Agrobiodiversity index
Calculation
The ABDI uses 22 indicators, each with one or more associated sub-indicators, to assess the status of, and actions or commitments to enhance, agrobiodiversity’s contribution to sustainability outcomes across three pillars of the food system: consumption and markets, contributing to healthy diets (pillar 1); production systems, contributing to agricultural sustainability (pillar 2); and genetic resource conservation, contributing to safeguarding future use options (pillar 3). The indicators are aggregated to provide composite status, action, and commitment scores in consumption, production, and conservation. All scores generated from the ABDI are on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing the lowest (least desirable) and 100 the highest (most desirable) score. For the full methodology we refer to https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00344-3
Definition
The Agrobiodiversity Index (ABDI) includes a minimal set of 22 indicators designed to capture the most important dimensions of agrobiodiversity contributing to the SDGs. The ABDI is an aggregated index, scaled from 0 to 100, with the higher the score, the more the potential of agrobiodiversity to contribute to the SDGs is leveraged.
Relevance
The ABDI takes a food systems approach to collating agrobiodiversity data aimed at enabling policymakers, non-governmental organizations, civil society leaders and businesses to understand relationships between dimensions of agrobiodiversity across the food system, compare agrobiodiversity use and conservation across countries, and identify priority interventions to enhance agrobiodiversity for more sustainable food systems. The value of the ABDI is that it highlights where a lack of agrobiodiversity might make it more challenging for countries to achieve healthy diets, environmental sustainability in production, and food systems that are resilient to climate change and other stressors. Conversely, it shows where focusing efforts to enhance agrobiodiversity can facilitate achieving these outcomes.
Treatment of Missing Values
Countries for which no consistent data is available for 17 of the 22 ABDI indicators are currently not included