For addressing potential food shortages, a fundamental tradeoff exists between investing more resources to increasing productivity of existing crops, as opposed to increasing crop diversity by incorporating more species.

This paper demonstrates how crop diversification impacts on two outcomes of climate smart agriculture; increased productivity (legume and cereal crop productivity) and enhanced resilience (household income, food security, and nutrition) in rural Zimbabwe.

Biodiversity is the basis of agriculture. It has enabled farming systems to evolve ever since agriculture was first developed some 10,000 years ago. Biodiversity is the origin of all species of crops and domesticated livestock and the variety within them....

This introductory paper summarizes the policy context, methodological approach, and key results from the set of papers contained in this special edition derived from a FAO-led project on seed sourcing in local markets and its farm-level impacts. The introduction provides...

A rich diversity of traditional crops occurs generally in the Himalaya and more particularly in Central Himalaya. Over forty species of food grains are grown in traditional agroecosystems of Central Himalaya, which have been managed by the local farming communities...