ABSTRACT
Biodiversity refers to all species of plants, animals, and microorganisms existing and interacting within an ecosystem (McNeely et al., 1990). Global threats to biodiversity should not be foreign to agriculturalists, since agriculture, which covers about 25 to 30 percent of world land area, is perhaps one of the main activities affecting biological diversity. It is estimated that the global extent of cropland increased from around 265 million hectares (ha) in 1700 to around 1.5 billion hectares today, predominantly at the expense of forest habitats (Thrupp, 1997). Very limited areas remain totally unaffected by agriculture-induced land-use changes.
