‘Smarter food’ needed to end global hunger by 2030

ABSTRACT

Not only can agricultural science and research help bolster the nutritional value of staple crops, but it can also produce hardier varieties that can withstand pests and disease, meaning more produce surviving to harvest and providing additional income as a buffer. Since 2013, quality potato seed, improved crop management and value chain approaches have helped more than two million smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia. [...]making the right crops available for changing climates and cultural environments, and improving the availability of resilient, adapted varieties relies on protecting a back catalogue of genetic material to safeguard different features of different crops. The economic benefits of conservation are clear gene banks like CIP’s contributed almost three-quarters of the $1 billion generated by the Victoria potato variety alone in Uganda between 1991 and 2016, which is just one indication of the potential economic value of conservation and utilisation of genetic materials.