Let’s promote agro-biodiversity

CONSUMERS are always on the lookout for “healthy, nutritious and affordable” meals, but are always overwhelmed by the amount of choices out there.

Understanding that not all sustainable diets are healthy and not all healthy diets are sustainable, an integral and systemic approach would be deemed necessary to strike a balance in producing sufficient, safe and nutritionally enhanced food.

Familiar words like ultra-processing, repackaging, refining are the basic routine of many food production companies, which has significantly contributed to the growing figures of national epidemic such as obesity, overweight as well as diet-related noncommunicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart related diseases.

A reorientation on consumer’s purchasing and demanding power would directly impact farmers to shape, maintain and promote a diverse array of crops, thereby promoting diverse diet and conserving agro-diversity.

Agro-diversity does not only contribute to a sustainable food system, but also stretches its impacts to improve livelihood for farmers, enhance pollinators and economically important soil organisms which thus reduces the risk of pest epidemic, and also reduce yield losses resulting from climate change, access to market.

Actions like impact investments on agro-innovative solutions to provide user friendly data and solutions would equip actors across the agri-food chains to make informed decisions towards sustaining agrobiodiversity, formulate evidence-based agro strategies and track progress.

Creating awareness through research studies and promoting policies that nurtures agrobiodiversity would go a long way in catalysing the change across the agri-food chain to attain a sustainable food system.