Why is Crop Diversity under Threat?
Agricultural biodiversity has shrunk rapidly in recent decades as farmers increasingly come to rely on fewer crops. According to the FAO, over time some 10 000 plant species have been used for human food and farming. Now no more than 120 species provide 90 percent of the human food supplied by plants – and only three (rice, wheat and maize) account for more than 60% of the calories consumed by humans. The relatively small number of crop species cultivated today is increasingly vulnerable to diseases, climate change, and other environmental shifts. Loss of habitat also threatens the wild relatives of cultivated plants. More than 15 million hectares of tropical forest are lost each year, and experts estimate that as much as 8 percent of all plant species could disappear in the next 25 years.
