Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Francisca Acevedo

CONABIO
Mexico

Here I write some ideas related to the general draft scope:

Use biodiversity to put off pressure on agriculture to positively impact food security and nutrition.

Old traditional approaches combined with new knowledge to counteract new pressures such as climate change.

Strenghthen smallholder farming systems which already provide around 80% of all food produced worldwide. This can be done by fortifying agronomic performance, using new tools such as genomics to respond to specific needs that have not been resolved otherwise, undertaking participatory plant breeding in the environments in which these smallholders farm, stimulating local and regional markets where these farmers can sell surplus produce (after assurring their own family consumption).....etc.

It would be very useful to discuss and clearly define what is meant by "sustainable agriculture and food systems", these terms are much used nowadays but not necessarily mean the same to all stakeholders. 

It would be interesting to give some attention to those areas that are centers of origin and/or centers of genetic diversity of crops, these are the areas which include the genetic diversity found in the native crop diversity present but also that which is represented by the wild relative counterparts of these crops. It is in these specific areas in which the domestication and diversification processess are still alive and under way, mainly thanks to the continuing efforts made by smallholder farmers through what we know as traditional agriculture.