Agriculture is often accused of reducing biodiversity. Diverse natural ecosystems are replaced with comparatively uniform farming systems. About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, the wild ancestors of cultivated crops were put through a genetic bottleneck, as the first farmers found and selected those few forms that were suitable for cultivation.
The early farmers changed the very rules of evolution, according to Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton. When they started to keep seed for planting instead of just eating, suddenly, evolution was no longer driven by natural selection. The agricultural biodiversity that we see now is the result of adaptation to the myriad of real diverse challenges faced by farmers as rice evolved and spread across the world.
Much of this diversity is now safely conserved in the genebank at the International Rice Research Institute and almost certainly contains exactly what we need to adapt to the changes today and in the future. However, the task to discover which, among the millions of possible variants in the collection, are the genes we need to adapt may be rather daunting.The early farmers changed the very rules of evolution, according t Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton. When they started to keep seed for planting instead of just eating, suddenly, evolution was no longer driven by natural selection. The agricultural biodiversity that we see now is the result of adaptation to the myriad of real diverse challenges faced by farmers as rice evolved and spread across the world.
Nonetheless, it is essential for us to not forget our responsibility to pass on this legacy to future generations, Dr. Sackville Hamilton said.
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