2010: Biodiversity and World Food Security
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BIODIVERSITY AND WORLD FOOD SECURITY: NOURISHING THE PLANET AND ITS PEOPLE The Crawford Fund Sixteenth Annual Development Conference Parliament House, Canberra 30 August – 1 September 2010 Editor A.G. Brown The Crawford Fund An initiative of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Mission To increase Australia’s engagement in international agricultural research, development and education for the benefit of developing countries and Australia The Fund The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering established The Crawford Fund in June 1987. It was named in honour of Sir John Crawford, AC, CBE, and commemorates his outstanding services to international agricultural research. The Fund depends on grants and donations from governments, private companies, corporations, charitable trusts and individual Australians. It also welcomes partnerships with agencies and organisations in Australia and overseas. In all its activities the Fund seeks to support interna- tional R&D activities in which Australian companies and agencies are participants, including research centres sponsored by, or associated with, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Good news is worth sharing, and the Fund’s Public Awareness Campaign — of which its annual Parliamentary Conference is a key feature — increases understanding of the importance and potential of international agricultural research, its achievements and needs. And the results of research should be extended to as wide a set of users as is possible. With this objective, the Fund’s Training Program and Master Classes fill a niche by offering practical, highly focused non-degree instruction to men and women engaged in the discovery and delivery of new agricultural technologies, farming practices and policies in developing countries. The office of the Fund was transferred from Parkville in Melbourne to Deakin in Canberra at the beginning of 2009. More detail is available at http://www.crawfordfund.org The Crawford Fund 1 Geils Court Deakin ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA Telephone (612) 6285 8308 Email [email protected] Web http://www.crawfordfund.org/ ©The Crawford Fund 2011 vi + 114 pp. ISBN 978 1 921388 19 4 This report is published in both hardcopy and on the website above. Editing and production: A.G. Brown B IODIVERSITY AND W ORLD F OOD S ECURITY ii Contents The Crawford Fund ii Acknowledgements iv Foreword .............................................................................................................. v The Hon. Neil Andrew Opening Address Biodiversity and World Food Security ............................................................. 1 The Hon. Bob McMullan Keynote Addresses Biodiversity, Nature and Food Security: A Global Perspective ..................... 5 Cristián Samper Can We Have Our Biodiversity and Eat Too?................................................ 14 Hugh P. Possingham Preserving Biodiversity, Promoting Biosecurity and Biosafety Preserving Biodiversity, Promoting Biosecurity and Biosafety: Australian Perspectives............................................................................... 22 Lois Ransom Preserving Biodiversity, Promoting Biosecurity and Biosafety: Developing Country Perspectives .............................................................. 27 Keng-Yeang Lum Agricultural Biotechnology, Geneflow and Biodiversity Agricultural Biotechnology, Gene Flow and Biodiversity ............................. 31 T.J. Higgins Key Biodiversity and Food Security Challenges Livestock and Biodiversity: The Case of Cattle in Africa .............................. 37 Ally Mwai Okeyo, Gabrielle Persley and Steve J. Kemp Food from the Water: How the Fish Production Revolution Affects Aquatic Biodiversity and Food Security................................................................... 44 Meryl J. Williams Forest Biodiversity, Climate Change and Governance.................................. 52 Luca Tacconi Biodiversity and the Role of Microbial Resource Centres ........................... 60 Lindsay I. Sly Panel 'QANDA' Session Questions and Answers.................................................................................... 68 Moderated by James Moody Biodiversity Conservation and Science Making a Difference Agricultural Biodiversity for Nutrition and Health.......................................... 80 Emile Frison B IODIVERSITY AND W ORLD F OOD S ECURITY iii The Importance of Biological Collections for Biosecurity and Biodiversity 85 Joanne Daly and Megan Clark Sir John Crawford Memorial Address: Plant Diversity at the Turning Point............................................................ 92 Stephen D. Hopper Sir John Crawford ........................................................................................... 103 Jim Ingram Delegate List 105 Media Coverage 111 Other Crawford Fund Publications since 2005 114 Acknowledgements The Crawford Fund wishes to thank its supporters and sponsors for our 2010 Annual International Conference, including: ACIAR—the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research AusAID—the Australian Agency for International Development Austraining International Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australian Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology Bioversity International CAB International CropLife Australia CSIRO Doyle Foundation Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Grains Research and Development Corporation Industrial Research Limited Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation World Vegetable Centre B IODIVERSITY AND W ORLD F OOD S ECURITY iv Foreword THE HON. NEIL ANDREW The Crawford Fund’s sixteenth annual Parliamen- tion long ago of the potential value of irrigation, tary Conference in 2010 focussed on the crop rotation, fertilisers and pesticides. Expanded relationship between biological diversity and food global travel over the last 500 years has greatly security. These proceedings are a record of pres- broadened the range of species available to agri- entations and discussions over three days at the culture worldwide, while the rise of the chemical premier event in Australia marking the UN Inter- industry in the last century has transformed the national Year of Biodiversity, and presaging the availability of fertilisers, pesticides and herbi- UN 2011–2020 Decade of Biodiversity. cides. Most recently yields have been significantly raised by efficient plant breeding programs that Agriculture—the planned sowing and harvesting have exploited the natural genetic diversity that is of plants that had previously been gathered in the present in most species. These programs have wild, and the parallel domestication of animals— improved yields by increasing disease resistance; probably first dawned in the Fertile Crescent of harvest index; growth rate; tolerance to heat, cold the Middle East around 10 000 years ago, and and waterlogging; and so on. independently in northern and southern China, Africa's Sahel, New Guinea and several regions of A consequence of increased agricultural produc- the Americas. Some of these sites had access to tivity and the availability of cheap fossil energy only a few species of productive and nutritious has been rapid growth of the human population. plants, and the limited range and quantity of food This population growth has been accompanied by remained a major constraint on population health the extensive replacement or modification of and size for thousands of years, despite recogni- natural ecosystems by agricultural or pastoral activity, or by settlements and infrastructure—a THE HON. NEIL ANDREW was born in the SA process that is far from any equilibrium, despite Riverland, where his family and later Neil had the obvious ultimate incompatibility of an increas- interests in horticulture. He was an active partici- ing population aspiring to greater consumption pant in the SA Agricultural Bureau movement, while dependent on a diminishing land base and and was Chairman 1980–1982. In 1975 he was finite resources of water and nutrients. Less obvi- awarded a Nuffield Agricultural Scholarship to make an overseas study tour. In 1983, he was ous, but of great long-term significance, is the elected to the Australian Parliament as the threat posed by loss of biological diversity—in member for Wakefield in the House of Represen- our crop species, in potential crop species, in tatives. With changes in the boundaries of his insects that have a role in pollination or are preda- electorate, he later moved to Gawler. He held tors of pests, and so on. various positions including that of Government Whip from 1997, and from November 1998 FAO estimates that food production must increase became Speaker of the House of Representa- by more than 75% in the next 50 years, and the tives. Neil retired from the position and from his resource base available for this will be inevitably seat in November 2004. He now lives in Adelaide diminished. The Crawford Fund was pleased that, and became Chairman of the Crawford Fund on coinciding with this conference, Julian Cribb’s the retirement of The Hon. Tim Fischer in June thoughtful analysis of this challenge—The Com- 2005.He retired as Chair of the Fund in late ing Famine—was released by CSIRO Publishing. 2010. B IODIVERSITY AND W ORLD F OOD S ECURITY V A major element of the potential contribution that Hopper’s view was that the world is at a turning biodiversity