"Yet, the African food systems are very rich in diversity of traditional cereals, legumes, vegetables, indigenous fruits and animal-source foods, which are still well conserved in rural commun ities," said Baidu-Forson.

"The neglect of our rich diversity of indigenous and traditional food systems have contributed to food insecurity in Africa," he added.

The regional director also told Xinhua reporters that Africa, and the world at large, has not put adequate emphasis and investment in the research for developing the productivity or fully utilizing the traditional food sources.

"The un derstanding of its value and the development of agricultural biodiversity mean a lot to the food security, humanity, and even our survival," Joseph said.

Awareness and participation needed

The UN General Assembly has declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. This provides an un precedented opportun ity to raise awareness of the role that agriculture biodiversity plays in the lives of people and to create a better popular un derstanding of the value of agricultural biodiversity resources for human well being.

"The goal of the initiative is to promote and support efforts to ensure that agricultural biodiversity meets its potential to contribute to human development, and to create a drumbeat of messages targeting at agents of change and end users of agricultural biodiversity aroun d the world," said William Ruto, Kenyan agriculture minister, who officially laun ched the Campaign on Diversity for Life in Kenya on IBD.

The campaign is expected to change attitudes and increase appreciation by schoolchildren and their commun ities, the media, and policymakers of the value of agrobiodiversity for health and nutrition, he added.

Baidu-Forson said, "We also hope that policymakers would integrate conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity into national plans to ensure that such diversity is able to play its part in attaining the Millennium Development Goals on poverty and hun ger."