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.