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Crop diversity underpins the productivity, resilience and adaptive capacity of agriculture. Loss of this diversity, termed crop genetic erosion, is therefore concerning. While alarms regarding evident declines in crop diversity have been raised for over a century, the magnitude, trajectory, drivers and significance of these losses remain insufficiently understood. We outline the various definitions, measurements, scales and sources of information on crop genetic erosion. We then provide a synthesis of evidence regarding changes in the diversity of traditional crop landraces on farms, modern crop cultivars in agriculture, crop wild relatives in their natural habitats and crop genetic resources held in conservation repositories. This evidence indicates that marked losses, but also maintenance and increases in diversity, have occurred in all these contexts, the extent depending on species, taxonomic and geographic scale, and region, as well as analytical approach. We discuss steps needed to further advance knowledge around the agricultural and societal significance, as well as conservation implications, of crop genetic erosion. Finally, we propose actions to mitigate, stem and reverse further losses of crop diversity.

This article evaluates the agroecological and biocultural impact of Ullucus tuberosus cultivation in the Montúfar canton of Carchi province, Ecuador. Focusing on the \"Producampo\" Association, made up mostly of women, the research analyzes how they combine traditional and sustainable agricultural practices to ensure productive resilience and preserve biodiversity. Through qualitative methodologies such as interviews and participant observation, it was shown that 87.5% of farmers are women aged 39 to 75 who work more than 56 hours per week on their small plots, most of which are less than one hectare. Agroecological practices include the use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and natural methods for pest control. These actions not only minimize the use of chemical inputs but also strengthen sustainability and food security. Furthermore, bioculturalism plays a key role: farmers apply ancestral knowledge such as the lunar calendar and seed exchange, promoting social cohesion and adaptation to climate challenges. Despite limitations such as limited access to land, Ullucus tuberosus remains essential to the local economy and food supply. The study concludes by highlighting the need for public policies that support the integration of traditional knowledge with scientific innovations to strengthen agricultural sustainability and the empowerment of rural communities, especially women, within an inclusive development model. This article evaluates the agroecological and biocultural impact of Ullucus tuberosus cultivation in the Montúfar canton of Carchi province, Ecuador. Focusing on the \"Producampo\" Association, made up mostly of women, the research analyzes how they combine traditional and sustainable agricultural practices to ensure productive resilience and preserve biodiversity. Through qualitative methodologies such as interviews and participant observation, it was shown that 87.5% of farmers are women aged 39 to 75 who work more than 56 hours per week on their small plots, most of which are less than one hectare. Agroecological practices include the use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and natural methods for pest control. These actions not only minimize the use of chemical inputs but also strengthen sustainability and food security. Furthermore, bioculturalism plays a key role: farmers apply ancestral knowledge such as the lunar calendar and seed exchange, promoting social cohesion and adaptation to climate challenges. Despite limitations such as limited access to land, Ullucus tuberosus remains essential to the local economy and food supply. The study concludes by highlighting the need for public policies that support the integration of traditional knowledge with scientific innovations to strengthen agricultural sustainability and the empowerment of rural communities, especially women, within an inclusive development model.

Farmers and gardeners have long appreciated a wide variety of plants and have nurtured them for meals, medicine, and exchange. But diversity too often has been surrendered to monocultures of fields and spirits, predisposing much of modern agriculture to uniformity and, consequently, vulnerability. Today it is primarily at the individual level - such as growing and saving a strange old bean variety or a curious-looking gourd - that any lasting conservation actually takes place. Heirloom Seeds and Their Keepers offers a much-needed, scientifically researched perspective on the contribution of seedsaving that illustrates its critical significance to the preservation of both cultural knowledge and crop diversity around the world. It opens new conversations between anthropology and biology, and between researchers and practitioners, as it honors conservation as a way of life.

Agrobiodiversity-the variation within agricultural plants, animals, and practices-is often suggested as a way to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on crops [S. A. Wood et al., Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 531-539 (2015)]. Recently, increasing research and attention has focused on exploiting the intraspecific genetic variation within a crop [Hajjar et al., Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 123, 261-270 (2008)], despite few relevant tests of how this diversity modifies agricultural forecasts. Here, we quantify how intraspecific diversity, via cultivars, changes global projections of growing areas. We focus on a crop that spans diverse climates, has the necessary records, and is clearly impacted by climate change: winegrapes (predominantly Vitis vinifera subspecies vinifera). We draw on long-term French records to extrapolate globally for 11 cultivars (varieties) with high diversity in a key trait for climate change adaptation-phenology. We compared scenarios where growers shift to more climatically suitable cultivars as the climate warms or do not change cultivars. We find that cultivar diversity more than halved projected losses of current winegrowing areas under a 2 degrees C warming scenario, decreasing areas lost from 56 to 24%. These benefits are more muted at higher warming scenarios, reducing areas lost by a third at 4 degrees C (85% versus 58%). Our results support the potential of in situ shifting of cultivars to adapt agriculture to climate change-including in major winegrowing regions-as long as efforts to avoid higher warming scenarios are successful.