Global food systems require radical transformation for food and nutrition security. Based on decades of research and action, a new call to action recommends pathways to unlock the benefits of agrobiodiversity for nutrition, ecosystems, and communities.
Several reasons are behind this challenge, including inefficiencies in food production and distribution, food waste, and a lack of equitable access to healthy diets.
Our food system bears significant environmental externalities, including biodiversity loss, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Ecosystem deterioration exacerbates the shortage of adequate food and nutrition, threatening future food security and genetic gains.
Poverty, inequalities in access to food and adequate diets, and low wages are some of the social externalities in current food systems.
Malnutrition contributes to poor food systems
According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, food insecurity rose in Africa in 2024, with over 1 billion people, or two-thirds of the population, unable to consistently access or afford a healthy diet. Globally, malnutrition is persistently prevalent in children and women.
Only three commodity staples – rice, maize and wheat – provide two-thirds of the calories people consume. These have limited nutritional value and contribute to poor health.
Moreover, crop commodities, generally produced at an industrial scale, require significant quantities of chemical fertilisers and pesticides that drive environmental decay, climate change, and the extinction of many species.
To help address the issue, experts from around the globe launched the 2025 Kunming Manifesto: Agrobiodiversity for People and Planet at the 2025 Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) Annual Summit on 3 September in Dakar, Senegal.
The role of agrobiodiversity in improving food production and security
“If we’re going to transform the global food system, we need to encourage biodiversity on our plate and bring underutilised crops back to the farmers’ field and on our tables,” said Carlo Fadda, Director of Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
Fadda reiterated the imperative need for stakeholders across the food system, from farmers and practitioners to policymakers, researchers, government agencies, funders, agribusinesses, food processors, distributors and other actors to join forces.
Furthermore, experts at the congress called for agrobiodiversity to become a main component of the Rio Conventions on climate, biodiversity, and desertification.
Presently, agrobiodiversity is often overlooked at these forums, despite its proven potential to contribute to solving the problems the conventions continually struggle with.
As the stewards of agrobiodiversity largely displaced by agricultural modernisation, their knowledge and expertise will be essential to the policies, research, and market-access tools needed for agrobiodiversity to thrive.
The Manifesto explores the connections between agrobiodiversity, climate resilience, ecosystem health, nutrition, economic livelihoods, and social equity.
More stakeholder co-operation is needed
The document includes examples from China, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, and Uganda. All demonstrate how communities, researchers, and international organisations deliver lasting benefits to human, environmental, and socioeconomic health based on agrobiodiversity.
To make them scalable, however, we need greater engagement from donors, investors, policymakers, and the private sector.
Fadda stated: “Productivity can be addressed through a combination of research, funding, and policies to support it. Funding for agrobiodiversity is right in front of us: billions of dollars subsidise business-as-usual agriculture.
“It’s time to put agrobiodiversity at the forefront for the benefit of the people and the planet alongside improved soil and water management.”
Examples of how agrobiodiversity works
The document includes examples from China, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, and Uganda. All demonstrate how communities, researchers, and international organisations deliver lasting benefits to human, environmental, and socioeconomic health based on agrobiodiversity.
To make them scalable, however, we need greater engagement from donors, investors, policymakers, and the private sector.
Among CGIAR’s contributions, one case study evaluates how community seed banks in Kenya and Uganda, supported by the Alliance between 2010 and 2023, provided more than 10,000 people with adequate, sustained seed security; more affordable, diverse, and nutritious foods; and almost $100,000 in sales of seeds and products derived from agrobiodiversity and native tree species.
Fadda concluded: “Agrobiodiversity can help remedy the systemic inequality and distortion in the food system.
“One of its great advantages, as the case studies in the manifesto show, is that multistakeholder collaboration can quickly bring nutritional, environmental, and economic benefits to vulnerable communities, often just by supporting the rich agrobiodiversity these communities already have.”
