Last week the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its new report, “State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,” warning that the failure to conserve wild plant varieties related to crops grown for human consumption are a threat to world food security.
The genetic information held in wild crop varieties, according to the report, is critical for developing new crop varieties that are high yielding, fast-growing, and resistant to heat, drought, pests, and disease. In the face of climate change, says the report, loss of biodiversity drastically impacts the world’s ability to feed itself.
“There are thousands of crop wild relatives that still need to be collected, studied and documented because they hold genetic secrets that enable them to resist heat, droughts, salinity, floods and pests,” said Jacques Diouf, the FAO Director-General in conjuncture with the release of the report.
