M S S R F - Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural & Rural Development

Recommendations

UN Millennium Development Goals - Five years later:
Agricultural Biodiversity and Elimination of Hunger and Poverty

The Chennai Platform for Action

1. From the earliest days of domestication of plants for human use about 12,000 years ago, agricultural biodiversity has played a pivotal role in sustaining and strengthening food, nutrition, health and livelihood security all over the world. In spite of enormous progress made in enhancing crop productivity through Mendelian and more recently molecular breeding, more than 800 million children, women and men go to bed every day under-nourished. The majority of them are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, areas of the globe that are rich in endemic agricultural biodiversity. Reducing hunger and poverty by half by the year 2015 is the first of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which represent a Global Common Minimum Programme for universal human security and well being. An assessment made five years after the adoption of the MDGs indicates that progress in reducing hunger and poverty is inadequate. It is in this context that the conclusions of an International Consultation on the role of agricultural biodiversity in achieving a sustainable end to hunger and poverty, recently held at Chennai, India, assume significance.

2. Endemic hunger caused by protein-energy malnutrition, hidden hunger caused by deficiencies of iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin A and other micro-nutrients in the diet, and transient hunger caused by drought, floods, and other natural disasters can be overcome through an integrated strategy for the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of agricultural biodiversity. Even during the titanic tsunami of December 26, 2004, land races of rice were found in coastal Tamil Nadu, India, which could survive seawater inundation. Many life-saving crops like tubers and legumes were cultivated in the past and we urgently need to rekindle such dying wisdom and take steps to save vanishing crops, which can help to heal the wounds inflicted by natural or man-made calamities. Women, in particular, are holders of such traditional knowledge and the critical role of women in the conservation and sustainable management of agricultural biodiversity needs to be strengthened and revitalized. Tropical fruits, beta-carotene rich sweet potato and other vegetable crops can help to fight Vitamin-A deficiency in children. In other words, agricultural biodiversity provides uncommon opportunities for developing decentralized and locale-specific community food security systems involving field gene banks, seed banks and grain banks developed and managed by local women and men. This approach will further help to enlarge the food security basket by including nutrition-rich but under-utilized crops. This is the most sustainable and affordable pathway to achieving the MDG in relation to elimination of hunger and poverty.

3. Agricultural biodiversity offers the crucial raw material for improving in perpetuity the productivity and quality of crops, livestock and fish. Goals such as "health for all" and "fish for all" can be achieved only by conserving medicinal plants and genetic diversity in fish. Agricultural biodiversity also offers opportunities, especially to the landless poor, for entrepreneurial initiatives, which will generate employment and income from a range of value-added foods, medicines, nutraceuticals, bio-fuel and other products. Such opportunities are of particular value, since today the inadequate income and purchasing power are the major causes of food insecurity at household level. The potential of agricultural biodiversity for coping with climate change is not well appreciated. In short, the "flagship role" played by agricultural biodiversity in overcoming hunger in an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable manner is yet to be widely realized and integrated with national and global strategies for achieving the MDGs. Better nutrition is also vital for fighting pandemics like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, since a drug-based approach alone will not lead to the desired results. The health foods of tomorrow will be mostly the under-utilized crops of today.

4. Agricultural biodiversity and cultural diversity have feedback relationships. Local farming systems provide the feedstock for poems, songs, dance and drama. Community-led food security systems based on the conservation, cultivation and consumption of local foods thus help to preserve cultural and ethnic diversity in crop and culinary preferences. Thus, agricultural biodiversity confers multiple benefits - ecological, economic, nutritional and cultural.

5. Taking cognizance of these unique strengths of agricultural biodiversity, the participants* at the International Consultation held on 18-19 April 2005 adopted the following Chennai Platform for Action for a Hunger and Poverty Free World. The Platform for Action is designed to assist national governments and international agencies to achieve as soon as possible the UN MDG relating to halving hunger and poverty by 2015 which therefore should:

I. Recognize that incorporation of agricultural biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in national development plans, such as Poverty Reduction Strategies, along with the creation of cross-sectoral linkages and coherence among concerned Ministries at national level, is important for the delivery of this Millennium Development Goal.

II. Agree to incorporate agricultural biodiversity in the implementation of existing global policy tools, such as Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and the WHO/FAO Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

III. Introduce legislative measures to use land and other natural production resources to enhance the ability of all to make use of agricultural biodiversity and its associated traditional knowledge for promoting off farm employment and income generation in harmony with traditional rights, cultural identity, ecosystem integrity and gender equity.

IV. Strengthen the multilateral system of exchange provisions of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to expand its coverage of plant species important to food security and income generation for the poor, while ensuring fair and equitable benefit sharing of commercial gains accrued from accessed genetic resources, and work towards a similar treaty on multilateral exchange of animal genetic resources relevant to food and agriculture.

V. Recognize and reward the invaluable contributions of rural and indigenous people, particularly women, in the conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity and confer social prestige and economic benefit to its primary conservers.

VI. Promote local markets and facilitate access to international markets for the products of agricultural biodiversity, especially traditional and functional foods, ensuring equity and fairness amongst all participants.

VII. Advocate and strengthen national nutrition literacy through participatory knowledge management involving all societal segments, particularly women and young people, and train agricultural extension workers and health and nutrition professionals in the importance of dietary diversity and evidence-based beneficial effects of traditional foods to re-establish the relevance of regional agricultural biodiversity in fighting hunger and poverty.

VIII. Ensure that food and nutrition support safety net programmes, especially food aid and school feeding programmes as well as food banks, are fostering greater dietary diversity by broadening the food basket with more indigenous crops as part of National Nutritional Policy.

IX. Restructure research and development priorities to enhance productivity, profitability and value chain development of a wider range of agricultural biodiversity, including hitherto neglected species, thereby generating an economic stake in their conservation.

X. Bring in change in mind-set to prevent the perennial loss of vanishing crops and dying wisdom through international initiatives to change the public image of under-utilized and orphan crops by steps such as re-designating "coarse cereals", where appropriate, as "nutritious cereals", and classifying a wide range of leafy vegetables, tubers, grain legumes and tropical fruits as "health foods". Saving plants for saving lives and livelihoods should become everybody's business, thereby leading to a global "agricultural biodiversity for human security" movement.

The global struggle against poverty and hunger cannot be won now or in the long run without increased international collaboration in the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of agricultural biodiversity. International commitment is imperative for actions on some of the recommendations listed above, while national initiatives can act upon others. We urge all to employ those approaches and practices that are most relevant in their individual situation and to put in place their own detailed plans to make better use of agricultural biodiversity to achieve the Millennium Development Goal on hunger and poverty. The fact that, five years after the adoption of the MDGs, most developing nations are unable to make proportionate progress in the elimination of hunger and poverty indicates that a "business as usual" approach will not help us to achieve the goal of a hunger-free world. Equally concerning is the human population growth rate, which continues to exceed the growth rate in food production, aggravating the poverty-induced endemic hunger. Where hunger rules, peace cannot prevail. Hence, the time has come to embrace the idea of a decentralized and community-managed sustainable nutrition security system based on expanded agricultural biodiversity.

* About a hundred experts and policy makers with varied backgrounds from 25 countries took part in an International Consultation at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India, on 18 and 19 April 2005. Our task was to consider how agricultural biodiversity can help the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and in particular the goal of freedom from hunger and poverty. This was jointly organised by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and Global Facility for Under-utilized crops in cooperation with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Canadian International Development Agency, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Ford Foundation and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture..