Figure 4. Origins and recipients of samples distributed by the Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) from 1988 to 2015.Each region has a color representing germplasm originating in that region, and the colors are connected to otherregions based on AGG’s distributions of germplasm to researchers in those other regions. The direction of thecontribution is indicated by both the origin region’s color and a gap between the connecting line and the recipientregion’s segment. The magnitude of contribution is indicated by the width of the connecting line. Because the linewidth is nonlinearly adapted to the curvature, it corresponds to the contribution size only at the start and end points.As an example, West Asia is represented in light blue. The light blue lines represent the amount of germplasmoriginating in the region that was distributed by the AGG to recipients in different regions of the world, whichpredominantly included Australia and New Zealand (1214 samples distributed on average per year), but also includesitself as well as twelve other regions.

We estimated the degree of Australia’s dependence on international collaboration to acquire crop genetic resources byidentifying for each crop cultivated and/or consumed in the country the “primary region of diversity” of the crop – thegeographic region of the world which typically includes the location of the initial domestication of the crop,encompasses the major geographic zone of diversity of traditional crop varieties generated since that time, and formost crops also contains high species richness in related wild taxa.

We analyzed the full set of food crop commodities included in Australia’s national food supply and pertinent nationalproduction data as provided by FAO4 [for food supplies: calories (kcal/capita/day), protein (g/capita/day), fat(g/capita/day), and food weight (g/capita/day); for production systems: production quantity (tonnes), harvested area(ha), and gross production value (million US$)], over a recent three year timeframe (2009-2011).

Regions were delineated following national borders in order to form manageable units for the assignment of primaryregions of diversity of all crops, and at a scale enabling comparison with national food supplies and production data.Regional classifications followed those listed in Annex 2 of the FAO State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources forFood and Agriculture5, modified to more accurately represent eco-geographic parameters driving plant speciesdistributions. Specifically, both western and eastern Europe were split into north and south regions to account fortemperate versus Mediterranean ecologies; Australia and New Zealand were segregated from remaining (tropical)islands of the Pacific region; and South America was split into Andean, temperate, and tropical regions. A total of 23regions were delineated worldwide.

Primary regions of diversity were assigned to crops based upon primary and secondary literature regarding centres ofcrop diversity, origins of crop domestication, and high species richness of closely related wild plants. To be generallyinclusive in regard to primary regions of diversity of crops and to minimize overestimating countries’ utilization offoreign crops, those crops whose primary diversity encompassed more than one designated region were listed in allappropriate regions (e.g., wheat was listed in Central Asia, West Asia, and the South and East Mediterranean due tothe high diversity of traditional crop varieties and wild relatives in each of these regions). Forty-two of the 53 cropcommodities treated in food supplies data, and 116 of the 132 crops in production data, were attributable to primaryregions of diversity, with the remaining general commodities which were not clearly recognizable as specific cropspecies listed as “not specified”.

We determined the importance of each primary region of diversity around the world to Australia’s current (2009-2011average) national food supply and national agricultural production by summing the contribution ofconsumed/produced crops for each variable by their primary regions of diversity. We estimated the degree to whichAustralia’s food supply and national agricultural production is comprised of “foreign” crops by determining the extentto which such supply/production is composed of crops whose primary regions of diversity do not coincide at all withthe region within which Australia is located.

Our renewed international commitments to sustainable development1 and biodiversityconservation2,3 explicitly recognize the importance of crop genetic diversity for food security,and set urgent targets for fully conserving these genetic resources for present and futuregenerations. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture(Plant Treaty) also includes a mechanism facilitating access to and sharing in the benefits ofthis diversity, based upon overlapping needs in many regions worldwide to utilize thesegenetic resources in crop breeding.

While Australia and 134 other nations as well as the European Union are parties to the PlantTreaty, full investment and compliance by all countries has not yet been achieved, and anumber of countries who are globally significant agricultural producers have not yet becomeparties. These deficiencies are probably due in part to a lack of clear information quantifyingthe degree of reliance between countries in terms of crop genetic resources.

Here we provide an estimation of the importance of international collaboration for Australia inorder to acquire crop genetic resources supporting its national agricultural production and itsfood supply.

Australia’s food system is highly dependent on foreign crop diversity

Introduction

References1. UN (United Nations). 2016. Sustainable Development Goals. Available online at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=13002. CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity). 2016. Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Available online at: https://www.cbd.int/sp/3. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2002. International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Rome: FAO).4. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2015. FAOSTAT (Rome: FAO). Available at http://faostat3.fao.org/5. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2010. The Second Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Rome: FAO).6. Global Crop Diversity Trust. 2013 Fundraising Strategy 2014-2018 (Bonn, Germany: Global Crop Diversity Trust). website: https://www.croptrust.org/7. Castañeda-Álvarez et al. 2016. Global conservation priorities for crop wild relatives. Nature Plants. doi: 10.1038/NPLANTS.2016.22.

Colin K. Khoury1,2, Harold A. Achicanoy1, Chrystian C. Sosa1, Carlos Navarro-Racines1, Nora P. Castañeda-Álvarez1, and Sally L. Norton3

1 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia 2 National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, USA 3 Australian Grains Genebank, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Australia | Contact: c.khoury@cgiar.org

Materials and Methods

ResultsPrimary regions of diversity of agricultural crops were identified across the world’s tropics and subtropics,extending into temperate regions in both hemispheres (Figure 1). The Australia and New Zealand regionwas not associated as a primary region of diversity with any crops specifically measured in FAO statistics.

DiscussionWhile direct measurements of a nation’s need for international collaboration to acquireimportant genetic resources for agricultural research are difficult to quantify, our results giveevery indication that the long term productivity and resilience of Australia’s crop cultivationand its food supply are very highly dependent on access to genetic diversity that wasgenerated elsewhere on the planet.

While the importance of Australia’s access to genetic resources for crop breeding in support ofnational agricultural production is straightforward, importance of access in regard tosupporting its food supply is more complicated because food supply data also includesimported food. This said, access to the genetic diversity of important crops by majorproducers, wherever their location, is important for the reliable provisioning of food viainternational trade. The major areas of production of many foods imported by Australia veryoften occur outside of the primary regions of diversity of those crops, e.g., West Africa andSoutheast Asia for cocoa bean production, Central America and tropical South America forcoffee, and China, India, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the USA for potatoes.

Australia should therefore continue to play an active international role in supporting theconservation of the genetic resources of crops important to its national agricultural productionand its food supply, and in facilitating access to these resources for the benefit of Australia andother food producers worldwide. Such actions include supporting the Plant Treaty and theGlobal Crop Diversity Trust6, and encouraging as well as partnering with international andnational genebanks and other conservation efforts to ensure that important crop geneticdiversity is well conserved and available for distribution.

Although Australia was not designated as a primary region of diversity of crops measured inFAO production and food supplies statistics, it does contain unique genetic resources that weregenerated by agricultural communities and plant breeders over the last few hundred years, aswell as important germplasm acquired and conserved in the Australian Grains Genebank andin other seed repositories and botanical gardens. In addition, wild species closely related toimportant food crops such as rice, soybean, banana, sorghum and pigeonpea occur natively inthe country7 (Figure 5), and these genetic resources may prove highly valuable to theimprovement of these crops. This crop diversity should be recognized by Australia as importantto its national agricultural heritage, and should be fully conserved and made available to theglobal community to support food security worldwide.

Figure 5. Species richness map displaying the Australian distributions of wild plant species that are close relatives of rice, soybean, banana, sorghum, pigeonpea, and other food crops.

Australia’s national agricultural production was found to be comprised of crops whose primaryregions of diversity encompass 21 regions in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific(Figure 2 and Table 1). Due to the significant cultivation of wheat, sugarcane, barley,cottonseed oil, alfalfa, sorghum, grapes, rapeseed, lupins, oats, peas, apples, rice, chickpeas,triticale, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, millets, olives, faba beans, almonds, melons, pears, onions,and beans, among many others, production was determined to be highly composed of cropswhose primary regions of diversity included West Asia, the South and East Mediterranean,Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and to lesser degrees southern Europe, East and Southern Africa,Central America and Mexico, tropical South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia. Australiannational agricultural production was assessed as at least 99.9% comprised of crops whoseprimary regions of diversity do not include the Australia and New Zealand region, for allproduction variables.

Australia’s food supply was similarly found to be comprised of crops whose primary regions ofdiversity encompass 21 regions in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific (Figure 3and Table 1). As measured in terms of contributions to calories, protein, and food weight in thediet, Australia’s food supply was dominated by crops whose primary regions of diversityincluded the South and East Mediterranean, West and Central Asia, southern Europe, Southand Southeast Asia, northern Europe, East Asia, the Andes, and West and Central Africa. Thesefoods included sugar, wheat, rape and mustard oil, palm oil, rice, cottonseed oil, barley, grapes,olives, apples, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, and other pulses. The primary regions of diversity offood crops most important to fat in the Australian diet included the South and EastMediterranean, southern Europe, tropical South America, Central America and Mexico, andWest, Central, and East Africa, due primarily to the importance of rape and mustard oil, palmoil, cottonseed oil, olives, and wheat. The Australian food supply was assessed as comprised of91.8% - 100% crops whose primary regions of diversity do not include the Australia and NewZealand region in terms of calories in the diet, 87.2% - 100% in terms of protein, 89.8% - 100%in terms of fat, and 81.1% to 100% in terms of food weight. The variation shown per variableaccounts for the aggregated crop commodities recorded in Australian food supply data thatcould not be clearly specified in terms of primary regions of diversity.

Figure 2. Importance of primary regions of diversityworldwide to Australia’s national agricultural production,measured in terms of (A) production quantity (milliontonnes), (B) harvested area (million ha), and (C)production value (hundred million US$). The scale showsthe maximum potential contribution of each region toAustralia in the context of being a primary region ofdiversity of crops cultivated in the country. Darker colorsrepresent more significant primary regions of diversity ofcrops produced in Australia.

Table 1. Importance of primary regions of diversity worldwide to Australia’s national agricultural production andnational food supply. The values display the maximum potential contribution of each region to Australia in the contextof being a primary region of diversity of crops cultivated/consumed in the country.

Figure 3. Importance of primary regions of diversity worldwide to Australia’s national food supply, measured in termsof (A) calories (kcal/capita/day), (B) protein (g/capita/day), (C) fat (g/capita/day), and (D) food weight (g/capita/day).The scale shows the maximum potential contribution of each region to Australia in the context of being a primaryregion of diversity of food crops consumed in the country. Darker colors represent more significant primary regions ofdiversity of crops eaten in Australia.

Direct measures of need for exotic genetic resources for Australian agriculture

The estimate of Australia’s dependence on other world regions in regard to crop geneticresources, based on the identified primary regions of diversity of the crops important to itsnational agricultural production and food supply is an indirect measure. To assess Australia’sneed for exotic genetic resources in a more direct manner, we documented the origins of231,655 samples distributed by the Australian Grains Genebank from 1988 to 2015, organizedinto the same regional classifications (Figure 4). The Australia and New Zealand regionreceived genetic resources originating from all 23 of the world’s regions, with the majority ofgermplasm originating from West Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Central America andMexico, North America, East Asia, South Asia, northern Europe, East Africa, and southwestEurope. The analysis also documented the Australian Grains Genebank’s contributions to cropimprovement in other regions, particularly West Asia, North America, northern Europe, andEast Asia.

Figure 1. Primary regions of diversity of 81 major agricultural crops worldwide, i.e., areas which typically include thelocations of the initial domestication of crops, encompass the major geographic zones of diversity of crop varietiesgenerated since that time, and for most crops also contain high species richness in related wild taxa.

Primary region of diversity of crops

Production quantity (tonnes)

Production quantity

(%)Harvested area (ha)

Harvested area (%)

Production value

(current million US$)

Production value (%)

Calories (kcal/

capita/ day)

Calories (%)

Protein (g/

capita/ day)

Protein (%)

Fat (g/ capita/

day) Fat (%)

Food weight

(g/ capita/

day)

Food weight

(%)

North America 1,919,723 0.9% 213,950 0.3% 1,309.7 2.1% 91.3 1.1% 0.2 0.2% 4.0 1.7% 90.7 2.2%

Central America and Mexico 2,834,726 1.3% 482,965 0.6% 3,345.9 5.3% 261.0 3.3% 1.7 1.8% 23.9 10.4% 51.0 1.3%

Caribbean 2,107,763 1.0% 322,539 0.4% 2,829.6 4.5% 62.7 0.8% 0.0 0.0% 7.1 3.1% 6.7 0.2%

Andes 2,365,732 1.1% 717,305 1.0% 1,134.0 1.8% 96.7 1.2% 2.9 3.0% 0.3 0.1% 215.3 5.3%

Tropical South America 2,443,372 1.1% 353,714 0.5% 3,139.7 5.0% 241.7 3.0% 1.8 1.9% 24.9 10.9% 61.7 1.5%

Temperate South America 29,492 0.0% 1,596 0.0% 190.3 0.3% 1.0 0.0% 0.2 0.2% 0.0 0.0% 1.7 0.0%

West Africa 2,517,561 1.1% 715,049 1.0% 573.3 0.9% 254.3 3.2% 3.4 3.6% 15.3 6.7% 63.7 1.6%

Central Africa 2,403,161 1.1% 672,913 0.9% 480.3 0.8% 254.3 3.2% 3.4 3.6% 15.3 6.7% 63.7 1.6%

East Africa 4,706,287 2.1% 1,331,976 1.8% 3,413.4 5.4% 137.7 1.7% 2.2 2.3% 12.3 5.4% 37.7 0.9%

Southern Africa 4,481,502 2.0% 1,011,631 1.4% 3,348.8 5.3% 76.7 1.0% 0.9 0.9% 7.2 3.1% 11.0 0.3%

Northwest Europe 1,690,784 0.8% 887,473 1.2% 926.2 1.5% 402.7 5.1% 0.2 0.2% 0.2 0.1% 179.3 4.4%

Southwest Europe 4,081,897 1.9% 2,855,365 3.8% 2,317.3 3.7% 667.0 8.4% 0.9 1.0% 29.1 12.7% 216.7 5.4%

Northeast Europe 1,690,784 0.8% 887,473 1.2% 926.2 1.5% 402.7 5.1% 0.2 0.2% 0.2 0.1% 179.3 4.4%

Southeast Europe 4,230,784 1.9% 2,882,089 3.9% 2,585.1 4.1% 667.0 8.4% 0.9 1.0% 29.1 12.7% 216.7 5.4%

South and East Mediterranean 38,202,056 17.4%

21,541,584 28.8% 10,277.9 16.3% 1377.3 17.3% 21.2 22.4% 31.7 13.8% 657.7 16.3%

West Asia 41,284,897 18.8%19,631,77

4 26.3% 10,384.3 16.5% 803.7 10.1% 21.7 22.9% 7.9 3.5% 560.7 13.9%

Central Asia 38,135,583 17.4%18,270,50

3 24.4% 8,978.6 14.3% 687.3 8.6% 19.8 20.9% 2.6 1.1% 528.7 13.1%

South Asia 30,500,858 13.9% 1,132,309 1.5% 2,118.0 3.4% 539.0 6.8% 3.3 3.5% 2.7 1.2% 180.3 4.5%

East Asia 3,425,034 1.6% 366,636 0.5% 2,606.4 4.1% 226.7 2.8% 2.7 2.9% 3.8 1.6% 252.3 6.3%

Southeast Asia 29,870,111 13.6% 478,056 0.6% 1,867.2 3.0% 517.0 6.5% 2.5 2.6% 2.1 0.9% 172.0 4.3%

Tropical Pacific Region 76,067 0.0% 3,636 0.0% 74.4 0.1% 17.0 0.2% 0.1 0.1% 1.8 0.8% 7.0 0.2%

Not Specified 122,262 0.1% 22,042 0.0% 73.7 0.1% 180.7 2.3% 4.5 4.7% 7.7 3.4% 278.7 6.9%

Region code Region

N America North America

C AmericaCentral America

and Mexico

Car Caribbean

And Andes

Tr. S AmTropical South

America

Tp. S AmTemperate South

America

W Afr West Africa

C Afr Central Africa

E Afr East Africa

S Afr Southern Africa

IOIIndian Ocean

Islands

NW Eur Northwest Europe

SW Eur Southwest Europe

NE Eur Northeast Europe

SE Eur Southeast Europe

SE MedSouth and East Mediterranean

W Asia West Asia

C Asia Central Asia

S Asia South Asia

E Asia East Asia

SE Asia Southeast Asia

PacTropical Pacific

Region

Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand

A

C D

B

A

C

B