A Presentation By Mr. Allah Dad Khan Visiting Professor the University of Agriculture Peshawar allahdad52@gmail.com

2. ECONOMICS OF
AGRICULTURAL
BIODIVERSITY
CONSERVATION & USE
BY
MR. ALLAH DAD KHAN

4. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE,
From an economics perspective, the unprecedented loss
of crop diversity across the globe is a result of the fact that
the full value of this diversity is not properly reflected in
their market prices. This leads to a bias in favour of
activities that are incompatible with diversity maintenance.

5. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE,
People undervalue genetic resources because the many
public and private benefits of conserving and using crop
diversity do not have a market value. Non-market values
include ecosystem services and direct benefits to families,
for example, helping women and men smallholder farmers
to:

6. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE
Manage risk on farm – particularly on the type of marginal
and heterogeneous lands that poor smallholders tend to
be associated with ensure food security and access to
nutritious foods maintain resilience at a landscape level
have options for confronting future pest or disease
outbreaks adapt crops to climate change maintain
traditional knowledge and cultural practices, such as food
culture.

7. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE
Biodiversity International’s programme of work on the
economics of agricultural biodiversity conservation and
use seeks to identify and quantify the private and public
costs and benefits generated by maintaining crop diversity,
as well as improving understanding of the tradeoffs
farmers and society face from maintaining it. Research
also seeks to identify the principal elements and
associated costs and benefits of a strategic global
approach to on-farm management and in situ conservation
of biodiversity, which is capable of enhancing social and
gender equity, as well as food security.

8. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE
Specific research questions relate to: how we can
determine whether unaccounted-for non-market values
are in fact significant, how these values can be taken into
account to support conservation and sustainable use, and
what incentives are needed to encourage conservation

9. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE
Additional questions focus on: the types of configurations
of farmers and communities over time and space that are
needed to generate the public benefits associated with on
farm management and in situ conservation; the differential
role of gender in conserving target crops and species; as
well as the institutions, instruments and interventions
needed for farmers to promote the effective management
of crop diversity for the benefit of both farmers and
broader society.

10. FROM AN ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVE
To answer these questions, Biodiversity, in collaboration
with national and international partners, is developing
appropriate valuation methods, decision-support tools and
strategies for the design of cost-effective policy options
that can promote the conservation of agricultural
biodiversity.
Understanding the market forces that imperil or support
agricultural biodiversity conservation is fundamental to
keeping these resources available for ensuring food
security and healthy ecosystems of the future.