Editorial

Adverse weather events are increasingly being expressed with more frequency in many countries and, particularly, in Colombia in recent years. This tendency of extreme events is growing; it is estimated that July 2015 has been the month with the highest global temperature during the 1880-2015 period. These effects have been felt in Colombia, exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon, with a hydric deficit in most of the territory that has shown the country's fragility, once more, in the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, this effect has affected the availability of drinking water for a vast number of municipalities in diverse regions, not only coastline areas, but the Andean region as well. Conflicts among hillside communities, where the availability of the water resource is more deficient, are occurring in some departments of the country, with little response from local governments, precisely due to their scant flexibility to respond to cyclical events and which require of the valued liquid to satisfy rural and urban needs.

The agricultural sector is a large user of water at the global level. Water is not only used, but it is also contaminated, hindering its availability to benefit human consumption or animal production activities (livestock or fish farming). The question we must focus on is, then, how should we prepare in the agricultural sector for said events that are here to stay? How do we achieve sustainable development and how do we maximize the options nature offers, such as the vast genetic diversity to which we still have access, but —unfortunately— not for long if we do not act quickly?

Renewed interest on wild genetic resources indicates the great global concern for the sustainability of our food sources, and how, through genetic diversity, we will find the answer to current and future challenges. Although the alternative to the use of wild genetic resources is certainly an important tool, which we will have to learn to use, starting with their conservation (environmental degradation, expansive urban development, and poverty are big threats to natural resources), identification of genetic characteristics conferring adaptation to adverse conditions (biotic and abiotic), and their ulterior incorporation onto commercial species and varieties will take time, policies that facilitate the exchange of genetic resources at regional and international levels, and —obviously— resources (human and financial), along with the use of many biotechnological tools developed to date.

Associated to improving global agricultural resources, which use a limited genetic variety that can be increased by using wild parent strains, it is essential to rescue traditional crops, diversify local agriculture —as a strategy to increase the resilience of local food systems— and analyze conservation strategies and their production systems. Obviously, development of markets and products that represent incentives for their conservation and use is fundamental to achieve diversification of globalized agriculture, which increasingly promotes homogeneity based on a narrow genetic base and intensive production systems, although not necessarily sustainable. This tendency needs to be redirected for the sake of humanity's future food supply. Innovation is essential and requires application to promote new production alternatives, as well as the rescue and efficiency improvement of traditional production systems.

Alonso González Mejía
Director Revista
Corpoica Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria