Talking of disasters… Drought, salinity, violence, higher paying jobs in construction, the Coalition Provisional Authority and its Order 81, a corrupt Australian; and before that Saddam Hussein and the embargo: Iraqi agriculture has had a lot to deal with over the years. ((Via.)) The genetic erosion must have been phenomenal. But there’s always ex situ, right? Well:
ICARDA scientists are uncertain … about the fate of Iraq’s research facilities, especially its genebank. Prior to the war, the Abu Ghraib national genebank contained some 1,400 accessions of different crops. According to Shideed, virtually all of the country’s agricultural research centers have been destroyed or severely damaged. Large quantities of genetic materials for crops and livestock animals are feared lost, he said.
We now know that the Iraqi genebank was in fact destroyed, but that copies of the material had previously been sent to ICARDA. I wish I could say that such ex situ collections of Iraqi material maintained around the world are adequate in the face of what’s been happening there. But SINGER gives 1147 accessions, 402 of which geo-referenced, and these are all from the north of the country.
And GRIN returns 1150 hits. I just don’t think that can possibly fully represent the diversity that was present in even the main staples 20-30 years ago, let along the vegetables and fruits.
Ok, it’s probably not all gone on farm. But who’s going to go out and collect it?