Agrobiodiversity: The Importance of Inventories in the Assessment of Crop Diversity and Its Time and Spatial Changes

The Analysis of Italian Plant Agrobiodiversity Databases Reveals That Hilly and Sub-Mountain Areas Are Hotspots of Herbaceous Landraces

“…The data contained in the National Register must be considered the "official" data on Italian agrobiodiversity, since this is the tool by which the Italian government implemented European Community guidelines on agrobiodiversity conservation. The data reflect the situation globally, as it is recognized that, worldwide, our knowledge of biodiversity includes only 20% of the total estimated number of species [36]. Coordination of the stakeholders in charge of agrobiodiversity conservation and study therefore appears fundamental.…”

“…These actions should be implemented as soon as possible to avoid the loss of such resources, as, from our survey, only 33.4% of landraces are grown by professional farmers, while the remaining (66.6%) are grown by hobbyist farmers. In general, the absence of detailed knowledge on agrobiodiversity prevents the application of methodological tools that could successfully assist in biodiversity conservation, and inventories are a first step to assessing biodiversity richness and distribution patterns and monitoring changes [36]. Concomitantly, the conservation of agroecosystems and traditional farming methods together with the protection of buffer areas of biodiversity such as dry walls, green infrastructures, and ecotone belts (and other typologies of habitat defined by directive 92/43 ECC) can guarantee the conservation of a high level of biodiversity and the conservation of species also including crop wild relatives.…”

“…The reasons that led to the abandonment of mountain landraces are many but are mainly linked to the abandonment of mountain areas by human beings. This phenomenon has intensified in the Alps since the middle of the last century and is still in progress [36,[73][74][75][76][77][78]. The abandonment of mountain areas (and related agricultural practices) has caused changes to the landscape (loss of agricultural land due to the expansion of forests), imbalances to ecosystems (increase in susceptibility to hydrogeological instability phenomena), and the loss of agrobiodiversity and all it involves (typical dishes, traditions, and popular culture linked to agriculture) [48].…”

“…National programs for genetic resources supported by several gene banks and the International Board on Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR, presently Bioversity International) conducted more than 500 collection missions, which contributed significantly to the generation of agrobiodiversity reports and inventories along with numerous Directories of Germplasm Collections [36]. Many different organisms are responsible for the collection and conservation ex situ of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) such as the international center genebanks and the international collections hosted by CGIAR Centers, which are important components of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's global system of conservation and use of PGRFA, as IBPGR is.…”

Enhancing Legume Ecosystem Services through an Understanding of Plant–Pollinator Interplay

“…Legume landraces are submitted to a general trend in modern agriculture characterized by its fast replacement by modern cultivars, with increasing danger of erosion and extinction ( Almekinders and de Boef, 1999 ; Negri et al, 2009 ; Pinheiro de Carvalho et al, 2016 ). This trend determines an overall concern for their ex situ conservation in germplasm collections, while almost 150 thousands landraces of six major grain legumes are actually stored (see Genesys, 2015 ).…”