International Cooperation Needed To Halt Loss Of Agrobiodiversity

LANGKAWI (Kedah, Malaysia), Sept 25 (Bernama) -- International cooperation is needed to halt the loss of agrobiodiversity to ensure world food security and to adapt to the effects of climate change, said Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, Noh Omar. He said crises such as food shortage and climate change had shed new light on the need to secure the world, crop variations or agrodiversity. "One such cooperation is exemplified by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault which safely stores seeds from countries around the world for the future," he said at the opening of the first Regional Conference on Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation (RAC-1), here, on Tuesday. His speech was read out by his deputy Chua Tee Yong, who also launched a book on 'National Strategies and Action Plans on Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation' by Mardi, the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute. About 180 participants including 35 from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, Algeria, China, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Italy and Vietnam are attending the three-day conference which ends on Thursday. Noh said the International Plant Treaty with members approaching 130 countries was an important instrument to protect food crops and assist farmers by pooling genetic resources and sharing the benefits from their use. "As a logical next step, worldwide support is needed to support its special fund to help accelerate crop diversity efforts and to share its benefits. "Conservation and management of agrobiodiversity requires substantial level of intervention in the agricultural development process and production practices undertaken by farmers. "This is one problem that cannot be solved through uncontrolled development and regulated good agricultural production practices, as this is precisely the source of the problem. "Agrobiodiversity is one source, which is generally discriminated against within the process of modern non-sustainable agriculture development and practices. The perception that modern agriculture and agrobiodiversity conservation have opposing interest must be stopped," he said. Noh said there were evidence that including diodiversity considerations into modern agriculture development concept was in fact beneficial for food production, ecosystem health, and for economically and ecologically sustainable growth. "Synergies between the two have to start to be built and we must also have the will to introduce major changes in our practices, paradigms, policies, research and development, and commitments. "Making fundamental changes in paradigms also implies reforming strategies for research, plant breeding and technology development," said Noh. On the National Agro-Food Policy for 2011-2020 launched last year, Noh said the policy would become the backbone for national food security which also covered action plans to develop the agriculture sector in Malaysia. -- BERNAMA