Conflicts 'threaten world's food supply'
Millions of lives could be at risk because of the threat to food crops posed by conflict in the Middle East, scientists have warned.
Many of the most valuable wild relatives of crops vital to global food security grow in the Fertile Crescent - a region that encompasses Iraq, Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
Their loss would have a massive impact on the ability of the world to feed itself in the future, experts say.
Yet a large proportion of these "crop wild relatives" (CWRs) are either threatened with extinction or suffering a reduction in their genetic diversity.
Dr Nigel Maxted of the University of Birmingham says that by 2050 the global population is expected to grow from 7.26 billion to 9.6 billion.
"If we're trying to feed that ever-increasing human population, we can categorically say that several million people would die as a result of these species not being present," he said.
"If we don't have access to the resistance in the wild species then we can't cross them with the crop, and our crops will produce less yield. More people, more starvation."
His team has produced a comprehensive inventory of CWRs that shows that, globally, 12 per cent of CWRs are threatened with extinction and all are likely to be suffering a loss of genetic diversity due to habitat loss, conflict, intensive agriculture, urban development, and environmental mismanagement.
The two sites with the richest concentration of CWRs anywhere in the world lay within the borders of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.
"Wheat is not a native UK species, it was brought from the Fertile Crescent centuries ago.
"If we're trying to get food security in Europe, the issue is not conserving species that are currently found in Europe, but conserving species that are found in the Fertile Crescent, which is where the crops that we consume every day generally come from."
Dr Maxted presented his findings at the start of this year's British Science Festival, taking place at the University of Birmingham.
Experts from the university are involved in an initiative by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation to help conserve the plants in the countries where they are found.
