The journal Plant Genetic Resources is planning a special edition on Unlocking the Potential of National Genebanks: Tools, Strategies and Impact Metrics for sustainable Global Conservation. Katherine Baum of the Australian Grains Genebank is the Guest Editor, and the deadline is 31 October 2025. Sounds like fun.
The Kunming Manifesto surfaces
Readers with a long memory will remember that I promised I would keep an eye on the manifesto that was supposed to come out of the 3rd International Agrobiodiversity Congress, held back in May. Well, it has arrived, the 2025 Kunming Manifesto: Agrobiodiversity for People and Planet. Here’s a taster:
The agrobiodiversity conservation, use, and success stories are largely the domain of women, who are often the most marginalized in marginalized groups. In tandem with greater inclusion, unlocking agrobiodiversity’s potential to help solve the world’s greatest challenges requires transformative intervention by governments around the world. This includes repurposing agricultural subsidies, enacting policies to support the seed production and distribution systems and embedding agrobiodiversity in the global fora that work to mitigate climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, control desertification, and eliminate hunger.
There are “actionable recommendations” on each of the topics of the Congress…
- Agrobiodiversity for Economic Growth
- Agrobiodiversity for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
- Agrobiodiversity for Improved Environmental Health and Biodiversity
- Agrobiodiversity for Healthy Diets
- Agrobiodiversity for Gender and Social Inclusion
- Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Management Strategies
…followed by suggested “next steps” for farmers and practitioners, policy makers, scientists, and the private sector.
Anything on genebanks? Well, lots on community seed banks, that’s for sure. But also this:
Because community seed banks are vital platforms for action learning and seed system strengthening, incentives and rights-based policies should be implemented to reward the contributions of custodian farmers. Additionally, increased support is needed for local and national genebanks, enhanced documentation and conservation of wild PGRFA and landraces, and greater investment in participatory plant breeding. Stronger national policies that enable farmers to commercialize seeds of farmer varieties need to be in place.
I have to say that, given some the people involved, I would have expected at least a passing reference to international genebanks, but I guess this particular Congress wasn’t the right place for that.
Brainfood: Agroecology, Afghan wheat, CWR microbes, Chocolate microbes, Liberica coffee, Wild apples, USDA cotton collection, Parmesan cattle, Sweetpotato genome, Vertical tomatoes
- Embracing new practices in plant breeding for agroecological transition: A diversity-driven research agenda. Plant breeding for agroecology will need access to locally-adapted plant diversity, sure, but also the involvement of a diversity of stakeholders and the use of a diversity of co-design strategies.
- Conservation and Utilization of Wheat Genetic Resources in Afghanistan Expanded with the Homecoming Wheat Landraces Collected Half a Century Ago. The above could also be said of wheat breeding in Afghanistan. Fingers crossed.
- Blueprints for sustainable plant production through the utilization of crop wild relatives and their microbiomes. Oh, wait, breeders (agroecological and otherwise) will also need the diversity of microbiomes associated with crop wild relatives.
- A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation. Oh, wait, we will also need the diversity of the microbes involved in fermentation, at some point.
- Genomic data define species delimitation in Liberica coffee with implications for crop development and conservation. It might help if we knew how many species made up a crop in the first place. In the case of Liberica coffee, it turns out to be 3. No word on the microbiomes involved.
- Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of Malus sieversii and Malus niedzwetzkyana from Kazakhstan using high-throughput genotyping. It would also help to know where interesting diversity was concentrated within crop wild relatives. In apples, it’s not necessarily the ancestor.
- The National Plant Germplasm System cotton collection—a review of germplasm resources, phenotypic characterization, and genomic variation. Lots of morphological characterization and agronomic evaluation, not so much molecular data, but increasing. No word on the microbes.
- Establishing a genomic-driven conservation of a cattle genetic resource: the case of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese iconic breed. In contrast, these guys have genotyped practically a whole breed. But yeah, no microbes.
- Phased chromosome-level assembly provides insight into the genome architecture of hexaploid sweetpotato. The contributions of different wild relatives to the sweetpotato genome are to be found intertwined along chromosomes rather than restricted to subgenomes. Unclear what that will mean to agroecologial breeders.
- Harnessing Green Revolution genes to optimize tomato production efficiency for vertical farming. Agroecological breeders unavailable for comment.
Nibbles: USDA Pullman genebank, Another Indonesian genebank, Somali community seedbank, Garlic moves genebanks, Enset conservation, Opportunity crop genebanks
- A primer on the USDA genebank in Pullman.
- Possible genebank in Indonesia. I could have sworn there was one already.
- Community genebank in Somalia. Surely not the only one.
- Garlic moves between genebanks. I’m sure there’s a reason.
- New enset products and processing methods are great, but is there a comprehensive genebank? I wish I could be sure.
- That goes for other “opportunity crops” and “forgotten foods” too.
How to revive your landraces
How can you get humble heirloom varieties of the humble potato back into cultivation? Well, fortunately, Potato News Today 1 has a handy step-by-step guide, which I reproduce verbatim below:
- Start with a story you can legally sell. In Europe/UK, use the conservation-variety route; in North America, lean on certified seed suppliers and Indigenous stewardship agreements.
- Source clean, traceable stock. CIP and the U.S. Potato Genebank maintain indexed, disease-tested material; combine with reputable local seed houses.
- Pilot with chefs and specialty retail. Early-season launches with menu credit and a farm feature move the needle.
- Package the provenance. PDO/PGI examples like Jersey Royal and Papas Antiguas de Canarias show how origin, agronomy, and micro-harvest rituals create value.
- Engineer storage for shape and use. Follow the curing/holding guidance above.
- Ride the calendar. Tie launches and media to the International Day of Potato (30 May) or to local potato festivals.
Sounds pretty sensible, and applicable to other crops as well, I suspect, with a little tweak here and there.
The article also has a list of case studies. This doesn’t include any examples from Italy, but coincidentally a recent paper describes just such a thing. Which maybe points to something that is missing from the Potato News Today playbook, to whit having lots of interesting characterization and other data on your heirloom landraces handy to help get them ready for prime time.