Africa is losing native crops, critical to food security and climate resilience - FAO

Tomato farmers /FILE

Africa is losing the plant diversity key for food security, nutrition, climate resilience, and livelihoods.

This is according to the latest report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, unveiled in Nairobi by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The report shows that crops, along with their varieties and wild relatives, as well as other wild plants harvested for food, are disappearing faster than they are being conserved.

These resources are essential for helping agrifood systems, the way food is produced, processed and consumed, adapt to climate change, which is increasingly felt through erratic and extreme weather.

According to the report, locally adapted crop varieties developed and passed down by farmers over generations, scientifically known as landraces, are disappearing from farms across Africa.

These include varieties of staple crops such as sorghum, millet, yams, rice and traditional cotton.

Chikelu Mba, deputy director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, says that such crops are often better suited to local soils and climates than commercial varieties, some of which were not bred for Africa’s diverse agroecological conditions or farmers’ preferences.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 16 per cent of more than 12,000 distinct locally adapted crop varieties recorded across 19 countries were found to be threatened, narrowing farmers’ options as droughts and heat intensify.

“This report shows clearly that Africa is losing plant genetic diversity at a pace that threatens food security, nutrition and the overall resilience of agrifood systems,” Mba said.

Experts explain that crop diversity, including farmers’ varieties or landraces, wild food plants and the genetic relatives of major crops, is essential for developing progressively improved crop varieties needed to climate-proof the continent’s agrifood systems.

Yet many of these resources are disappearing faster than they are being protected, meaning their inherent potential may never be fully realised, not for the current generation, and certainly not for those who come after us,” he added.

“Africa’s food security and nutrition depend on the widest possible diversity of crops, trees and wild plants that farmers and communities have relied on for generations,"said Éliane Ubalijoro, chief executive officer of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF).

He said as climate change accelerates, losing this diversity means losing the very options that allow agriculture to adapt.

The report also highlights sharp declines in wild food plants, which provide essential nutrients and act as safety nets for vulnerable populations during times of food scarcity.

These include baobab, shea, marula, tamarind, and African bush mango.

It adds that indigenous leafy vegetables commonly eaten across the continent, including amaranth, spider plant, African nightshade, cowpea leaves and jute mallow, are facing similar pressures.

More than 70 per cent of assessed wild food plant diversity in Africa is threatened, mainly due to habitat loss, land-use change and climate stress, at a rate of decline double the global average.

The report further draws attention to the loss of crop wild relatives, wild plants related to major food crops such as sorghum, millet, rice, yams, cowpea and African eggplant.

These plants carry traits for drought tolerance and pest and disease resistance that are essential for future crop improvement.

The study indicates that over 70 per cent of assessed crop wild relatives in Africa are under threat, while African genebanks conserve only about 14 per cent of those collected, placing many adaptive traits at risk of irreversible loss.

“Plant genetic resources are the foundation of sustainable agrifood systems. Without stronger policies, investment and coordination, Africa risks losing irreplaceable plant diversity that supports livelihoods, food security and nutrition,” Mba said.

Shockingly, extreme weather events linked to climate change are accelerating these losses.

Experts say that drought now drives nearly two-thirds of emergency seed interventions across Africa, with 110 responses recorded in 20 countries.

It explains that while such interventions help farmers restart production, repeated emergencies place a heavy strain on local seed systems and can displace locally adapted crop varieties with those that are poorly suited to local conditions.

It raises concerns about the security of Africa’s seed collections, with data showing that around 220,000 seed samples from nearly 4,000 plant species are conserved in 56 African gene banks, yet only about 10 per cent of collections are safely duplicated elsewhere, leaving them vulnerable to conflict, flooding, power failures and chronic underinvestment.

Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) managing director, Theophilus Muturi, says that conserving and using Africa’s plant genetic resources is not a luxury, but rather a necessity for resilient agrifood systems in a changing climate.

He emphasizes the role of national leadership, stating that it is the responsibility of governments to establish genebanks and the necessary infrastructure for storing plant genetic resources.

“We also encourage farmers to develop seed systems or community seed banks where they can store varieties that are critical to them and adapted to different ecological zones,” he said.

Despite the risks, the report identifies opportunities.

For instance, 14 African countries report that 44 per cent of their seed collections have been studied and described, exceeding the global average.

Furthermore, 21 countries are actively breeding improved varieties of 81 crop species, including underutilised crops such as African eggplant, amaranth, moringa and indigenous vegetables.