Food Security:

Agrobiodiversity

data for

Development Elizabeth Arnaud

Bioversity International

www.bioversityinternational.org

African Rising

19-22 May 2015, Cape Town, South Africa

includes all components of biological diversity relevant to food and agriculture as well as the components of biological diversity that constitute the agro-ecosystem (Frison et al. 2011).

Contribute to farmers’ Resilience to climatic events provides options for adaptive strategies to environmental

and economical changes. Support the restoration of ecosystem services,

It is a genetic reservoir of new traits that can be selected by farmers.

Focus on diversity crop and wild relatives

Agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity: focus on

crop diversity Is the foundation of agriculture : 950 species of cultivated

plants are threatened globally (Khoshbakht and Hammer,

2007).

Trees are sources of food, fuel wood and livelihoods . Used for medicine, as fodder for livestock, shade, and

watershed maintenance, + paper products and

construction materials

Traditional knowledge and culture often based on local species diversity and its us

Contributes to health and nutrition

7,000 plant species in the world that are edible, but over 50% of our plant-derived calories come from only 3 species: rice, wheat and maize (FAO, 1997).

A healthy diet includes multiple food groups, made of diverse foods.

Nutrient content varies among species and among varieties within a species.

Agrobiodiversity

Sustains soil health, food & habitat for pollinators

: pollinators contribute to the production of over

80% of crops traded on the world market (Klein et al,

2007).

Natural pest predators: estimated 10-16% of

global harvests are lost /year due to plant

disease (Strange & Scott, 2005; Oerke, 2006).

Agrobiodiversity

Neglected and Underutilized

species = promising species

NUS are plant species and varieties of importance for the rural communities but to which little or no attention is paid by agricultural researchers, plant breeders and policymakers

NUS are not widely traded (Padulosi et al, 2013)

NUS are represented by wild, semi-domesticated or local varieties and many non-timber forest species, adapted to local and often marginal areas

Occurrence of neglected and

underutilized species

list of species compiled by M. Delêtre; map: H. Gaisberger

Crop Wild Relatives

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are wild plant species closely related to crops, including wild ancestors

They have an indirect use as gene donors for crop improvement due to their relatively close genetic relationship to crops

They are an important socio-economic resource that offer novel genetic diversity required to maintain future food security

CWR are neglected and threatened in the wild

Not taken into account in environmental policy planning

Partnership between Environment and agriculture is key

Diversity of crop wild relatives

Occurrence data points of crop wild relatives.

From

the project ‘Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: collecting, protecting and

preparing crop wild relatives’ (authors: CIAT, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Millenium Seedbank Kew, University Birmingham.)

Identify the areas for collect

Conserve, characterize, evaluate

Hotspots of geneflow between 16 crops and their

wild relatives: : creating new diversity

Maps by Hannes Gaisberger (Bioversity), July 2012,

with the data of Meike S. Anderson

Aderson M.S., De Vincente C. ‘Gene Flow between Crops and Their Wild

Relatives’ (2009)

A global in situ monitoring

System for Agrobiodiversity

focus on crops and wild

relatives

What functions? Monitor the status of Agrobiodiversity in situ and on

farm to support conservation strategies (national,

regional, global) and red list when threathened

Plan Interventions for restoration and management

of agrobiodiversity

Eco-geographic studies to Identify promising varieties

of crops to address climatic changes

Secure access to seeds for needs (infrastructure)

Contribution to the implementation of Article 17 of the

Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources on Food and

Agricuture, in accordance with Nagoya Protocol

Water Atlas and Availability

Afsys – African soil Atlas

Earth Institute

Challenges for Agrobiodiversity

monitoring system

More difficult and complex than dealing with ex situ genebank data.

No global system at the infra-species level exist

take into account many drivers which influence

diversity on farm and in situ.

Information is more scattered and usually poorly

described and organized.

Unstructured data, multimedia

Require a very broad global collaboration

ensure fair sharing of data and knowledge, avoiding

any charges of misappropriation of Traditional Knowledge (TK) – Nagoya Protocol

Existing information systems

and mechanisms to be

harnessed for monitoring

Country level Information State of the World of PGRFA - 113 Country reports

State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources

State of the World's Biodiversity for Food and

Agriculture (SoWBFA) – on going

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans

(NBSAPS) - 180 (93%) Parties developed NBSAPs

Country Report

• Field observations, surveys, metrics sent to

National Focal Points

• Monitoring = time series

• National Focal Points to Global Registries,

catalogues

• Statistics, predictive models

Community Biodiversity Registries

a system of Community Biodiversity Registries and

seedbanks

farmers and community-based organizations regularly provide information to community biodiversity registers

e.g. Ethiopia, Nepal and India.

CBRs connected to a central seed registry housed at

the competent national partner institution.

Jogimara community seed bank & LI-BIRD staff

Photo: Ronnie Vernooy/Bioversity Intl., Nepal Geregera Community Seedbank, Amhara region, Ethiopia Photo: Carlo Fadda, Bioversity Intl., Kenya

Collecting mission database & collectors’ fieldbook repositories

• over 225,000 plant samples collected in more than 500

collecting expeditions worldwide

• Samples of approximately 4,300 different species

Collaborative Development of a core set of

Indicators

Repeatable

Cost effective

Adequate Scale

High Value for Information

Collecting new data

Data Collect technologies

• What technology could be used to get useful, reliable data for ABD monitoring?

• What technology for what objective and scale?

• How to collectively analyze large amount of data ?

Crowdsourcing farmer’s preferences in Ethiopia & Kenya Contact: Jeske van de Gevel & Jacob van Etten

Crowdsourcing concept for farmers preferences

Evaluation card

Unique code: 8181

Germination:______

_

Yield:___________

Etc. _____________

________________

________________

________________

1

2

3

8181

1

2

3

Registration card

Unique code: 8181

Name:____________

GPS:_____________

________________

________________

________________

________________

• Ask simple questions by phone- sms based:

Which one yields most?

Which one is more drought tolerant?

• Farmer like to participate: curiosity, access to

seed

• Most farmers are ready to answer by phone,

but some problems with access

• Data quality is good enough

• The method is easy to implement but is (still)

paper intensive

• Women can be involved through women

groups

Some conclusions

Data Fitness for Use

Bring enough data on Agrobiodiversity, of

comparable scale and granularity

Confirm the Diversity managed in the field: Genetic

identification

Identify gaps, find proxys and interpolate data

Develop metadata and controlled vocabularies for

describing data sets (taxon, traits, etc)

Multilingual and multidisciplinary knowledge

In situ Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives in

three ACP countries of SADC Region

‘In situ conservation and use of crop wild relatives in three ACP countries of the SADC region’ (short name - SADC Crop Wild Relatives) is a three-year project (2014-2016) co-funded by the European Union and implemented through the ACP-EU Co-operation Programme in Science and Technology (S&T II) by the ACP Group of States. Grant agreement no. FED/2013/330-210.

Contact: Ehsan Dulloo, Bioversity International

Southern African Development

Community (SADC) http://www.cropwildrelatives.org/sadc-cwr-project/

Angola

Botswana

Democratic Republic of

Congo (DRC)

Lesotho,

Madagascar

Malawi

Mauritius

Mozambique

Namibia

Seychelles

South Africa

Swaziland

United Republic of

Tanzania

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Objectives of SADC CWR project

Overall objective:

Enhance link between conservation and use of Crop Wild Relatives in three ACP countries within the SADC region

Key Results:

• Capacity of at least 30 people from SADC Member States in in situ conservation and use of CWR has improved by the end of project

• A tested toolkit for conservation and use of CWR published and shared

• Detailed Checklist and inventory of CWR in each of the three pilot countries – Mauritius, Zambia, South Africa

• baseline information on diversity, conservation status and threat of targeted CWR

• Regional assessment of CWR within SADC region

• Three Exemplar CWR SAPs developed and published

31

Mauritius 2014 - 26 participants from 14 SADC countries

Pretoria, South Africa , 13-16 April 2015

Objectives

Develop countries’ species checklists and inventories

Prioritization of CWR for conservation

Conservation status assessment of priority CWR

Plans for implementation of conservation priorities

Relevant policy for the conservation of CWR

To strengthen capacities in the SADC region in predictive characterization of CWR

To strengthen capacities in the SADC region in pre-breeding of CWR

To outline actions that promote the use of CWR diversity for inclusion into National Strategic Plan for the conservation and use of CWR.

Regional training workshops on in situ

conservation of CWR

Regional Analysis of CWR in SADC Region

• create a regional CWR checklist ;

• undertake CWR prioritization;

• develop a regional CWR inventory;

• carry out diversity analyses (complementarity,

ecogeographic and/or a combination of approaches);

• undertake in situ gap analyses (within and between

taxa);

• carry out ex situ gap analysis

• undertake climate change analysis ; and

• establish conservation priorities and actions

identify regional (and national) in situ CWR hotspots and priority

sites for in situ conservation and ex situ collection validated

through expert interviews and field visits using innovative GIS

technology.

Mobilizing data together

Through GBIF, SANBI and other partners:

• To carry out regional analysis, occurrence data of CWR within the SADC will be required.

• To complete and compile lists from potential sources of occurrence data:

• GBIF data from the 14 countries of the SADC region.

• SANBI herbaria,

• SABONET network

• GCDT data on CWR

• Can GBIF, SANBI help in accessing these data ?

• SADC project will contribute data to the inventory of wild plant species and to decision-making

• December 2015: International conference hosted by ARC and department of Agriculture, forestry nd fisheries 0Min of agriculture, South Africa.

Agrobiodiversity based Restoration of

Agroecosystem services in Ethiopia

Water, Land and Ecosystem CGIAR Research

Programme

Restoration project in Ethiopia

Land degradation has a severe impact on

how ecosystems function.

many of the benefits that ecosystems provide

to local communities and agricultural

production are also degraded.

Our project aims to leverage the potential of plant and agricultural diversity to support the restoration of three degraded landscapes in the Ethiopian highlands from the northern Tigray region to the southern Oromia region.

Targeted Ecosystem services: Soil Degradation

Pest and disease control

Seeds availability

Nutrition-functional diversity

Restoration project in Ethiopia

Ethiopian Government plan:

Building a climate-resilient

green economy Ethiopia is planning to develop the green economy

strategy based on

four pillars Improving crop and livestock production practices

to increase food yields, hence food security and farmer income, while reducing emissions

Protecting and re-establishing forests for their economic and ecosystem services, including as carbon stocks

Expanding electric power generation from renewable sources of energy fivefold over the next five years for markets at home and in neighbouring Countries

Leapfrogging to modern and energy-efficient technologies in transport, industry, and buildings

Objectives Provide a restoration toolkit to support decision making

of local authorities

Identification of a mix of plant species and varieties, maximizing the diversity for the traits matching the needs of the restoration strategy along with information on the seeds availability.

well-established participatory and gender-sensitive evaluation programmes with farming communities to validate the most relevant species and varieties.

Results of this community-led assessment need be added to the collective knowledge about the seeds’ performances : prefered traits, nutritional value, long term maintenance

Expansion to the Blue Nile Region and beyond

Key information needed for

restoration

A Species and varieties database with agronomic,

nutrition and ecological/functional traits useful for

the targeted restoration and nutrition-functional

diversity

A geospatial web site for visualization of the species

and varieties distribution and abundance with

adequate layers for soil and water,

Standards fieldbooks for surveys and monitoring

a model workflow for guiding communities in the

production of predictive mix of species and varieties

with traits useful for the targeted ecosystems

Data Fitness for Use

Bring enough data on Agrobiodiversity, of

comparable scale and granularity

Confirm the Diversity managed in the field: Genetic

identification

Identify gaps, find proxys and interpolate data

Develop metadata and controlled vocabularies for

describing data sets (taxon, traits, etc)

Multilingual and multidisciplinary knowledge

Workshop on Crop diversity

monitoring

March 2015, Montpellier

Agropolis Foundation supported

Key projects on crop diversity and adaptive

traits, GBIF

Compile wealth of existing data, compare

and share, analyse for decision-making

Identify indicators that could be tested at

several sclaes and in selected obsveration

sites

New Task Group Data Fitness

For Use by Agrobiodiversity

Task group composed

Survey to community between June and July

Intermediary report for the GBIF GB, October

Final report November

Task Group members: Elizabeth Arnaud, Bioversity International, France - Chair

Ebrahim Jahanshiri, Crop for the Future, Malaysia

Jean Ganglo Cossi, Univ. Abomey-Calvi, Benin

Dag Terje Endresen, Norway

Nora Patricia Castañeda Álvarez, CIAT, Colombia

Yves Vigouroux, Institut de Recherche pour le Dévelopment (IRD), France

Dmitry Schigel, GBIF, Denmark

Contribute Agrobiodiversity

data to Open Data Africa opendataforafrica.org/

African Development Bank Group (AfDB)