Genebanks

November 18, 2009

Ghaddafi pits genebanks against “satanic” multinationals

Muammar El-Gheddafi’s reference to genebanks at the Hunger Summit on Monday may not be entirely what we thought. His speech is on the FAO webcast website, starting at about the 20 minute mark. I asked an Arabic simultaneous translator friend of mine ¹ to parse the relevant passage and this is what he had to say:

He is talking about the need to break the monopoly on seeds by “satanic multinational companies.” He urges the FAO to encourage the creation of regional and natnioal banks for “enhanced” or “improved” seeds, but not the genetically modified seeds, which he is against. So, he is definitely talking about genebanks, not grain stores.

But not your usual sort of genebank, clearly.

November 18, 2009

Nibbles: Climate, Money, Wine, Rice, Photosynthesis, Diversity

Our friends at the Global Crop Diversity Trust have been busy:
- “Experts: Failure to focus on farming will undermine global climate agreement and increase hunger.” Er … what agreement?
- Oh, and we need more money, please.
Tomorrow, US Congress briefed on soil microbiology and Vitis fermentation products, aka terroir.
IRRI Boss wants to sequence all 109,000 rice accessions in genebank. Jeremy asks: “Then what?”
Seeking C4 rice — and C3 sorghum. Good luck with that.
Women grow food basket. In India.

November 17, 2009November 18, 2009

World Food Summit calls for crop diversity conservation

The World Food Summit adopted a resolution yesterday. Some immediately called it “toothless,” but it does contain this welcome call for the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity.

Any recipe for confronting the challenges of climate change must allow for mitigation options and a firm commitment to the adaptation of agriculture, including through conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture.

I wonder to what extent the delegates were swayed by Libya’s Muammar El-Gheddafi and his call on “FAO to set up improved seed banks to address food security.”

November 16, 2009November 16, 2009

Collecting germplasm for ecosystem restoration

Collecting all the native species in the United States, as well as developing restoration techniques and growing huge amounts of seed will take about 10 years and cost about $500 million, Dr. Havens said — a cost that she argues is well worth it.

That will include a nice batch of crop wild relatives… Incidentally, that $500 million is about twice the value of the endowment that is sometimes mentioned as being necessary to ensure long-term ex situ conservation of crop diversity.

November 16, 2009

Agrobiodiversity features in 2009 Development Marketplace awards

Our friend Ehsan Dulloo of Bioversity International is the frontman for a project that has just been selected as one of the winners of this year’s Development Marketplace awards.

A DM grant will enable Biodiversity International to protect the livelihoods of some 200 vulnerable women farmers, by providing access to seeds for locally-adapted varieties of crops. The project draws from gene banks, indigenous knowledge and farmer know-how, as well as traditional ways of adapting to climate variability.

There are several other agrobiodiversity projects among the winners. For example, “Peru’s Associación ANDES will support plant-breeding to increase diversity and production of nutritious potatoes and other tubers, improving health, incomes and quality of life for the community’s people.” And in the Philippines the “Trowel Development Foundation will replant mangroves and set up a value-chain system to fatten and market tie-crabs.” Well worth exploring the whole list. Congratulations to all.