Directions: Read the following passage and answer the questions given below. 

Biodiversity for food and agriculture is among the earth’s most important resources. Crops, farm animals, aquatic organisms, forest trees, micro-organisms, and invertebrates – thousands of species and their genetic variability make up the web of biodiversity in ecosystems that the world’s food production depends on. Biodiversity is indispensable, be it insects pollinating plants, microscopic bacteria needed for making cheese, diverse breeds of livestock needed for making a living even in the harshest of environments, or the thousands of varieties of crops that sustain food security worldwide. For thousands of years, humankind has used, developed, and relied on biodiversity for food and agriculture. Biodiversity, and in particular genetic diversity, is being lost at an alarming rate. With the erosion of these resources, mankind loses the potential to adapt to new socio-economic and environmental conditions, such as population growth and climate change. Maintaining biodiversity for food and agriculture is a global responsibility. Risking biodiversity to man-made or other factors will always lead to an extremely large scale famine of sheer magnitude. The FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is an international forum that specifically deals with all components of biodiversity for sustaining food and agriculture. 

The importance of agricultural biodiversity encompasses socio-cultural, economic, and environmental elements.  All domesticated crops and animals result from the management of biodiversity, which is constantly responding to new challenges to maintain and increase productivity under constantly varying conditions and population pressures. Agricultural biodiversity is essential to satisfy basic human needs for food and livelihood security. Biodiversity, food, and nutrition interact on a number of key issues. It contributes directly to food security, nutrition, and well-being by providing a variety of plants and animals from domesticated and wild sources. Biodiversity can also serve as a safety-net to vulnerable households relying on it during times of crisis, provide income opportunities to the rural poor, and sustain productive agricultural ecosystems. Coping mechanisms based on indigenous plants are particularly important for the most vulnerable people who have little access to formal employment, land, or market opportunities. Wild indigenous plants provide alternate sources of food when harvests fail.