Developing methodology for assessing the contribution of biodiversity to agriculture, food and nutritional security, and diversification of livelihoods

A national consultation workshop on “Developing methodology for assessing the contribution of biodiversity to agriculture, food and nutritional security, and diversification of livelihoods” was held on March 12 and 13, 2020 at Bengaluru, as part of the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being (NMBHWB). The workshop was organized by the biodiversity, agriculture, food and nutritional security component of the NMBHWB, based out of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) - Bengaluru and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru. The workshop broadly covered two stages of assessing the contributions of biodiversity - methods to assess biodiversity and econometric methods to estimate economic value of these contributions, including that of provision of livelihoods to people. This was supplemented with discussion on field implementation where technicalities of on-ground work were examined. About 30 participants from partnering research institutes working on agriculture and biodiversity across India including ICAR Bureau on plant, animal, fish, insect and microbe research, agricultural scientists, ecologists, economists and data scientists shared their expertise and suggestions on methodology. This multidisciplinary effort widened the scope of the workshop with different perspectives.