Steel Book Report

Due to malaria, dysentery etc. and European crops and cattle not faring well, penetration of Europeans in New Guinea was slow. Australia was easier to settle. This allowed Europeans to slaughter the aboriginal population import their technologies and culture. China was once diverse but developed to be very uniform.

How does agriculture affect biodiversity?

Agriculture also affects biodiversity in the actual crops that are being grown. Many pesticides are used to keep insects from eating the crops, but these pesticides reduce a lot of biodiversity and they also go into the creatures that eat the insects, like birds. Some of these pesticides can harm these larger animals and spread throughout the food chain (Impacts). Pesticides and fertilizers can also be washed into rivers and streams because of runoff and can have harmful effects on the aquatic species living there (Impacts). Agriculture is a huge problem for aquatic environments, especially freshwater ecosystems. Sadly, agriculture doesn’t just affect the biodiversity of what it directly impacts, but it spreads to other regions and harms other areas. This also is a big concern because we eat animals that eat these insects with pesticides, and this could potentially damage our own health as well.

How has agriculture changed the world?

Agriculture began up to 12,000 years ago and over time has completely changed the way humans live and how the world is around us (Development). Before agriculture, most people were nomadic and gathered food. Once agriculture and farming became a regular practice, the human race became much more advanced and the population began to grow due to a lot of food being provided in a stable environment. Now, we live almost exclusively off of farming and domesticated animals, and we are able to feed large amounts of people while staying in one place. Agriculture has a lot of benefits towards humans, but the extreme amount of agriculture today has a lot of negative effects on our environment and reduces biodiversity.

Why is agriculture important?

To start positively, agriculture is super important to our lifestyles today and makes it a lot easier to support large, stable populations. It has made it way easier to get food and takes less travelling for hunting and gathering, and has led to our lives are today. Unfortunately, human populations have grown to be too big, and getting enough food (which we still don’t have,) from agriculture requires a lot of land. Not only do humans eat a lot of grasses, they also kill other things that feed on these grasses and also take away from other animals being able to eat these grasses (Human Planet). Also, the high human population requires a lot of land for homes and cities. All this land being plowed and taken takes away a lot of habitats, and decreases biodiversity (Chapter 6). Extinction rates tend to rise more where human population is especially high. According to the LPI, between 1970 and 2008, the global LPI dropped 31% in temperate areas and 61% in tropical areas (Chapter 9). “Agricultural expansion is responsible for 70 percent of global deforestation, and is the single greatest threat to tropical forests” (Rainforest). When rainforests are deforested for agricultural purposes, it is especially harmful to biodiversity. Rainforest house a lot of the world’s species, and a lot of those species require specific environments that the rainforest provides, and that they won’t be able to survive without if it is deforested (Rain).”We do not know the exact rate of extinction, but estimates range from one to 137 species disappearing worldwide per day” (Stork 1996).

How can we bring back biodiversity?

One possible solution to bring back biodiversity is to switch a lot of organic agriculture instead of the way agriculture is normally done in large amounts. “Organic farming operates without pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers, and usually with a more diverse crop rotation” (Bengtsson).This way, humans could actually positively impact biodiversity. Organic agriculture typically makes biodiversity greater, especially within insects, birds, and plants (Bengtsson). Organic agriculture would benefit our planet in so many important ways. If we stopped using inorganic fertilizers and pesticides alone, the environment would benefit so greatly. Insect biodiversity would immediately soar, which would lead to more bird biodiversity since they would have more food as well. Obviously, this would spread throughout the entire food chain. This would also improve biodiversity in aquatic environments because there would be no pesticides runoff entering the ecosystems. This could also prevent any inorganic pesticides from affecting us and our food. Organic farming sounds like a perfect plan, but unfortunately, has many flaws and drawbacks. Without the use of herbicides, weeds increase greatly (Bengtsson). A lot of the crops would also be eaten by bugs and other animals. Many think these drawbacks would be worth it for a more sustainable future.

How are species capable of adapting to the agricultural landscape?

Species capable of adapting to the agricultural landscape may be limited directly by the disturbance regimes of grazing, planting and harvesting, and indirectly by the abundance of plant and insect foods available.

What are the factors that are considered in fertilizer?

Factors which are considered include the mobility, trophic interactions, persistence, and spectrum of toxicity for various pesticides. The ecological virtues of organic and inorganic fertilizers are compared, and the problems arising from excessive use of fertilizer are discussed.

Why do ecologists prefer no-tillage methods?

Faced with this dilemma, most ecologists still tend to favour no-tillage methods because of the environmental benefits of reduced tillage and the poten- tial of minimizing the untoward effects of herbicides through better product choice (see Batt et al., 1980; Batt et al., 1985) and better mechanical control of drift.

What is conservation tillage?

Conservation tillage in its various forms, including reduced tillage, zero-tillage and minimum-tillage, generally reduces the physical disturbance of soil and leaves crop residues from the previous year’s growth unploughed at the soil surface.

When was habitat distribution estimated in the settled portions of the prairie provinces?

Estimates of habitat distribution in the settled portions of the prairie provinces in 1982

Is intercropping a positive or negative effect?

Intercropping can have a positive, negative or neutral influence on the abundance of particular crop pests and probably must be evaluated on a case by case basis (Flint and Roberts, 1988). There are plans to study intercropping at the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Lethbridge (Fraser, 1992). A.

Does surface tillage kill birds?

The use of surface tillage implements frequently kills or injures nesting birds and small mammals (Roden- house and Best, 1983); densities of waterfowl nests on untilled land may be 12 times those on croplands and can yield 16 times as many ducklings (Higgins, 1977).

How does biodiversity affect human health?

The presence of a thriving biological diversity is known to have therapeutic effects on human health. On the other hand, human economic activities have contributed to a sharp decline in species, resulting in poor ecosystem health. Several studies have shown how microorganisms have switched from animals to humans, leading to novel diseases. This review describes studies on zoonotic diseases and biodiversity, with examples from India. It is argued that conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems and changes in economic activities must be made to ward off new diseases, and why cooperation between ministries is critical to restrict the decline of biological diversity in a megadiverse country like India.

How does agriculture affect soil biota?

The current focus on intensification and maximizing productivity in agriculture can endanger soil biota and the ecosystem services they provide in such a way that it acts counterproductive and increases the dependence on external inputs. In this study, we aimed to identify the factors that are most limiting for the restoration of soil biota and their ecosystem services on sandy soils. To this end, we assessed microarthropod communities, their relationship with the aboveground food web and their effect on organic matter decomposition, in two land-use types: grasslands with agricultural land use and grasslands with nature land use. The latter are grasslands converted from agricultural land use, for the development of the Dutch National Ecological Network. For these land-use types, we took into account two main factors of disturbance: the number of years since the last tillage (i.e., plowing event), and the current grassland management (mowing or grazing). We found that the diversity of microarthropods was higher in nature grasslands than in agricultural grasslands. The abundance of microarthropods increased with time since last tillage for grasslands that were mown, but not for grasslands that were grazed. An agricultural grassland without tillage since 39 years had a microarthropod abundance similar to reference natural grasslands reported in previous research. The number of predatory beetles increased with a higher microarthropod abundance in mown grasslands, but not so in grazed grasslands. The number of fungivorous and herbofungivorous grazer microarthropods positively influenced the decomposition of soil organic matter as measured with the Tea Bag Index. Furthermore, we found a negative effect of Difenyl and total fungicide concentrations in the soil on (herbo)fungivorous grazers. Contrary to our expectations, we found more pesticide residues in nature grasslands than in agricultural grasslands. In conclusion, to restore the soil microarthropods and the ecosystem services they contribute to, the best practice is to strive for permanent grassland (without tillage) with mowing or low-intensity grazing (without compaction of the topsoil).

What are the four pillars of biodiversity?

Four interconnected pillars for biodiversity in and around agriculture. It starts with optimizing the functional Agrobiodiversity (pillar 1) , supported by landscape diversity (pillar 2) and corridors and source areas for biodiversity (pillar 4) . When desired, measures for maintaining specific species can be taken (pillar 3).

How much land is used for shrimp farming?

Globally, shrimp farms occupied an estimated 3.490 million hectares ( Mha) of land and operated 2.426 Mha of production ponds in 2018. Extensive shrimp farms used 1.804 Mha of farm area (1.377 Mha of production ponds), but produced 11.4% of global shrimp production. An estimated 1.718 Mha of land was required to produce ingredients for feeds used in semi-intensive and intensive shrimp farming, bringing total land use to 5.160 Mha. Extensive production is located in the intertidal zone and much of this land formerly was or still is in mangrove areas. Expansion of shrimp farms into mangrove areas has slowed. Mangrove areas are inferior sites for shrimp farms, and governments have imposed stricter regulations to protect mangroves. Shrimp farming in mangrove areas is unnecessary to supply the global shrimp demand. Scenarios for increasing global shrimp production without further increase in shrimp farm area are presented. But, if the demand for shrimp continues to increase, it will be impossible to freeze the total land footprint for farmed shrimp, because the land needed for feed presently is roughly equal to the direct land use for shrimp farms. Direct land use for farms can be frozen through greater production pond yields.

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity can be described as the richness and diversity of all life on earth. Biodiversity is not

Why are environmental footprints important?

Environmental footprints are of importance for identifying the linkages between human and natural systems. This paper defines a framework for an environmental footprint family that is based on nine major biophysical processes and is linked to the planetary boundaries. Bibliometrics was used to analyze the volume, journals, categories, countries, keywords, priority issues and research prospects of each of the individual footprints. Results show that the total amount of footprint research has been increasing with the United States and China being the regions of highest research intensity based on total publications and frequency of cooperation. Subject category and keyword co-occurrence analyses showed that environmental footprints are widely used as an assessment methodology in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals concerning resource use and pollutant emissions. The most common research topics were energy and supply chain-related carbon footprints, agricultural-related greenhouse gas emissions abatement, volumetric and impact-oriented water footprints, and infrastructure-related environmental footprints. Further research is needed to better align impact-oriented footprints that include regional differentiation with the planetary-scale boundaries. In addition, the earth system is complex and many of the planetary boundaries are inter-related and feedbacks need further definition and quantification. These findings provide an overview of the current state of environmental footprint research which can give direction to future studies.

What are the barriers to nature-inclusive farming?

… Yet, a large majority faces structural barriers to switch to nature-inclusive farming styles, including unclarity about what is exactly expected from farmers, high debts and sunk investments inhibiting change, limited knowledge and a lack of reward systems for the provision of collective goods that nature-inclusive agriculture delivers, such as biodiversity and environmental and landscape quality (Oberč & Schnell, 2020;Runhaar et al., 2018;Schuurbiers et al., 2019;Vermunt et al., 2020). These barriers find their origin in the dominant industrial food regime that is export-oriented, capital intensive 1 and that steers towards ongoing scale enlargement and intensification (Erisman et al., 2016; Pez, 2018;Runhaar et al., 2020). …

What are the effects of agriculture on wild animals?

Agricultural activities such as tillage, drainage, intercropping, rotation, grazing and extensive usage of pesticides and fertilizers have significant implications for wild species of flora and fauna. Species capable of adapting to the agricultural landscape may be limited directly by the disturbance regimes of grazing, planting and harvesting, and indirectly by the abundance of plant and insect foods available. Some management techniques, such as drainage, create such fundamental habitat changes that there are significant shifts in species composition. This paper considers the relative merits of conventional tillage versus reduced, or no-till farming, and reviews the benefits of rest-rotation grazing, crop rotation and intercropping in terms of maintaining wild species populations.

How does climatic change affect agriculture?

Agricultural production is an important factor, and climatic changes play a vital role in organic and traditional practices. The climatic change that affects agriculture then the important change on research has motivated during the last period. Organic Agriculture has been changed on climate flexibility farming system that encourages the proper administration of local knowledge, soil, biodiversity, and water. They adapt to the change of climate as a good option. The negative offset impacts of climatic condition change positively contribute to organic agriculture, to substantiate this statistic by inadequate data. Climatic change is one of the biggest threats for both traditional and organic agriculture. The production crop needs to adapt themselves to the environment; the farmer needs to take some work to avoid the disaster from climatic change. When compared with traditional agriculture, organic agriculture got a higher potential to mitigate the change of climate. This paper reveals the comparison of the effect due to the climatic change on both traditional and organic agriculture are presented and discussed.

Why are grain crops important?

Grain crops are an important part of the human diet, accounting for a third of the consumed calories. Throughout human history, annual grain crops with high yields have been obtained through domestication. However, the “annual” characteristic brings associated a series of economic and environmental disadvantages, such as soil erosion or low soil resources use, that can be solved if the agriculture of annual varieties evolves towards perenniality. For this reason, there are numerous research groups dedicated to study and obtain perennial varieties of the most cultivated grain crops. In this review article, we have summarized the most important advances related to the subject, focusing on the domestication and hybridization of the most productive grains globally: wheat, rice, maize, rye and sorghum. We highlight their benefits for sustainable agriculture worldwide due to perennial grains may contribute to reducing erosion, acting avoiding carbon losses, reducing nutrient losses to waters or capturing nutrients deeper in soil when they are scarce, reducing farm costs and thus, increasing the effectiveness of agricultural grain crops. Despite perennial grain crops having disadvantages, they possess outstanding characteristics which make them resilient crops to deal with the imminent climate change. However, maintaining the perenniality trait without reducing genetic biodiversity is a great challenge of current scientific importance that must be deeply considered.

How does pest control affect biodiversity?

Pest control, a process that maintains nuisance organisms below economic thresholds, is a complex ecological process often mediated by biodiversity. Agricultural intensification results in widespread losses of biodiversity, with important implications for pest control. This article reviews how biological diversity at several levels of biological organization (e.g., crop genetic, trait, and species diversity, predator diversity, and multitrophic interactions including ecological network interactions) and distinct spatial scales (e.g., crop field, noncrop habitats, and landscape heterogeneity) affects biological pest control. Increases in biodiversity resulting from ecological or organic farming techniques can promote pest control within agricultural landscapes, but the effects of increased diversity are highly variable.

What is the most important crop in India?

Cotton is the most important commercial crop across rainfed growing regions in India. It produces kapas which has wide variety of uses in industry. Besides, it leaves lot of residues which include stalks, locules, leaves and roots in the field after picking kapas. A huge quantity of residue is being generated across different cotton growing states in India and a large portion of it is being burnt on-farm primarily to clear the field for sowing succeeding crops and for clean cultivation. But, it is leading to environmental pollution and emission of green houses gases. Further, valuable plant material is being lost which otherwise can be used for productive purposes. Many researchers found that insitu incorporation of crop residue would enrich soil fertility, enhances crop productivity and conserves the environment. This paper discussed various machinery with main emphasis on multi crop shredder and also different options for managing the cotton residues effectively.

What is biodiverse crop production?

Biodiverse crop production systems contain different species and/or different genotypes within a species, leave room for other plants (both spontaneous and sown plant species) and enhance the associated biodiversity of microfauna, mesofauna and microflora.

What are the processes that occur in soil?

Soil enzymatic processes that involve the decomposition of organic matter, geochemical nutrient cycling, and removal of contaminants are essential for the functioning of the soil environment. These activities help to maintain the fertility, health, and ecology of the soil necessary for sustainable agriculture. These enzymes promote the growth and production of agriculturally valuable crops by providing an interrelation between plant–soil environments for nutrient supply. From the production of various phytohormones and the acquisition of nutrients to biocontrol of pests and plant pathogens for crop protection, a diverse group of these enzymes is present in the soil environment playing a pivotal role in crop production. They can also act as an indicator of changes in soil quality as a measure of the level of pollution while some enzymes facilitate degradation of the hazardous aromatic compounds and pesticides. Microorganisms are the major source of soil enzymes. The enzymes are produced at either intracellular or extracellular locations. The soil characteristics such as the quantity and structure of organic matter along with the inhabitant organisms influence the enzyme levels and activities. Understanding of these microbial enzymes for their biotechnological application to increase production in the agriculture sector is necessary to provide sufficient food and fodder while giving a boost to the economy.

Why is biodiversity important?

Protecting biodiversity in the ecosystems that support our food production and fresh water , and preserving genetic diversity in our crops, are both very critical to ensuring our ability to produce food with ever-shrinking terrestrial and aquatic resources. Another thing that is not appreciated is that modern crops and livestock vitally depend on thousands of other species, including insects and birds that pollinate crops and feed on pests, and numerous microbial species that live on and in plants and animals, and that are especially critical to both their and our survival.

What are the laws that apply to agriculture?

The main pieces of legislation that apply to agriculture are the Water Pollution Act (1977 & 1990), The Nitrates Directive and Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulation (2006) . If you fail to comply with the legislation that is in place, it may result in fines, disruption to your farming operations and cost of rehabilitation for all damage done.

What is agricultural biodiversity?

Agricultural biodiversity is a sub-set of general biodiversity. Otherwise known as agrobiodiversity, agricultural biodiversity is a broad term that includes “the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain the ecosystem structures, functions and processes in …

How does agrobiodiversity contribute to food?

Agrobiodiversity’s contribution to provisioning services is mainly for providing food and nutrition. Food biodiversity is “the diversity of plants, animals and other organisms used for food, covering the genetic resources within species, between species and provided by ecosystems.” Historically at least 6,000 plant species and numerous animal species have been used as human food. This number is considered to be decreasing now, resulting in concerns about long-term diet diversity. Food biodiversity also covers subspecies or varieties of crops, for example the many forms of the Brassica oleracea species (cauliflowers, different broccolis, cabbages, Brussel sprouts, etc.). Many species which have been overlooked by mainstream research (‘orphan’ or ‘ neglected and underutilized ‘ species) are rich in micronutrients and other healthful components. Also among different varieties of a species, there can be a wide variety of nutrient composition; for example some sweet potato varieties contain negligible levels of beta-carotene, which others can contain up to 23,100 mcg per 100g of raw, peeled sweet potatoes. Other provisioning services from agrobiodiversity are the provision of wood, fibre, fuel, water and medicinal resources. Sustainable food security is linked to improving the conservation, sustainable use and enhancement of the diversity of all genetic resources for food and agriculture, especially plant and animal genetic resources, in all types of production systems.

What is the importance of agrobiodiversity?

Agrobiodiversity is central to cultural ecosystem services in the form of food biodiversity, which is central to local cuisines worldwide. Agrobiodiversity provides locally appreciated crops and species, and also unique varieties which have cultural significance.

How does agrobiodiversity support biodiversity?

Agrobiodiversity can support wild biodiversity through the use of field margins, riparian corridors, hedgerows and clumps of trees, which provide and connect habitats. A further supporting service is maintaining healthy soil biota .

When was agrobiodiversity first mentioned?

It is not clear when exactly the term agrobiodiversity was coined nor by whom. The 1990 annual report of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR, now Bioversity International) is one of the earliest references to biodiversity in the context of agriculture. Most references to agricultural biodiversity date from the late 1990s onwards.

What is ecosystem diversity?

In the context of agrobiodiversity ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity within and between agroecosystems: e.g. pastures, ponds and rivers, planted fields, hedges, trees and so on. Landscape-level biodiversity has received less research attention than the other levels of biodiversity.

Where is agrobiodiversity celebrated?

many populations of fruit species (pomelo and mango) are maintained in rural communities specifically for use at the ‘ Chhath Puja ‘ festival, celebrated in parts of India, Nepal and Mauritius.