Assessment and use of agricultural biodiversity for landscape and ecosystem restoration

Intra-specific diversity of crops is one of the principle mechanisms used by small holder farmers in low input agricultural landscapes to maintain and restore resilience and production in agricultural landscapes. Deliberate use of intra specific crop diversity in farmers field can be a productive alternative to agrochemicals. Assessment to the amount and distribution of functional intra-specific diversity for annual and perennial crops in agricultural landscapes is needed to be able to improve access to diversity and information on this diversity to restore and maintain resilience and productivity in agricultural landscapes. Benefits to farmer or farming communities from their use of local diversity, are necessary to identify the different ways of using genetic diversity within production systems to restore and maintain agricultural landscapes. The work focuses on (I) the use perennial horticultural crops to rehabilitate saline and water scarce environments, (ii) the role crop and pasture genetic diversity on farm to buffer and rehabilitate lands under unpredictable environmental change, (iii) the role of on farm crop genetic diversity to restore ecosystem services to regulate pest and diseases.