Why biodiversity matters in agriculture and food systems

Imagine a world where the variety of food sources we rely on is reduced to a mere handful of species. This is not a dystopian future. It’s the path we are on right now, and it’s happening silently in fields, farms, and forests across the globe. Biodiversity—the lifeblood of our ecosystems and food systems—is under siege. Driven by climate change, habitat destruction, and the relentless march of agricultural expansion, we are witnessing an unprecedented erosion of genetic diversity. This loss is more than just a scientific or environmental concern; it’s a direct threat to global food security, and by extension, human survival.

Challenge

Biodiversity loss in agriculture is a pressing threat to global food systems, reducing our ability to cope with climate change, environmental degradation, and nutritional challenges. Over the past century, about 75% of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers have shifted toward high-yielding, genetically uniform crops. Today, just nine plant species account for 66% of global crop production, with rice, wheat, and maize alone providing more than 50% of the world’s plant-derived calories. This reliance on a narrow set of crops undermines food system resilience, leaving us vulnerable to pests, diseases, and climate extremes. It has also created a monocultural vulnerability reminiscent of the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, when reliance on a single, genetically uniform crop led to catastrophic losses due to disease.

Genetic diversity within and among species acts as a natural buffer against environmental changes. Different crop varieties respond differently to stressors, providing farmers with options to manage risks. When one crop fails, others can compensate, helping to safeguard harvests and livelihoods. However, as the diversity on our farms diminishes, farmers have fewer tools to adapt to the growing volatility brought on by climate change. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heat waves are becoming more severe, and monocultures are ill-equipped to withstand these shocks.

The environmental impact of current agricultural practices further exacerbates biodiversity loss. Agriculture is responsible for about 90% of global deforestation and contributes substantially to habitat destruction, driving the extinction of countless species. Excessive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides pollutes soils and waterways, disrupting ecosystems and degrading essential natural services such as pollination and soil fertility. Soil degradation now affects one-third of the world’s soils. In sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is responsible for 80% of soil degradation on farmland, leading to reduced plant diversity because only the few species that can tolerate poor soil conditions survive.

Moreover, the heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers and livestock manure, particularly in regions such as Asia and Latin America, has disrupted natural nitrogen cycles, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions such as nitrous oxide and methane. These emissions not only drive climate change but also accelerate biodiversity loss by reducing the resilience and health of ecosystems.

The decline of agricultural biodiversity also impacts human health. Diets worldwide have become increasingly homogeneous, dominated by a few staple crops that are energy-rich but nutrient-poor. Less than 200 species currently contribute to global food supplies, and this lack of variety has serious health consequences. Low dietary diversity is now a leading driver of diet-related deaths, with about 11 million premature deaths annually linked to unhealthy diets. The decline in biodiversity means that fewer nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds are available, exacerbating malnutrition in all its forms, from undernutrition to obesity.

The intertwined crises of biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and poor nutrition highlight the urgent need for change. Biodiversity is the backbone of resilient food systems, offering the diversity necessary to adapt to changing conditions and sustain food production. To secure our future, we must shift toward agricultural practices that protect and restore biodiversity, ensuring nature can continue to provide its essential services.

Solutions

Reversing agricultural biodiversity loss requires a multifaceted approach that combines conservation, sustainable farming practices, and scientific innovation. Central to these efforts is the conservation of genetic resources—the seeds, genes, and living organisms that underpin our food systems. The global genebank network developed by CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) conserves over 700,000 accessions of more than 3000 plant species, representing a treasure trove of genetic material for breeding climate- and disease-resistant crops as well as thousands of heritage varieties, locally important and less well-known crops, forages, trees, and wild species. Sending samples out to thousands of requesters worldwide every year, our genebanks contribute to bringing diversity back into varieties, communities, fields, and landscapes. Together with CGIAR breeding programs, they account for nearly 90% of all the germplasm being exchanged across international borders under the multilateral system of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the “Plant Treaty”).

This year’s World Food Prize recognizes scientists who developed and supported the global network of collections of crop diversity and created the most iconic genetic conservation effort: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which acts as a backup for genebanks worldwide. Often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” it contains a safe copy of seeds from active genebanks, such as those of CGIAR. When unexpected events happen, such as civil war, countries or institutes are able to get back the safe copies to rebuild their genebanks. The vault has already been used by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, which, when war struck its headquarters in Aleppo, Syria, reestablished its genebank in Morocco and Lebanon with copies of samples from the vault.

On-farm conservation also plays a vital role in preserving agrobiodiversity, while maintaining local knowledge. Community seed banks, established in countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya, empower local communities to manage and sustain crop and tree diversity, particularly of farmer and farmer-improved varieties.

However, preserving seeds is only one part of the solution. We also need to bring biodiversity back into our fields. Agroecological practices, such as crop rotation, intercropping, and agroforestry, leverage the power of biodiversity to enhance soil health, control pests, and improve water use efficiency. These practices create systems more resilient to environmental stresses and less reliant on chemical inputs. The evidence is compelling: Diversified farms are more productive, more profitable, and more sustainable than their monocultural counterparts.

Agrobiodiversity taps into the natural cycles of soil, carbon, and water to boost yields and resilience without the heavy hand of synthetic inputs. In Africa, innovations like disease-resistant banana and plantain varieties, tracked and refined through the open-access MusaBase database, show how blending biodiversity with smart breeding can meet the evolving needs of farmers, enrich ecosystems, and future-proof our food systems.

Within CGIAR’s participatory breeding programs, scientists collaborate directly with smallholder farmers and consumers—ensuring participation from marginalized populations such as women and indigenous peoples—to develop new crop varieties. These exemplify how integrating local knowledge with cutting-edge research can drive biodiversity-friendly innovation.

In sub-Saharan Africa, these programs have developed drought-tolerant maize varieties now cultivated by millions of farmers. Similarly, biofortified crops, such as iron-rich beans and vitamin A-enriched sweet potatoes, demonstrate how biodiversity can be harnessed to combat malnutrition, which affects over 2 billion people globally. Using participatory crop selection in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, farmers worked with breeders to evaluate the most climate-resilient varieties of bean, finger millet, and sorghum. After several cycles of testing, the best-performing were selected, increasing the availability and diversity of climate-smart, future-proofed varieties.

Need for global cooperation and investment

The challenge of conserving biodiversity is inherently global. Genetic resources are often located far from the regions where they are most needed, and the benefits of biodiversity extend well beyond national borders. International cooperation is therefore essential, not only to share genetic material, but also to foster collaborative research and share the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The Plant Treaty provides a legal framework, facilitating fair access to material needed to sustain agricultural systems.
Yet, despite the clear scientific consensus on the importance of biodiversity, support for its conservation and sustainable use remains inadequate. Policy-makers, development agencies, and the private sector must prioritize biodiversity as a strategic component of food security planning.

We also need greater investment in research—including genebanks, breeding programs, and biodiversity-friendly farming practices. With science, we can better understand the complex relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and agricultural productivity. For instance, how can we optimize the use of wild relatives of crops, which often carry traits lost in modern varieties? How can we design cropping systems that maximize the benefits of biodiversity while minimizing trade-offs? This requires not just funding but also the political will to integrate biodiversity into broader agricultural and environmental policies.

Call to action

As we stand at the crossroads of climate change, population growth, and food insecurity, biodiversity is our insurance policy against the uncertainties of the future. But like any insurance, it only works if we maintain it.

Governments, nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, and the private sector must come together to champion biodiversity as a pillar of global food security. We need to scale up conservation efforts and support smallholder farmers who are the stewards of biodiversity. We must invest in research that can unlock new opportunities from the genetic resources that we still have left. We need to support the implementation of international biodiversity policy and law, for example, the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol, at national levels by providing technical advice and sharing best practices. And we need to better integrate the three “Rio Conventions” adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit—the conventions on Biological Diversity, Climate Change, and Combating Desertification.

The choices we make today will determine the genetic resources available to future generations. It’s time to recognize biodiversity for what it truly is: the foundation of our food systems and the key to a resilient future. The seeds of tomorrow are in our hands. Let’s ensure they thrive.