Oh gosh, is that the Thirteenth Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture coming over the horizon? Yep, sure looks like it. Only a couple of weeks away. Check out the various Background Study Papers on climate change. Lots of stuff on animal genetic resources. And, among the Working Documents, the Draft Revised Genebank Standards for the Conservation of Orthodox Seeds. Something for everyone indeed.
Saving rice varieties in India
In view of the failure of all ex situ rice seed banks to protect the erosion of rice genetic diversity, CIS [Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies] established Vrihi (Sanskrit name of “rice”), the first non-governmental rice seed bank for farmers, in 1997. Coordinated by its founder Debal Deb, Vrihi Beej Binimoy Kendra is the largest non-governmental rice seed exchange centre in eastern India, established not only to promote cultivation of folk rice varieties, but also re-establish the vanishing culture of seed exchange.
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CIS gratefully acknowledges the funding support it received from RFSTE for Vrihi’s activities till March 2000. Since then, Vrihi has been running on its founder’s personal funding support and donations from friends, especially Dr. Paoloroberto Imperiali of Rome. His donation was instrumental in establishing a research farm, Basudha, where regular, in situ cultivation of all folk rice varieties began in 2001.
Very worthy, but unfortunately not all seems to be well. Vrihi Beej Binimoy Kendra moved this May, from Beliatore to Panchal. And now the farm operation has moved too, from Basudha to Kerandiguda in Odisha.
In 2010 we were able to save all the 686 varieties on Bhairab Saini’s farm, some 5 km away from Basudha. Bhairab sacrificed his farm plot for Basudha’s conservation work for the year, but we cannot take advantage of his generosity every year; besides, we must find a sustainable solution to conserve the nation’s wealth of vanishing rice varieties in situ… We have transferred all the rice seeds from Basudha’s accession to this new farm in Kerandiguda, and started sowing the seeds from the 16th June 2011, with the help of local villagers, and Living Farms, a local NGO. The sowing was finished on the 21st June.
Good luck to them, of course. But I can’t help thinking that “a sustainable solution to conserve the nation’s wealth of vanishing rice varieties” should include placing these 686 varieties in the genebanks at NBPGR and IRRI, pace the “failure of all ex situ rice seed banks to protect the erosion of rice genetic diversity.”And not necessarily growing all of them out every year at CIS’s farm, given some basic seed storage technology. But I don’t know enough about the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies and it’s seed saving operation. Maybe our Indian readers can tell us more.
US national programme gets it together
The Plant Germplasm Operations Committee gets together every year to help the National Plant Germplasm System of the USA operate. It has just had its 2011 meeting in Beltsville, MD, with representatives from the national genebanks of Brazil, Mexico and Canada in attendance, and the presentations are online. They provide an interesting glimpse into the workings of a national system which in many ways serves the whole world.
Plant breeding considered sexy at long last
Plant breeding is one of science’s 10 hottest fields!
With the population set to pass 7 billion this year and rising to 9 billion in mid-century, the world faces a formidable challenge. If everyone is to be fed without appalling environmental consequences, the yield of staple crops must increase enormously. Some plant scientists are still licking their wounds from the onslaught against genetically modified crops. But there is an intensified effort, among public-sector laboratories and industry companies, to breed better plants for farmers. This involves both direct genetic modification to make plants more resistant to stress and disease and the use of genomic information to accelerate improvement through conventional breeding.
Malaysia funds underutilized crops research centre
The Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) is expected to receive a funding of nearly RM113 million (US$40 million) over seven years from the government to carry out research on a whole range of under-utilised crops.
Wow. Well done Crops for the Future. And well done Malaysia.