Media

Agrobiodiversity is crucial to the livelihoods of rural communities living in dry areas of the world. It is critical for nutritional excellence and global food security amid the combined challenges of climate change, diminishing natural resources, and rapidly growing population. Collecting, conserving, and utilizing dryland agrobiodiversity has been at the core of ICARDA’s research since its birth over 40 years ago.

Around 75% of the world’s food crops depend entirely or in part on animal pollination and 85% of all global pollination services are provided by wild pollinators, many of them not even recognized and identified. On World Bee Day, ICARDA outlines how we contribute to their protection, in particular we show farmers how they can benefit from wild pollinators, we guide governments in the development of cross-sector national strategy and action plans for pollinator protection, and how we use SMS to improve knowledge and services for honey producers.