Deep Roots

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Agricultural biodiversity: an essential asset

for the success and resilience of family farming

P. Eyzaguirre and M. Ann Tutwiler, Bioversity International

he International Year of Family Farming places

family farmers at the centre of goals, policies and

programmes to end hunger and improve the liveli-

hoods and well-being of the rural poor. These goals and

objectives are to be realized at a time when the world’s

stock of natural resources, land, water and biodiversity

are being diminished, contaminated and eroded.

Fortunately, small-scale family farms are no longer viewed

as anachronistic or as barriers to agricultural development

– their potential to contribute to food and nutrition security

is now recognized. Furthermore, family farms have a unique

advantage in improving the quality of diets, and reducing risks

in the food systems of developing countries while protecting

the environment and biodiversity. The focus on family farms

as global partners in achieving these multiple objectives leads

us to examine more concretely the nature of family farming

and the specific assets and resources that family farmers can

access and deploy.

There is preliminary evidence that the two most important

assets available to small family farms are gendered knowledge

and agricultural biodiversity.

Based on examples and evidence

from family farms and production landscapes managed by

farm households around the world, there is a strong case in

favour of policies that strengthen the knowledge base, knowl-

edge exchange and access to technology among farmers that

manage agricultural biodiversity. Strengthened, family farms

are able to realize the potential of agricultural biodiversity to

provide better income, opportunities for entrepreneurship,

more diverse and healthier foods, resilient landscapes, and

more sustainable food production over time.

The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), defines

family farming as “a means of organizing agricultural,

forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production which

is managed and operated by a family and predominantly

reliant on family labour, including both women’s and men’s.

The family and the farm are linked, co-evolve and combine

economic, environmental, social and cultural functions.”

A Ugandan farmer with her children in an agricultural landscape where each

square belongs to a different farmer

Harvesting apples, Kyrgyzstan. Bioversity International is promoting the

conservation of biodiversity in fruit tree species in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Image: Bioversity International/Paola de Santis

Image: Kuban Turgunbaev

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