What is Bio-diversity

Biodiversity refers to the various life forms and the variability in association with the ecosystems they live in. For instance, the ecosystems life forms are associated with include forests, grasslands, mountains, coastal areas, lakes, wetlands and deserts. Agriculture landscapes are equally important in this context. Significant diversity is also seen amongst species at the genetic level. This is also true of the ecosystems. This diversity is also responsible for the unique form and function typical of species and eco systems.

Bio diversity including plants, animals and microbes provide some important services directly for the benefit of societies.  They

1. Take up nitrogen, carbon and phosphorous, use and convert these into other bio-chemical inputs that impart and regenerate soil Fertility in forests, grasslands and agriculture systems. They mix the soil, carry organic matter to deeper strata of the soil, reduce compaction and help easier movement of air, water and nutrients; generate oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide and other gases, stabilize climate and convert toxic wastes.
2. Control pests
3. Pollinate and help agriculture productivity
4. Ensure food security and
5. Provide valuable natural products including medicines, food, fodder, fibre, fuels and other natural products.
6. Many people’s food and livelihood security depend on the sustained management of various biological resources that are important for food and agriculture.

This important function of bio diversity is however threatened by habitat destruction, over exploitation, local pollution and longer term issues of climate change. Plants and other living forms also develop resistance on account of these changes and alter their bio chemical and genetic profiles. Lack of awareness about the importance of bio diversity and the impacts it suffers is also responsible for this situation.

Agricultural biodiversity, also known as agro-biodiversity or the genetic resources for food and agriculture, includes:

• Harvested crop varieties, livestock breeds, fish species and non domesticated (wild) resources within field, forest including tree products, wild animals hunted for food and in aquatic ecosystems
• Non-harvested species that support food production including soil micro-biota, pollinators and other insects such as bees, butterflies, earthworms, predators and parasites.

Importantly agriculture Biodiversity:

• Ensures production of food and other natural products from plants
• Generates nutrients, retains soil moisture & controls erosion / runoff
• Enables water and soil conservation, decomposition and recycling, soil fertility, pollination and control of pests and microbes
• Helps adapt to changing climate, temperature, salinity and droughts.

It also creates unique and diverse socio-cultural, economic and environmental conditions peculiar to locations and systems. This diversity is also due to natural and human selection to sustain food production to meet the nutrition needs of communities. Livelihoods are centered on this important activity. Local knowledge and culture can therefore be considered as integral parts of agro-biodiversity, because it is the human activity of agriculture that shapes and conserves this biodiversity.

Tools, techniques and practices used in agriculture also have a significant impact on sustaining productivity. Inappropriate practices cause biodiversity losses and reduce adaptation abilities of eco systems.

• This is primarily through land-use conversion, overexploitation, use of excessive chemicals and water, nutrient loading and pollution.
• Changing patterns of climate will alter the natural distribution, residence and reproductive success of species.
• Changes in the micro climate including temperature moisture, age – correlated bio chemical changes, nutrients and secondary chemicals in soils and waters influence the occurrence and distribution of locally adapted and invasive species.
• These are important for nutrient cycling and productivity.
• Many farmers rely on a wide range of crop and livestock types. This helps them maintain their livelihood even in condition of uncertain rainfall and fluctuation in the price of cash crops.
• Companion crops, are frequently found next to the main staple or cash crops.
• They often grow side by side and their importance is often misjudged. In many cases, from a livelihoods perspective, they are equally important in food production systems at the local level.
• Plants that will grow in infertile or eroded soils, and livestock that will eat degraded vegetation, are often crucial to household nutrition.
• Locally varied food production systems are under threat, including local knowledge and the culture and skills of women and men farmers.
• With this decline, agro-biodiversity is disappearing; the scale of the loss is extensive. With the disappearance of harvested species, varieties and breeds, a wide range of un-harvested species also disappear.