Friday 14 September 2007

What role for agrobiodiversity in rural development?

I wonder how many people ever read a huge document such as the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 (NIRDP), just recently approved by the European Commission. More importantly, who is responsible for wading through all the jargon and communicating the essence of what it all means, and opportunities it presents, for rural communities, who I assume are the intended beneficiaries of the planned initiatives. I did manage to get through most of it and was interested to read what it had to say about agriculture and the environment. While there is much made of enhancing the rural environment, I wasn't quite clear how this would be achieved with strategies that increase conversion of farmland to sustainable energy production. While there is a great deal written about agriculture's role in improving habitats and environmental protection there appears to be no mention of how improvements in agrobiodiversity also have numerous benefits for the rural environment and could actually be the basis for innovative rural enterprise in certain situations. With the growing interest in locally-sourced foods and 'food with a story' surely there is much scope for considerable innovation with agrobiodiversity. The document mentions that
'a major opportunity exists to build on Northern Ireland's considerable
investment to date (mainly through the agri-environment programme) in protecting the rural landscape and environment. There is growing interest within the
agriculture industry to embrace the agri-environment programme, yielding
improvements in farm practices and conserving the natural and built environment
and landscape character across a larger proportion of the Northern Ireland land
mass. This could be aided by further development of farm woodlands, with the
attendant gains in biodiversity and amenities.'
Surely such opportunities, improvements and gains could be equally aided by improving the diversity of crops and livestock on-farm! Improved agrobiodiversity could also provide opportunities for innovative approaches for agri-tourism, agri-diversification and linking food marketing to improved environmental stewardship, strategies which the NIRDP also highlights.

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