Boosting agrobiodiversity for food security and sustainable competitiveness

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: land managers, farmers, foresters, agri-businesses (including SMEs), and policy makers gain access to practical knowledge of clear demonstrations of benefits and trade-offs associated with biologically diversifying their agroecosystem; farmers, land managers and foresters are incentivised and rewarded for implementing practices that improve agrobiodiversity, leading to higher incomes and long-term sustainability and resilience of agriculture, greater food security, competitiveness, and healthier ecosystems; enhanced capabilities for farmers to store, process, and market their diverse raw materials and products, derived from greater agrobiodiversity, while improving their market access and strengthening their position within the value chain. Scope: Genetic erosion poses a significant threat to agricultural resilience, as genetic diversity is crucial for crops to withstand environmental stresses such as climate variations, pests, and diseases. As the global population grows, the demand for increased food production often drives large-scale agriculture, which compromises biodiversity and long-term productivity. While promoting and expanding agrobiodiversity enhances agricultural resilience, socio-economic obstacles hinder broader adoption. Beyond highlighting the importance of conserving agricultural biodiversity for food security, it is essential to demonstrate its role in enhancing food production, increasing farmers' incomes, and safeguarding livelihoods against environmental challenges. A significant obstacle to a wider adoption of more diversified production systems, is perceived risk in that process, in terms of yield, (marginal) income, lack of demand, stable and sufficient pricing, and potential increase of pests. Proposals should: quantify the contribution of agrobiodiversity (including soil microorganisms), mainly at parcel/farm level, considering both species abundance and composition, and its economic impact, in particular in regard to food security, such as yield stability, nutritional quality, nutrient cycling and resilience to pests and diseases; develop solutions and strategies to scale successful agrobiodiversity practices tailored to local, regional and national levels to strengthen farmers’ financial position in adopting more diversified production systems; test how instruments for mobilising private finance, such as nature credits, could enhance the competitiveness of farmers, foresters and other land managers, including by opening up …