April 2025
Glossary of Terms
A – F
Agrifood system: All the interconnected activities and actors involved in getting food from field to fork and encompassing everything from agricultural production and processing to distribution, consumption, and waste management. It also highlights the critical role of economic, social, and environmental factors in shaping how food reaches our plates. (FAO)
Agrobiodiversity (agricultural biodiversity): A subset of biodiversity. It encompasses the variety and variability of animals, plants, and microorganisms that are necessary for sustaining key functions of the agroecosystem, including its structure and processes for, and in support of, food production and food security. (FAO, 1999a)
Agroecology: Study of the relation of agricultural crops and environment. (FAO)
Agroforestry: The collective term for land-use systems and technologies in which woody perennials (e.g. trees, shrubs, palms, or bamboos) and agricultural crops or animals are used deliberately on the same parcel of land in some form of spatial and temporal arrangement. (FAO)
Aquatic Foods: All foods for human consumption grown in, or harvested from, water. They include foods from all types of algae and aquatic animals (fish, crustaceans, molluscs, and other aquatic animals, with the exception of aquatic mammals and reptiles). (FAO, 2024)
Biofortification: Increasing the nutritional value of crops by increasing the density of vitamins and minerals in them through plant breeding, agronomic practices, or biotechnology. Biofortification differs from conventional fortification in that biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during the processing of the crops. (WHO)
Circular Bioeconomy: A conceptual framework for using renewable natural capital to transform and manage our land, food, health, and industrial systems to achieve sustainable well-being in harmony with nature. (WEF)
Climate Adaptation: In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects. (IPCC, 2022)
Climate Mitigation: A human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases. A sink is any process, activity, or mechanism that removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol, or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. (IPCC, 2022)
Decision-Makers: All actors with meaningful influence on food systems (when used within the context of the CGIAR Flagship Report).
Diet Diversity: A measure of the variety of food from different food groups consumed over a reference period. The greater the dietary diversity, the lower the risk of it not providing the macro and micronutrients necessary for a healthy, active life. Dietary diversity scores at the household or individual level are used to measure the nutritional adequacy of a diet. (FAO)
Ecosystems: A community of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi, and various microbes) in conjunction with the non-living components of their environment (such as energy, air, water, and mineral soil), all interacting as a system. IPBES
Empowerment: Enabling human beings to reach their full potential, taking away barriers that prevent them from being all that they can be, and maximizing what they can be and do for their own benefit and for that of society. (UN Definition)
Food and Nutrition Security: Ensuring that all people at all times have sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. (FAO)
Food System: All the people, institutions, and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed, and brought to consumers. They also include the public officials, civil society organizations, researchers, and development practitioners who design the policies, regulations, programmes, and projects that shape food and agriculture. (FAO, 2013)
Foresight Analysis: The identification of opportunities, challenges, risks, and disruptions that may arise over the coming years to help inform decision-making.
G – Z
Genebank: A collection of seeds, plants, or animals maintained as a repository of genetic material, typically to preserve genetic diversity. (FAO)
Genetic Selection: The rate of increase in the average genetic value of a population for traits of interest (like yield, disease resistance, or drought tolerance) achieved through breeding programs over time.
Global Biodiversity Framework: The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) following a four-year consultation and negotiation process. It sets out an ambitious pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. Among the Framework’s key elements are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. (CBD)
Innovation: Any novel technology, practice, decisionsupport tool, or policy/institutional design necessitating research input for its development and/or promotion.
Just Transition: Ensuring that no one is left behind or pushed behind in the transition to low-carbon and environmentally sustainable economies and societies. (UN)
Low- and middle-income countries: Countries that are home to the majority of the world’s rural poor and central to CGIAR’s mission in addressing food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
Micronutrients: The vitamins and minerals needed by the body in very small amounts that are critical for a body’s health. (WHO)
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): These embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement requires each Party to prepare, communicate, and maintain successive nationally determined NDCs that it intends to achieve. (IPCC)
National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans (NBSAPs): National strategies, plans, or programs for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity which reflect the measures set out in the Convention on Biological Diversity relevant to the Contracting Party concerned. (CBD)
Nutrition-Sensitive Food Systems: Those that provide culturally appropriate, affordable, available, diverse, and safe diets that ensure nutrition, health, and food security.
Paris Agreement: A legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015, entering into force on 4 November 2016. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.” (UNFCCC)
Plant Genetic Resources: The raw materials indispensable for crop genetic improvement, whether by means of farmers’ selection, classical plant breeding, or modern biotechnologies and are essential in adapting to unpredictable environmental changes and future human needs. (FAO)
