Category: Wild relatives

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Hi-tech helps crop wild relatives

Mr Peanut.png Our friend Andy Jarvis has been explaining to the readers of ICT Update not only how important crop wild relatives are, but also how geographic information systems can help conserve and make use of these important genetic resources. In the context of a longer article on Eco-efficient agriculture, Andy uses the peanut to point out that:

There are, for example, a total of 69 species of crop wild relatives that are in some way related to the cultivated peanut. Of these, 17 species are under significant threat of extinction from the expansion of the agriculture in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. Our analyses have demonstrated that a further 15 species are significantly threatened with extinction from climate change.

Jarvis and his team at CIAT use GIS and data from existing specimens to predict where important species might be found.

Collectors can then use global positioning systems (GPS), loaded with the data, to locate the vulnerable species and collect their seed.

Will that be enough to preserve the crop wild relatives on which the future of agriculture depends? Who knows. But it is a start.

P.S. In the same issue, Kwesi Atta-Krah, Deputy Direcctor General of Bioversity International, answers some questions about biodiversity, “the richest natural resource“.

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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.

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CWR at Kew celebrations

Nigel Maxted has just sent a brief personal take on the recent Kew 250th anniversary celebrations to the Crop Wild Relatives discussion group. Here’s a snippet:

Personally I felt the audience was very receptive to the use and need for CWR conservation, but in my view far too many talks outside of the Plant conservation and agriculture session still failed to make the link between conservation and use. I would judge the gulf between the biodiversity and PGR sectors is still a problem that we need to address if we are to have ‘joined-up’ conservation of all biodiversity.

You can download Nigel’s presentation, “A global approach to crop wild relative conservation: Securing our food and agriculture gene pool.” But watch out, it’s a big PowerPoint file.