Efforts to mine seed banks and secure future food supplies would benefit from participation by farmers, who could help to develop crop varieties suitable for their own land-management systems (Susan McCouch et al. Nature 499, 23–24; 2013).
Farmers usually optimize land usage to supply year-round nutrition, to cater for cultural preferences and ecosystem services, to provide income, reduce labour and avoid economic risk.
Integrating these practices could enhance the success of crop-breeding efforts. In this age of information sharing, even remote farmers could now become directly involved in and take advantage of a globally accessible infrastructure of biodiversity informatics that incorporates local knowledge.
Such a biocultural informatics programme might add expense, but it would ultimately improve the cost-effectiveness of global food security and health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahmed, S., Herforth, A. Future food: Use local knowledge. Nature 499, 409 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/499409c
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/499409c