Title
Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: A Synopsis of Coordinated National Crop Wild Relative Seed Collecting Programs across Five Continents
Date Issued
01 July 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Eastwood R.J.
Tambam B.B.
Aboagye L.M.
Akparov Z.I.
Aladele S.E.
Allen R.
Amri A.
Anglin N.L.
Araya R.
Arrieta-Espinoza G.
Asgerov A.
Awang K.
Awas T.
Barata A.M.
Boateng S.K.
Magos Brehm J.
Breidy J.
Breman E.
Brenes Angulo A.
Burle M.L.
Castañeda-Álvarez N.P.
Casimiro P.
Chaves N.F.
Clemente A.S.
Cockel C.P.
Davey A.
De la Rosa L.
Debouck D.G.
Dempewolf H.
Dokmak H.
ELLIS, DAVID
Faruk A.
Freitas C.
Galstyan S.
García R.M.
Ghimire K.H.
Guarino L.
Harker R.
Hope R.
Humphries A.W.
Jamora N.
Jatoi S.A.
Khutsishvili M.
Kikodze D.
Kyratzis A.C.
León-Lobos P.
Liu U.
Mainali R.P.
Mammadov A.T.
MANRIQUE CARPINTERO, NORMA C.
Manzella D.
Mat Ali M.S.
Medeiros M.B.
Guzmán M.A.M.
Mikatadze-Pantsulaia T.
Mohamed E.T.I.
Monteros-Altamirano Á.
Morales A.
Müller J.V.
Mulumba J.W.
Nersesyan A.
Nóbrega H.
Nyamongo D.O.
Obreza M.
Okere A.U.
Orsenigo S.
Ortega-Klose F.
Papikyan A.
Pearce T.R.
Pinheiro de Carvalho M.A.A.
Prohens J.
Rossi G.
Singh Shrestha D.
Siddiqui S.U.
Smith P.P.
Tacán M.
Tapia C.
Toledo Á.
Toll J.
Vu D.T.
Vu T.D.
Way M.J.
Yazbek M.
Kilian B.
Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture
Publisher(s)
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
Abstract
The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity, quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and 2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global significance for agriculture. Here, we describe the implementation of the 25 national collecting programs and present the key results. A total of 4587 unique seed samples from at least 355 CWR taxa were collected, conserved ex situ, safety duplicated in national and international genebanks, and made available through the Multilateral System (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). Collections of CWR were made for all 28 targeted crops. Potato and eggplant were the most collected genepools, although the greatest number of primary genepool collections were made for rice. Overall, alfalfa, Bambara groundnut, grass pea and wheat were the genepools for which targets were best achieved. Several of the newly collected samples have already been used in pre-breeding programs to adapt crops to future challenges.
Start page
1
End page
18
Volume
11
Issue
14
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de las plantas, Botánica
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85136254347
Source
Plants
ISSN of the container
2223-7747
Sponsor(s)
This work was undertaken as part of the initiative “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives”, which is supported by the Government of Norway. Grant number from the Norwegian Government: *QZA-14/0005* for funding the initiative “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives”. The project was managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK and implemented in partnership with national and international genebanks and plant breeding institutes around the world. For further information, please go to the project website: http://www.cwrdiversity.org/ (accessed on 1 June 2022).
A major legacy of the CWR Project will be increased national capacity, knowledge, and passion for CWR collection. The sustainability of the initiative depends on the integration of CWR conservation and use into national priorities, and the availability of national funding for further collecting and maintaining collections. There is evidence of this happening. In Pakistan and El Salvador, CWR collecting work has continued beyond the CWR Project. In Nepal, the collection of CWR has become an additional government-funded activity for the genebank. The University of Costa Rica has funded additional rescue collecting. New initiatives include a collaboration between The Plant Genetic Resources Programme in Pakistan and the National Herbarium to include CWR species, and the development of a banana field genebank by the National Agricultural Research Centre in Nepal. The pre-breeding project [] funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. and the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) Project [] funded by the Norwegian government build on the CWR Project and plan to extend CWR pre-breeding and evaluation.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus