Editorial: Indigenous and local knowledge as a catalyst for sustainable agriculture and food security

Global agriculture stands at a critical juncture. The twin pressures of ensuring food and nutrition security for a growing population-projected to reach nearly 9.7 billion by 2050 (UNDESA, 2024)-while addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation is reshaping food system discourse. Despite advances, over 800 million people continue to experience extreme hunger, underscoring the urgency of systemic transformation.Agriculture occupies nearly 40% of Earth's terrestrial surface (Ritchie and Roser, 2019), with 5 million hectares of land cleared annually between 2000 and 2020, largely driven by agricultural expansion at cost of declining forests, grasslands, and savannas particularly in topics (Ritchie, 2021). At the same time, food systems contribute 26-34% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Crippa et al., 2021;Ritchie et al., 2022) and impose an economic burden of USD 10-12 trillion annually due to diet-related health costs and inefficiencies (FAO, 2023). These figures highlight the interconnected food-climate-health nexus and the deep structural imbalances across this nexus and economic systems.Modern agricultural development has largely prioritized technological intensification and monoculture production systems. While these have increased yields, they have also simplified agroecosystems, degraded soils, and contributed to biodiversity loss and dietary homogenization. For instance, from approximately 6,000 plant species historically used for food, current century lost nearly 75% of plant genetic diversity in comparison over the past century, while nine crops account for 66% of global production, with rice, wheat, and maize supplying over half of plant-derived calories (Elouafi, 2024;Ritchie, 2024;Saladino, 2021). These challenges call for a shift toward pluralistic knowledge systems that integrate scientific and Indigenous approaches. Rather than viewing them as dichotomous, scholarship increasingly emphasizes their complementarity and co-production (Agrawal 1995;Lam et al., 2020). Integrated landscape and seascape approach in eastern coastal Taiwan further demonstrate how biodiversity conservation, food production, and community livelihoods can be aligned through participatory planning and frameworks and knowledge co-production (Karim and Lee, 2025).This editorial synthesizes 27 contributions from diverse geographies, highlighting three key insights: (i) ILK enhances resilience through diversification and ecological adaptation; (ii) ILK is deeply embedded within socio-cultural and institutional contexts shaping how communities respond to environmental and economic changes; and (iii) ILK integration with scientific knowledge offers promising pathways for sustainable, just, and inclusive food system transformation as illustrated in Figure 1. Such integration is critical to tackling interconnected, cascading challenges across food, biodiversity, climate, soil, water, and health systems, while accelerating progress toward global goals and targets for 2030 and beyond (IPBES, 2024).Across regions, IPLCs continue to adapt agricultural practices in response to environmental and socio-economic changes. These adaptations combine traditional ecological knowledge with emerging opportunities for innovation, strengthening livelihood resilience and food security. Although ILK is increasingly recognized as a legitimate knowledge system, its effective integration depends on participatory governance, knowledge co-production, and inclusive decision-making among communities, researchers, and policymakers as demonstrated through landscape level initiative (Karim and Lee, 2025 Evidence across contexts and diverse agricultural landscapes demonstrates that IPLCs and their ILK systems is central to building resilient, sustainable, and equitable food systems. These knowledge systems reflect long-standing relationships between communities and ecosystems, supporting practices such as seed conservation, water management, and livestock integration.At a global scale, ILK is critical for addressing interconnected challenges including food insecurity, biodiversity loss, climate change, and human health. Its dynamic and adaptive nature-evolving through intergenerational learning and experimentation-enhances its relevance for future food system innovation (Teixidor-Toneu et al., 2023).Safeguarding ILK requires more than documentation; it demands recognition of Indigenous rights, cultures, and governance systems, in alignment with frameworks such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including adherence to the principle of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) (Mitchell et al., 2019). Strengthening collaboration among communities, researchers, and policymakers is essential for enabling inclusive and context-specific innovation. Integration should move beyond simplistic dichotomies and instead promote co-produced knowledge systems that enhance decision-making across scales.Insights from tropical and subtropical case studies in this issue highlight ILK's role in inclusive agricultural transitions, with further research from the Global North needed to strengthen comparative understanding.As current food systems continue to generate environmental and economic costs while failing to ensure equitable nutrition, transformative change is imperative. Reframing agricultural innovation systems to incorporate ILK involves strengthening land rights, supporting participatory research, and embedding ILK within policy frameworks.Equally important is adopting rights-based and participatory approaches that position IPLCs as active agents in decision-making processes (Gunn, 2021). Efforts to document, share and support ILK must balance preservation with lived practice and approaches, ensuring that knowledge transmission remains rooted in relationships with ecosystems while enabling broader learning and collaboration (Benyei et 2020).Ultimately, sustainable food system transformation will depend not only on technological advancement but on the meaningful integration of diverse knowledge systems. Re-centering ILK offers a pathway to reconnect food, biodiversity, climate, soil, water, and health systems, enabling more resilient, inclusive, just, and sustainable futures.