Introduction
Increasing population growth has resulted in the depletion of natural resources as they are being used for daily human consumption. Furthermore, food has become an essential focus during Covid 19 pandemic. People do not solely need food for survival, but good nutrition and well-balanced diet is necessary to support a robust immune system. However, as people need more food, more natural resources are used for food production. The associated increases in food demands would further strain nature and natural resources. Especially now in the pandemic nature, food security has facing new challenges beyond food production. Issues regarding distribution, access, and adequate nutrition are becoming crucial. Therefore, it is increasingly essential to meet the need for food and to maintain food security while preserving nature in sustainable ways.
One sustainable way is to encourage biodiversity. Biodiversity also plays an important role in food security and human nutrition by influencing food production, as it also ensures the sustainable productivity of soils and provides the genetic resources for all crops, livestock, and marine species harvested for food. Agrobiodiversity and agriculture within the food system is a resource that supports sustainable food production and also provides a wide and varied range of nutrient-rich food and dietary components with important health properties. Food production through conserving biodiversity to maintain food security is a challenge. As food production needs continue to increase, more land is converted to agriculture. This phenomenon stresses ecosystems dan limits land available for biodiversity preservation. There is a need to balance food production and biodiversity conservation.
The fundamental purpose of agriculture is not just to produce food and raw materials, but also to grow healthy, well-nourished people. One of the important tasks then is to provide food of sufficient quantity and quality to feed and nourish the world population sustainably that all people can lead healthy, and productive lives, more importantly in this Covid 19 pandemic era. With the increasing world population in the future, the link between agriculture, biodiversity, food security, and sustainability to support health and well-being need to be addressed. Therefore it is essential to conduct this international seminar on “SUSTAINABLE NATURAL RESOURCES AND FOOD PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT DURING COVID 19 PANDEMIC”.
It is expected that the seminar will contribute to the academician and policymakers to develop sustainable natural resources management for producing food, conserving biodiversity, enhancing food security, and supporting health and well-being.