Using our agrobiodiversity: plant-based solutions to feed the world

The growing global demand for food poses a serious challenge to mankind: How can we provide an increasing world population with an adequate, reliable and nutritious food supply? We argue that this can best be achieved through the utilization of biodiversity and the inclusion of marginal arable lands for agricultural production, while maintaining a broad gene pool to secure the potential for future plant production and supporting rural agricultural communities. We present several specific examples of how an emphasis on agricultural biodiversity can provide the basis for a nutritional, reliable, culinary and sustainable food production, and analyse the advantages, limitations and risks of an increased focus on agrobiodiversity. We conclude that the potential for approaches based on the preservation and development of existing agrobiodiversity has not been given sufficient attention in the current scientific and political debates concerning the best strategy to keep pace with global population growth and increasing demand for food. An emphasis on agrobiodiversity is the basis for the most appropriate strategies if the goal is to feed the world in the twenty-first century.