Average Rate of Return Average rate of return takes the whole expenditure as given and calculates the rate of returnto the global set of expenditures. It indicates whetheror not the entire investment package was successful, butit does not indicate whether the allocation of resourcesbetween investment components was optimal.
Biodiversity The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; including diversity within species and gene diversity among species, between species and of ecosystems.
Bioelectricity Electricity derived from the combustion of biomass, either directly or co-fired with fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Higher levels of conversion efficiency can be attained when biomass is gasified before combustion.
Bioenergy (biomass energy) Bioenergy is comprised of bioelectricity, bioheat and biofuels. Such energy carriers can
be produced from energy crops (e.g., sugar cane, maize, oil palm), natural vegetation (e.g., woods, grasses) and organic wastes and residues (e.g., from forestry and agriculture). Bioenergy refers also to the direct combustion of biomass, mostly for heating and cooking purposes.
Biofuel Liquid fuels derived from biomass and predominantly used in transportation. The dominant biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel. Ethanol is produced by fermenting starch contained in plants such as sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, cassava, sweet sorghum or beetroot. Biodiesel is typically produced through a chemical process called trans-esterification, whereby oily biomass such as rapeseed, soybeans, palm oil, jatropha seeds, waste cooking oils or vegetable oils is combined with methanol to form methyl esters (sometimes called “fatty acid methyl ester” or FAME).
Bioheat Heat produced from the combustion of biomass, mostly as industrial process heat and heating for buildings. Biological Control The use of living organisms as control agents for pests, (arthropods, nematodes mammals, weeds and pathogens) in agriiculture. There are three types of biological control:
Conservation biocontrol: The protection and encouragement
of local natural enemy populations by crop and habitat management measures that enhance their survival, efficiency and growth.
Augmentative biocontrol: The release of natural enemies into crops to suppress specific populations of pests over one or a few generations, often involving the mass production and regular release of natural enemies.
Classical biocontrol: The local introduction of new species of natural enemies with the intention that they establish and build populations that suppress particular pests, often introduced alien pests to which they are specific.
Biological Resources Include genetic resources, organisms or parts thereof, populations, or any other biotic component of ecosystems with actual or potential use or value for humanity.
Biotechnology The IAASTD definition of biotechnology is based on that in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. It is a broad

term embracing the manipulation of living organisms and spans the large range of activities from conventionaltechniques for fermentation and plant and animal breedingto recent innovations in tissue culture, irradiation,genomics and marker-assisted breeding (MAB) or markerassisted selection (MAS) \ to augment natural breeding.Some of the latest biotechnologies, called “modern biotechnology”, include the use of in vitro modified DNA or RNA and the fusion of cells from different taxonomicfamilies, techniques that overcome natural physiological reproductive or recombination barriers.
Biosafety Referring to the avoidance of risk to human health and safety, and to the conservation of the environment, as a result of the use for research and commerce of infectious or genetically modified organisms.
Blue Water The water in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds and aquifers. Dryland production only uses green water, while irrigated production uses blue water in addition to green water.
BLCAs Brookered Long-term Contractual Arrangements (BLCAs) are institutional arrangements often involving a farmer cooperative, or a private commercial, parastatal or a state trading enterprise and a package (inputs, services, credit, knowledge) that allows small-scale farmers to engage in the production of a marketable commodity, such as cocoa or other product that farmers cannot easily sell elsewhere.
Catchment An area that collects and drains rainwater.
Capacity Development Any action or process which assists individuals, groups, organizations and communities in strengthening or developing their resources.
Capture Fisheries The sum (or range) of all activities to harvest a given fish resource from the “wild”. It may refer to the location (e.g., Morocco, Gearges Bank), the target resource (e.g., hake), the technology used (e.g., trawl or beach seine), the social characteristics (e.g., artisanal, industrial), the purpose (e.g., (commercial, subsistence, or recreational) as well as the season (e.g., winter).
Carbon Sequestration The process that removes carbondioxide from the atmosphere.
Cellulosic Ethanol Next generation biofuel that allows converting not only glucose but also cellulose and hemi-cellulose— the main building blocks of most biomass—into ethanol, usually using acid-based catalysis or enzymebased reactions to break down plant fibers into sugar, which is then fermented into ethanol.
Climate Change Refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcing, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.
Clone A group of genetically identical cells or individuals that are all derived from one selected individual by vegetative propagation or by asexual reproduction, breeding of completely inbred organisms, or forming genetically identical organisms by nuclear transplantation.
Commercialization The process of increasing the share of income that is earned in cash (e.g., wage income, surplus production for marketing) and reducing the share that is