Italy demonstrates leadership and support of sustainable agriculture through partnership with Bioversity International

Media release for International Day of Biodiversity, 22nd May 2014. 

The Government of Italy, through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS), has followed up a recent public commitment to sustainable agriculture and agricultural biodiversity by increasing its partnership with research leader Bioversity International.

At the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture earlier this year, Italy was one of 65 signatory governments that publicly committed in the final communiqué 'Empowering Agriculture: Fostering Resilience – Securing Food and Nutrition' to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity to help increase the efficiency, adaptability and resilience of agriculture. This commitment lays the foundation for producing a diverse range of foods, and consequently to contribute towards securing an adequate supply of sufficient, safe and nutritious food. 

Italian Cooperation's partnership with Bioversity International, an international research-for-development organization based in Italy, will advance long-term research activities to help ensure global food and nutrition security around the world. DGCS has provided a €1.2 million contribution in 2014 for core research activities.

“This financial support for scientific research makes a difference in reaching a sustainable food secure future for everyone. The Italian government is an important partner in our work and is the base of our headquarters and many of our scientists.  In the quest for a sustainable food secure future worldwide, the Italian government has demonstrated true commitment to agricultural biodiversity through this partnership,” said M. Ann Tutwiler, Director General of Bioversity International.

The partnership will move forward long-term research related to the conservation and use of crop and tree diversity on farm and in the wild and the economics of agricultural biodiversity conservation.

The contribution will support research into three important questions:

• When and how do rural people conserve biodiversity in agricultural systems, and how can we help them to do so?
• How can we measure, monitor and prioritize for conservation actions the vast amounts of crop diversity found in the world?
• How can we identify which distant relatives of crops, growing wild, are most likely to contain useful traits for breeding new varieties, needed in new circumstances like increased drought conditions?

Furthermore, this partnership stretches beyond research, towards an integrated and collaborative approach to addressing food and nutrition insecurity. Next year’s World Expo, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, hosted by Italy in Milan, presents another opportunity for collaboration between Bioversity International and the Government of Italy through the exchange of ideas and facilitation of debates in the area of innovation, science and technology for food safety, agriculture and biodiversity. In addition, DGCS will fully support a two-year Junior Professional Officer position within Bioversity International to help lead the organisation’s contribution to this international event.

###

Bioversity International is a research-for-development organization that provides scientific evidence of the role that on-farm and wild agricultural and forest biodiversity can play in a more nutritious, resilient, productive and adaptable food and agricultural system. Bioversity International is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. 

Contact: Richard China, Director, Strategic Partnerships and External Engagement

###

Download final draft version of the Final Communiqué for the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture 2014:'Empowering Agriculture: Fostering Resilience – Securing Food and Nutrition'

Photo: Fruit diversity in Mercado municipal, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Credit: jACK TWO/Flickr