Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security A Critical Review Dedication For Dandylion Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security A Critical Review J.M. Lenné and D. Wood North Oldmoss Croft, Fyvie, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, UK CABI is a trading name of CAB International CABI Head Offi ce CABI North American Offi ce Nosworthy Way 875 Massachusett s Avenue Wallingford 7th Floor Oxfordshire, OX10 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139 UK USA Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel: +1 617 395 4056 Fax: +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax: +1 617 354 6875 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cabi.org © CAB International 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Agrobiodiversity management for food security : a critical review / J. M. Lenné and D. Wood [editors]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84593-761-4 (alk. paper) 1. Agrobiodiversity. 2. Food security. I. Lenné, Jillian M. II. Wood, D. (David), 1939- S494.5.A43A475 2011 631.5’8--dc22 2010043978 ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 761 4 Commissioning Editor: Rachel Cutt s Editorial Assistant: Alexandra Lainsbury Production Editor: Fiona Chippendale Typeset by Columns Design XML Limited, Reading, Berkshire. Printed and bound in the UK by Antony Rowe Contents Contributors vii Acknowledgements viii 1. Agrobiodiversity Revisited 1 J.M. Lenné and D. Wood 2. Food Security and Agrobiodiversity Management 12 J.M. Lenné 3. Agrobiodiversity Management and the Origins of Agriculture 26 D. Wood 4. Crop Introduction and Agrobiodiversity Management 53 D. Wood 5. Utilization of Crop Diversity for Food Security 64 J.M. Lenné and D. Wood 6. Impact of Introduction of Modern Varieties on Crop Diversity 87 J.R. Witcombe, K.D. Joshi, D.S. Virk and B.R. Sthapit 7. Transgenics Can Enhance Crop Diversity – Under Certain Circumstances 99 J. Gressel 8. Management of Crop-associated Biodiversity Above-ground 111 J.M. Lenné 9. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Below-ground 134 T.W. Kuyper and K.E. Giller 10. Agrobiodiversity Conservation Policy: a ‘Tragedy of Errors’ 150 D. Wood and J.M. Lenné v vi Contents 11. Can the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) Approach Ensure Future Food Security? 170 D. Wood and J.M. Lenné 12. Agrobiodiversity Management for Climate Change 189 R. Ortiz 13. Agricultural Revolutions and their Enemies: Lessons for Policy Makers 212 J.M. Lenné and D. Wood Index 229 Contributors Jonathan Gressel, Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. E-mail: [email protected] Kenneth E. Giller, Plant Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 430, 6700 AK Wageningen, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected] K.D. Joshi, Advanced Research in International Agriculture Development (CARIAD), South Asia Offi ce, c/o CIMMYT – South Asia, PO Box 5186, Kathmandu, Nepal. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Thomas W. Kuyper, Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AK Wageningen, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected] J.M. Lenné, North Oldmoss Croft , Fyvie, Turriff , Aberdeenshire AB53 8NA, UK. E-mail: jillian. [email protected] Rodomiro Ortiz, Martín Napanga 253, Apt. 101, Mirafl ores, Lima 18, Perú. E-mail: [email protected] B.R. Sthapit, Centre for Bioversity International, Offi ce for South Asia, National Agricultural Science Centre, DPS Marg, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110012, India. E-mail: b.sthapit@ cgiar.org D.S. Virk, Centre for Advanced Research in International Agriculture Development (CARIAD), Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK. E-mail: [email protected] J.R. Witcombe, Centre for Advanced Research in International Agriculture Development (CARIAD), Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK. E-mail: j.r.witcombe@ bangor.ac.uk D. Wood, North Oldmoss Croft , Fyvie, Turriff , Aberdeenshire AB53 8NA, UK. E-mail: [email protected] vii Acknowledgements We are especially grateful to the contributors to this book who kindly provided their expertise in key areas of client-oriented crop breeding (John Witcombe, Krishna Joshi, Daljit Virk and Bhuwon Sthapit), transgenic crop breeding (Jonny Gressel), soil biodiversity management (Thom Kuyper and Ken Giller) and agrobiodiversity management for climate change (Rodomiro Ortiz). We would also like to thank CAB International for inviting us to write this book and the following people who kindly provided us with literature and illustrations: Mauricio Bellon, Tim Chancellor, Rachel Cutt s, David Grzywacz, Eugene Hett el, Marcus Knapp, Zeyaur Khan, Kristin Mercer, Dagmar Mithöfer, Sam Mohanty, Peter Neuenschwander, Rodomiro Ortiz, Jörg Romeis, Fritz Schultess, Mark Tester and Henry Wainwright. viii 1 Agrobiodiversity Revisited J.M. Lenné and D. Wood the dynamism of agrodiversity, a constantly changing patchwork of relations between people, plants, and their environment, always coping with new problems, always fi nding new ways. Brookfi eld (1998) Introduction staple crops – rice, wheat and maize – account for about 60% of the calories and 56% of the Biodiversity refers to all living things and the protein that humans consume directly from interactions between them: a vast array of plants. Wheat and rice alone contribute about organisms with an almost infi nite complexity 44% of edible dry weight directly; root crops of relationships. Agricultural biodiversity, less than 10%; sugar crops about 8%; that is, ‘agrobiodiversity’, is an exceptionally vegetables and fruit about 7%; and pulses important subset of biodiversity. Agrobio- about 3%. Future global food security is diversity has been defi ned by Qualset et al. therefore fi rmly anchored in improved pro- (1995) as including all crops and livestock ductivity and appropriate management and and their wild relatives, and all interacting use of crop plant agrobiodiversity, especially species of pollinators, symbionts, pests, para- of rice, wheat and maize. sites, predators and competitors. This defi n- But agrobiodiversity includes far more ition formed the foundation for our fi rst book than the husbandry of crops and farm Agrobiodiversity: Characterization, Utilization animals. As Brookfi eld (1998) observed, ‘the and Management (Wood and Lenné, 1999) and dynamism of agrodiversity, a constantly remains an important basis for this second changing patch work of relations between book, Agrobiodiversity Management for Food people, plants, and their environment, always Security: a Critical Review. coping with new problems, always fi nding Agrobiodiversity through agriculture, new ways’, the dynamic interactions of this that is, the management of the interactions food agrobiodiversity with other agro- between crops and domestic animals and biodiversity in agroecosystems – both bene- their associated biodiversity and the environ- fi cial and harmful and both above- and ment, provides most of our food with less below-ground – are critical to determining if than 5% coming from the wild (Prescott -Allen we harvest more or less food. The almost and Prescott -Allen, 1986 [for the USA]; Wood limitless combinations of more or less and Lenné, 1999). Most of our food is also intensive management, the varied local biotic derived directly or indirectly from plants. It and abiotic environments, and the human has been estimated that more than 80% of our ability to introduce crops and their pests and calories and edible dry weight comes from diseases from elsewhere, and then select crop plants (Evans, 2003). Less than 20 species within and between these varieties, resulted provide most of the world’s food and three in a diversity of planned agro biodiversity © CAB International 2011. Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security (J.M. Lenné and D. Wood) 1 2 Chapter 1 and a yet greater diversity of associated, protected sites and the UNESCO Man and the unplanned and, even, unmanage able and Biosphere Programme for biosphere reserves unpredictable agrobiodiversity (Wood and largely neglected agrobiodiversity. The 1992 Lenné, 1999). Agrobiodiversity is complex Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and dynamic, both in the crop and associated was the fi rst international initiative to specifi - components. Too oft en, however, the term is cally highlight the importance of agrobiodi- used narrowly to denote only ‘benefi cial versity (UNEP, 1992). The CBD recognizes diversity’ based on the common belief that domesticated or cultivated species, the need biodiversity is a ‘good thing’ (see www. for scientifi c research on genetic resources, bioversityinternational.org). Consideration of and in situ and ex situ conservation. In CBD harmful biodiversity, e.g. insect pests, Article 1, emphasis was given to the sustaina- pathogens and weeds in agroecosystems, is ble use of biodiversity in meeting food needs and usually excluded in much of the current Agenda 21 gives a comprehensive coverage literature. Yet, as a key factor in substantially of agriculture. reducing food production, it must be However, the main implementing mech- addressed as an important component of an ism for the CBD – the Global Environment agro biodiversity management for food Facility (GEF) of the World Bank, UNDP and security. UNEP – has only allocated a very