ROME, ITALY – The first of its kind, a newly launched index calculates how well countries are conserving and using their agricultural biodiversity to improve diets, markets and production, and achieve sustainable and resilient food systems.
Compiled by Bioversity International, the Agrobiodiversity Index equips food system actors, such as governments, companies and investors, with the data needed to assess and respond to six risks that low agrobiodiversity poses to food and agriculture, namely malnutrition, poverty, climate change and variability, land degradation, pests and diseases, and biodiversity loss.
To do so, it brings together and compares data on agrobiodiversity present in markets and diets, agricultural production systems and genetic resource conservation. The first report includes analysis of ten countries: Australia, China, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa and the United States.
For each country, the Index measures both status, i.e. how much agrobiodiversity currently exists, and progress, i.e. the country’s commitments and actions to improve the use and conservation of agrobiodiversity across diets, production and genetic resources.