Category: Genebanks

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India’s National Biodiversity Action Plan released

Yes, it’s out. India’s NBAP is online. Unfortunately, the pdf cannot be searched, for some reason, but a quick skim reveals that it does include significant consideration of agricultural biodiversity issues. For example, there’s a discussion of the role of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in ex situ conservation of crop genetic resources.

nbpgr

Here’s the money quote, on page 52:

Traditional Indian farming systems are characterized by remarkable diversity owing largely to wide spectrum of agro-climatic situations and indigenous cultivars and native breeds adapted to specific local conditions. Notable efforts to collect crop diversity and documenting of livestock breeds notwithstanding, there is a need for on-farm conservation providing appropriate incentives. Ex situ conservation is expected to provide a strong backup to the efforts to facilitate access and meet unforeseen natural calamities. While there is an increasing coherence of policies and programmes on in situ, on farm and ex situ conservation, there is need to further strengthen these efforts.

The recommendations follow on pages 59-60. With regard to on-farm conservation, they are:

  • Identify hotspots of agro-biodiversity under different agro-ecozones and cropping systems and promote on-farm conservation.
  • Provide economically feasible and socially acceptable incentives such as value addition and direct market access in the face of replacement by other economically remunerative cultivars.
  • Develop appropriate models for on-farm conservation of livestock herds maintained by different institutions and local communities.
  • Develop mutually supportive linkages between in situ, on-farm and ex situ conservation programmes.

And, on ex situ conservation:

  • Promote ex situ conservation of rare, endangered, endemic and insufficiently known floristic and faunal components of natural habitats, through appropriate institutionalization and human resource capacity building. For example, pay immediate attention to conservation and multiplication of rare, endangered and endemic tree species through institutions such as Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding.
  • Focus on conservation of genetic diversity (in situ, ex situ, in vitro) of
    cultivated plants, domesticated animals and their wild relatives to support breeding programmes.
  • Strengthen national ex situ conservation system for crop and livestock diversity, including poultry, linking national gene banks, clonal repositories and field collections maintained by different research centres and universities.
  • Develop cost effective and situation specific technologies for medium and long term storage of seed samples collected by different institutions and organizations.
  • Undertake DNA profiling for assessment of genetic diversity in rare, endangered and endemic species to assist in developing their conservation programmes.
  • Develop a unified national database covering all ex situ conservation sites.
  • Consolidate, augment and strengthen the network of zoos, aquaria, etc., for ex situ conservation.
  • Develop networking of botanic gardens and consider establishing a ‘Central Authority for Botanic Gardens’ to secure their better management on the lines of Central Zoo Authority.
  • Provide for training of personnel and mobilize financial resources to strengthen captive breeding projects for endangered species of wild animals.
  • Strengthen basic research on reproduction biology of rare, endangered and endemic species to support reintroduction programmes.
  • Encourage cultivation of plants of economic value presently gathered from their natural populations to prevent their decline.
  • Promote inter-sectoral linkages and synergies to develop and realize full economic potential of ex situ conserved materials in crop and livestock improvement programmes.

Lots of sensible stuff, and it’s good to see agrobiodiversity in there at all. I was particularly interested in the recommendation to establish a national database bringing together all genebanks. Let’s see what happens, maybe it’s a small step out of genebank database hell. No mention of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, though.

LATER: Yes, indeed, the ITPGRFA is mentioned on p. 90. Thanks, Eliseu. Sorry about that. Still trying to work out why I can’t search the pdf… Ah, can’t search online, but can if I download it first.

LATER STILL: Forgot to mention that there are also a number of references to crop wild relatives, check out Table 4, for example.

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Nibbles: Rituals, Pig, Diseases, Beer, Hog, Fair

  • The Green Revolution has messed with rice rituals in Bengal.
  • National Pig Day is coming up. Bacon for breakfast at last!
  • The Star Trek tricorder finally arrives, though only for plant diseases so far.
  • Organic beer can be good. You had me at beer.
  • Speakin’ of bacon, make mine endangered.
  • Biodiversity Fair held in Bhutan “to recognise the farmers’ contribution …; create awareness … and encourage farmers …; promote in situ conservation and … ex situ (gene bank) conservation; and provide … opportunities to exchange seeds.”
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Nibbles: Indigenous knowledge, Buffalo, Wheat rust, Cassava, New Green Revolution, Environmentalism, Millennium Seedbank, USDA, Pig

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Assisting crop wild relatives

You may remember my recent nibble on assisted migration. I also sent the link to the CropWildRelatives discussion group, which elicited this response from Nigel Maxted at the University of Birmingham:

This is indeed an interesting question. My first reaction was that it was a purely academic exercise that will do little to benefit overall biodiversity and probably could not be applied for a wide range of species even if this were economically and practically feasible. It might even do harm because government might use research like this to play down the impact of climate change and avoid the necessity of taking harsh economic decisions. This may well be the case, but for the key 500-700 globally important CWR I do think this is the sort of research we should enacting now. These critical 500-700 species will be so vital to future food security, not least to combating climate change itself, that we need to ensure that they are allowed to continue evolving in situ in the changing environment and make doubly sure we have these species’ genetic diversity adequately conserved ex situ. The research need not focus on the entire 500-700 CWR but could be passed through a modeled climate change impact filter first to identify those species most likely to be impacted in the short term and most likely to be successful in transposition. Perhaps as a community the time is right to systematically address this issue.

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Rooting for the tubers

The Root Crops Agrobiodiversity Project in Vanuatu is inventorying varieties in various villages around the archipelago, and coming up with some astonishing results. ((Although an old Pacific hand of my acquaintance disputes the inclusion of the Solomon Islands in this statement from the press release: “In other Pacific archipelagos, such as New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, the introduction by the Europeans of new root and tuber species, combined with the arrival of a market economy, has totally disrupted the existing systems.”)) But, crucially, the work will not stop there. One of the objectives of the project is “to identify new varieties aiming at broadening the existing genetic bases and to propose them to producers and users, taking into account their needs and preferences.” So it’s more than the usual 3Cs — collect-characterize-conserve. There’s also creation, and dissemination, of new diversity, via seed production. That’s not that easy to do with taros and yams, but then, neither is conservation in conventional field and in vitro genebanks. It’s a very sensible idea to get the diversity increasing and moving around, rather than locking it up on research stations.