How biodiversity and sustainable agriculture are excellent strategies for improved food security and how is global climate change a threat to biodiversity?
Biodiversity increases the social, economic and environmental sustainability of food production systems in various ways. It provides many opportunities to improve livelihoods and generate income. Agricultural biodiversity also performs ecosystem services such as soil and water conservation, maintenance of soil fertility, conservation of biota and pollination of plants, all of which are essential for food production and for human survival. As the planet warms quickly, mostly due to human activity, climate patterns in regions around the world will fluctuate. Ecosystems and biodiversity will be forced to fluctuate along with the regional climate, and that could harm many species. Biodiversity increases resilience to shocks and stresses, provides opportunities to adapt production systems to emerging challenges and is a key resource in efforts to increase output in a sustainable way. Maintaining diversity within agricultural systems is not a novel approach but one practiced by many smallholder farmers globally, in many different ways. The nutritional and livelihood benefits of diverse production systems are one way of achieving food security. Changes in climate can also intensify droughts, decrease water supply, threaten food security, erode and inundate coastlines, and weaken natural resilience infrastructure that humans depend on. Changes in climate can also intensify droughts, decrease water supply, threaten food security, erode and inundate coastlines, and weaken natural resilience infrastructure that humans depend on.
I would say in simple words that climate change is the driving force to food insecurity and we have seen it in recent decades. Then the question arises that who is most affected by climate impacts on food security? About 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change are in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, where farming families are disproportionally poor and vulnerable. Secondly, if we are nor encouraging the biodiversity, it means we are paving the path for negative impacts of climate change. Therefore, I state that no biodiversity leads to negative impacts of climate change which results in a threat to sustainability and ultimately to food security.
In the present scenario, sustainability in agriculture is due to the fact that the recent achievements in agriculture, which have led to major improvements in productivity that have enabled food production to keep up with population growth, have often come at high social and environmental costs. With growing population, depleting resources and the increasing threat of climate change, it will be impossible to fulfill the needs of the future unless we transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems that would ensure world food security, provide economic and social opportunities, and protect the ecosystem.Biodiversity supports the livelihoods of food producers while also reducing negative impacts on the environment. By providing important ecosystem services, like pest control and nutrient cycling, biodiversity reduces the need for costly and harmful external inputs. Sustainability in agriculture is due to the fact that the recent achievements in agriculture, which have led to major improvements in productivity that have enabled food production to keep up with population growth, have often come at high social and environmental costs.Climate change has altered marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems around the world. It has caused the loss of local species, increased diseases, and driven mass mortality of plants and animals, resulting in the first climate-driven extinctions. Climate change further poses a challenge to food security challenges with its influence on food production, costs, and security. Excessive heat or shortage of water can impede crop growth, reduce yields, and influence irrigation, soil quality, and the ecosystem on which agriculture depends.
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