Environment, Agriculture and Poverty

Agriculture can either sustain or degrade the environment. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has documented agriculture’s main negative effects on land and freshwater, as well as the importance of agricultural landscapes in providing products for human sustenance, supporting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Agricultural biodiversity refers to the variety of living species that are important to agriculture. It comprises the diversity of genetic resources e.g. different varieties and breeds and species used in agriculture directly or indirectly, including species that support production e.g. soil organisms and pollinators and broader ecosystems within which agriculture takes places e.g. pastoral, forest and aquatic, as well as the diversity of these agro-ecosystems themselves.