THE CONSERVATION OF AGROBIODIVERSITY ON-FARM - QUESTIONING THE EMERGING PARADIGM

The genetic diversity of traditional varieties of crops is the most ec onomically valuable part of global biodiversity and is of paramount im portance for future world crop production. The Biodiversity Convention has given a clear mandate for on-farm conservation. However, very lit tle formal research has been done and no agreed set of scientific prin ciples yet exists for on-farm conservation of genetic resources. This lack of scientific knowledge has not prevented an explosion of recomme ndations on how to conserve agrobiodiversity on-farm and it is possibl e to identify an emerging paradigm. Through a review of some of the as sumptions on which this paradigm is based, we clearly show that if att empts to conserve agrobiodiversity on-farm are based on these misconce ptions, they are likely to fail. By assessing the present activities o f farmers, we propose a research agenda to increase the diversity avai lable to farmers and to enhance farmers' capacity to manage this diver sity dynamically. Increasing genetic diversification, combined with fa rmers' experimental abilities, and underpinned by the formal system, w ill ensure greater on-farm conservation of more useful genetic resourc es.