International scientists promote 2010 as biodiversity year

An international group of agricultural scientists has mounted a global awareness campaign promoting 2010 as a United Nations-declared International Year of Biodiversity (IYB).

The campaign called Diversity for Life was initiated by Bioversity International (BI) to highlight the bond that connects agricultural biodiversity with culture and tradition, livelihoods, household food security, sustainable agriculture, adapting to climate change effects, and nutrition and health.

This was learned from Dr. Agustin Molina, BI senior scientist and regional coordinator for Asia and Pacific, who said that ''food security issues are rife for a major effort to promote and increase awareness on the importance of agricultural biodiversity.''

According to Molina, more than half of 23 crops their group studied - cereals like rice, corn, wheat, rye, and oat - will lose land that is suitable for their cultivation due to climate change by year 2055.

The conversion of agricultural lands has further limited the amount of space available for producing food, thus contributing to the current food crisis, Molina said.