Press Releases
Winnowing out wheat genes of interest
Rome, Italy
For immediate release
One way to increase the chances of finding a needle in a haystack is to start with a smaller haystack. Michael Mackay, a scientist at Bioversity International, and a group of colleagues recently published a technique for doing just that for the very important needles that are genetic resources. The approach could make plant breeding in response to the challenges of climate change much more efficient and hence make an important contribution to future food security.
The researchers were looking for genes that might confer resistance to powdery mildew, a fungal disease of wheat that can reduce yields by up to 40%. Gene, in this context, takes on many meanings. Sometimes, when researchers talk about different resistance genes, what they really mean are different versions, or alleles, that occupy a particular place on the DNA, which in this case would be called a locus.
One such gene, or locus, is known as Pm3. Since it was first identified 100 years ago, researchers have identified 7 different alleles that can be present at the Pm3 locus, many of which confer resistance to different strains of powdery mildew. Because the Pm3 gene has been cloned, it is possible to use its DNA sequence to search for different alleles that might help to protect wheat against new strains of powdery mildew. The problem is that there are more than 560,000 samples of wheat held in almost 40 genebanks around the world. That’s a pretty big haystack; screening them all would be impractical.
Instead, Mackay and his colleagues used an approach they call FIGS, the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy. It works like this: take 400 genebank samples known to have some resistance to powdery mildew and use the geographical location where they evolved and were collected to determine the environmental profile that can be associated with resistance. Then apply that profile to a further 16,089 samples with location data, using the profile as a template to identify those that were found in places that share the conditions associated with resistance. The result is a group of 1320 wheat varieties, mostly from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. This much more manageable subset was screened by growing them with diverse strains of powdery mildew. About 16% of the samples (211 of 1320) showed some resistance.
These varieties then moved to the next phase, molecular screening for the presence of different alleles of the Pm3 gene. More than half (111 of the 211) had Pm3 resistance, some in previously unknown forms. In the end the group isolated and identified 7 new functional alleles of the Pm3 gene. It took scientists 100 years to find the first 7 Pm3 alleles. FIGS doubled the number in a fraction of the time.
Resistance to UG99 wheat stem rust
The result is important for several reasons, says Mackay. “It is going to help scientists and breeders to understand resistance to powdery mildew, and to come up with new and more resistant varieties. It also demonstrates that FIGS is an efficient and effective sampling strategy that’s going to a great help for breeders looking for any important adaptive traits in other crops.” Already in the pipeline is a study to help breeders find resistance to the deadly new strain of stem rust, UG99, that threatens global wheat crops.
Perhaps the most important message, however, is that all the new resistance genes were found in landraces, genetically diverse populations kept alive by farmers in harsh environments, who value the adaptability and resilience of these varieties. Improved varieties based on the genetic resources of landraces tend to displace the very landraces on which they depend, making conservation in genebanks essential.
“We need conservation in genebanks and in farmers’ fields,” says Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, “and this result shows how farmers and breeders can make more effective use of genebank samples. We are going to need all the help we can get to adapt crops to the challenges of climate change, and FIGS is a useful tool for that work.”
ENDS
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Note to Editors:
Bhullar, N., Street, K., Mackay, M., Yahiaoui, N., & Keller, B. (2009). Unlocking wheat genetic resources for the molecular identification of previously undescribed functional alleles at the Pm3 resistance locus Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (23), 9519-9524 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0904152106
This work depended on the co-operation and inputs of several partners: ICARDA, VIR, AWCC, GRDC and the University of Zurich.
Bioversity International, with its Headquarters in Rome, Italy, has worked for more than 35 years to support the improved use and conservation of agricultural diversity. Through international research, in collaboration with partners throughout the world, Bioversity strives to build the knowledge base needed to ensure effective use of diversity to increase sustainable agricultural production, improve livelihoods and meet the challenge of climate change.
Invest in agriculture for highest payback, Bioversity urges G8 development ministers
Rome, Italy, for immediate release
The G8 Development Ministers meeting in Rome convened an outreach session during which representatives of African countries and UN agencies, along with Bioversity International, discussed the problems of development against a background of the current financial crisis.
Top of the list of concrete suggestions that Bioversity International offered to the G8 was investment in agriculture.
“In these times of economic crisis everyone is looking for value for money, and research into agriculture offers a better return on investment than other forms of aid,” said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International. “We need to invest in different solutions to deliver food security,” he added.
Frison supported the very strong call from Stefano Manservisi, Director General for Development of the European Commission, to put agriculture at the centre of development. In May the EC, with the World Bank and the African Development Bank, pledged to increase spending on development.
Several speakers offered additional support. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, urged donors to invest more in agriculture. And Kanayo Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the UN’s rural poverty agency, stressed the importance of directing aid at Africa’s small farmers and support to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which supports Bioversity International and other centres seeking to improve agriculture in the developing world.
The final statement of the meeting, which will go forward to the full G8 in July, did recognise the importance of agriculture. It calls for “coherent and science-based policies aimed at fostering inclusive and environmentally sound agricultural growth managed through an enhanced cooperation at the international, regional and local levels”.
“This is very good news,” said Frison. “Those of us who work on the ground know what is needed,” Frison said, “and this support from donors and our partners is most welcome.”
Bioversity International told the meeting of several studies that showed the value of investment in agriculture. “Growth in agricultural productivity directly and indirectly contributed 83% of growth in GDP in a sample of 62 developing countries,” Frison pointed out. Doubling investment over the next five years from its current level of US$5 billion a year would massively increase production and lift 282 million people in Africa out of abject poverty.
Support to agriculture has plunged from 17% of total aid spending in 1980 to less than 3% in 2006.
Frison further pointed out that there was no single solution to improving food security. “Food security requires many different approaches,” he said. “In addition to larger harvests we need to use all the resources at our disposal to help farmers adapt their agriculture to the stresses of climate change and we need to make full use of agricultural biodiversity to deliver better nutrition and health.”
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas +39 06 6118 234 or Cecilia Preite Martinez +39 06 6118 400
Powering economic growth and combating poverty: Bioversity International and the G8
Making the most of agricultural biodiversity
Rome, Italy, for immediate release
The Italian Presidency of the G8 warned development ministers that their meeting, which begins tomorrow, will take place against a difficult background. The global financial crisis has deepened the impact of soaring food prices, especially on the poorest people. And while donor countries are responding with emergency aid, there is a need, as the Presidency puts it, to find ways out of the crisis in the long run. In keeping with the desire for concrete proposals, Bioversity International is convinced that increased investment in research and development aimed squarely at the neediest farmers is a sure way to power development. Furthermore, agricultural biodiversity has a vital role to play in delivering sustainable, resilient and nutritious food security.
Study after study has shown that investments in agricultural research and development offer higher rates of return than any other form of development assistance, and yet in the past few years we have seen across the board declines in funding.
A recent report by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC (like Bioversity International a member of the Alliance of Centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) estimated that a doubling of investment in public agricultural research from US$ 5 billion to US$ 10 billion by 2013 would massively increase production and lift 282 million people out of abject poverty. For 62 developing countries over the period 1960 to 1990 growth in agricultural productivity directly contributed 54% of growth in GDP. More efficient agriculture releases additional labour, which adds another 29%.
Despite this, overall spending on public agricultural research and development has declined over the past three decades. Funding by donors to agriculture fell from 17% of total spending in 1980 to less than 3% in 2006.
Controlling and containing soaring food prices
Events of the past couple of years – notably price spikes for food and oil and the global economic turmoil – concentrated attention on development aid. In response to soaring food prices, participants at FAO’s High-Level Conference on World Food Security in June 2008 pledged an additional US$12.3 billion in funds. While emergency responses are crucially important, Bioversity International stresses that additional research and development directly aimed at improving smallholder agriculture in poorer countries is essential to prevent the frequent re-occurrence of fresh crises. This research needs to go beyond the emphasis on simplified systems that depend on high-energy inputs.
Adapting agriculture to climate change
“Unquestionably there is a continuing need to produce more food,” notes Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International. “However, this must be combined with improving sustainability, increasing nutritional well-being and ensuring that agricultural production practices are able to adapt to climate change.”
Research by Bioversity International and others has shown that the judicious use of agricultural biodiversity can reduce problems of pests and diseases, improve nutritional health, increase soil fertility, deliver other ecosystem services, and promote resilience and true food security. Furthermore, these benefits are available to all and not only to those who have the capital and suitable land to benefit from packages of improved technology.
One very positive sign is the recent release of President Obama’s proposed budget for 2010, which increases the US development aid budget from US$ 1.5 billion in 2009 to US$ 2.73 in 2010, with the bulk of the increase earmarked for sub-Saharan Africa. Bioversity and other CGIAR centres are hopeful that an increased amount will be allotted to improving agriculture.
Invest in growth
If the Ministers meeting in Rome really want to help poorer countries to lift themselves out of poverty and to move along the road to food security, better health and generally improved living conditions, they will look seriously at increasing their support for agricultural research and development, ensuring that it makes full use of biodiversity to deliver sustainability and resilience.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas (j.cherfas@cgiar.org) +39 06 6118 234 or Cecilia Preite Martinez (c.pmartinez@cgiar.org) +39 06 6118 400
Note to Editors:
Bioversity International, with its Headquarters in Rome, Italy, has worked for more than 35 years to support the improved use and conservation of agricultural diversity. Through international research, in collaboration with partners throughout the world, Bioversity strives to build the knowledge base needed to ensure effective use of diversity to increase sustainable agricultural production, improve livelihoods and meet the challenge of climate change.
Guardians of Diversity Video
The International Day for Biodiversity this year saw 7 Guardians of Diversity from the Mediterranean honoured for their efforts to conserve and use agricultural biodiversity in farmers fields and in genebanks. The video above encapsulates their work.
Bioversity International and the Mayor of Rome organized the event to pay tribute to people — farmers, community activists, scientists and scholars from all walks of life — who have chosen to devote themselves to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in the Mediterranean for the benefit of future generations.
Professor Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza on the same occasion received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his unfailing and continuous efforts to improve agriculture, and in particular to work with genetic diversity, for the common good of humanity.
In the view of Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, recognition of this type helps to promote the importance of agricultural biodiversity.
“Getting farmers to grow a wider range of traditional crops than they do at present is a challenge that we can only overcome by giving them the right incentives, and these are not just monetary," Frison said at the awards ceremony. "Biodiversity has a crucial cultural and traditional value for many people, and local varieties still reflect the close link between humankind and agriculture, between one’s self-identity and the natural landscape around us.”
A Tribute to the Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean
Today is the International Day of Biodiversity. Bioversity International has organized a ceremony on the Capitoline Hill to honour seven Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean with the participation of Rome’s Mayor Alemanno.
There are about 30 000 edible plant species. Despite this huge diversity, 90% of our calories are supplied by only 30 species and 60% of our caloric needs are met by just 3 species: wheat, rice and maize. That which is not valued is at risk and thus it is estimated that three quarters of the plant varieties that underpin agriculture are in the process of becoming extinct and with them an age old heritage of knowledge and tradition.
“This is a ‘silent extinction’ in the sense that no one is publishing a Red List of agricultural species in peril but it is nonetheless threatening the future of agriculture as we know it and, with it, our own well-being,” said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International.
There are about 1400 seedbanks around the world whose goal is to conserve the diverse varieties of crops used by humans and which contain overall about 6 million samples. In addition, the protection of many locally important species has been the patient and constant work of “Guardians of Diversity”: individuals who have taken on the task on conserving an enormous genetic heritage, often in their own fields. In Italy, for example, Isabella Dalla Ragione has saved nearly 400 varieties of fruit trees from extinction and is now conserving them on her farm in Lerchi (Umbria).
On the International Day of Biodiversity, Bioversity and the City of Rome wish to pay tribute to Isabella and others—from all walks of life—who have chosen to devote themselves to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in the Mediterranean for the benefit of future generations. The contribution of these Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean to humanity’s well being will be recognized at a public ceremony on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
The Guardians represent various approaches to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. They range from Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, to Slimane Bekkay, an Algerian date palm farmer. They include Antonio Onorati, political activist and champion for farmers’ rights, Jose Esquinas-Alcazr, who was for 22 years the Executive Secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture, and Ismail Abdel-Galil Husseuin, founder of the Egyptian Desert Gene Bank. Isabella Dalla Ragione, agronomist and founder of Archeologia Arborea, and Panagiotis Sainatoudis, farmer and founder of Peliti, an NGO whose task is to safeguard local diversity, round out this year’s crop of Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean.
During the awards ceremony, Professor Scarascia Mugnozza, President of the National Academy of sciences, will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his extraordinary support for research on agricultural biodiversity by national and international organizations, including Bioversity.
Agricultural biodiversity, particularly local varieties of plants, is critical for ensuring the stability of harvests, healthy soils, and sustainable production. This diversity, a vast variety of food plants often overlooked in large scale agriculture, is the key to ensuring humanity’s food security, especially considering the enormous pressures on agriculture at present.
“It’s not just nostalgia. Traditional fruits can be very good. Why throw them away? They were our past. They can also be our future,” said Isabella Dalla Ragione during the awards ceremony.
“The conservation of local varieties has mostly been undertaken by elderly farmers who have not succeeded in passing an understanding of the value of agricultural biodiversity to the next generation. Soon, their precious knowledge will be lost forever. We have a moral obligation to pass agricultural resources on to the next generation. Once they are lost, they are lost forever,” said Jose Esquinas-Alcazar.
Local varieties are the result of hundreds—even thousands—of years of improvement by farmers. As a result, they are perfectly adapted to local conditions of soil and climate and ensure the production of foods that are in absolute harmony with the nutritional needs of local populations. Its loss is not only a blow to agriculture. It is a blow to culture, tradition and national identity.
“Given the essential role that small farmers play in defending the quality of food that we eat, civil society needs to ensure that they have a voice in political decision making that effects food security,” said Antonio Onorati.
Today’s awards ceremony is the first of what will become an annual event honouring Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean. The event will take place each year on 22 May—the International Day of Biodiversity. Jointly sponsored by Bioversity and the City of Rome, the event underlines the central role that the capital city has always played in supporting the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. In addition to hosting Bioversity and the three UN agencies concerned with food and agriculture—FAO, IFAD, and WFP—the city is also home to the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
“The objective of this ceremony is to inspire more people to take a more thoughtful view of conservation and to take concrete actions—like the Guardians—to ensure that agricultural biodiversity can continue to be used for the benefit of all,” said Ruth Raymond, Director of the campaign, Diversity for Life and organizer of the event.
For more information please contact
Cecilia Preite Martinez
Bioversity International celebrates the International Day for Biodiversity
Rome, 22-05-09
Bioversity International and its partners mark the International Day for Biodiversity 2009, which is dedicated this year to the theme of invasive alien species.
On the occasion of this important date, Bioversity International and and Mayor Gianni Alemanno are co-sponsoring an award ceremony to celebrate the “Guardians of Diversity in the Mediterranean”: seven individuals who have devoted their lives to safeguarding the diversity of animals and crops that people depend upon for food and agriculture.
“The Guardians represent the very best of conservation efforts, showing how biodiversity can be protected and used both in the fields and in genebanks” says Emile Frison, Bioversity’s Director General. “We are very proud to mark the International Day of Biodiversity by celebrating such examples of dedication, passion and commitment to the conservation of biodiversity” he adds.
During the event Bioversity will also celebrate the extraordinary contribution given by Prof. Scarascia-Mugnozza to the safeguard of biodiversity and to the enhancement of agricultural research.
Alien species dramatically affect biodiversity, by reducing or eliminating native species - through competition, predation, or transmission of pathogens - and they may disrupt local ecosystems and local agricultural practices.
One of the possible measures that can be taken to arrest the spread of alien species is by collecting and conserving local crop varieties, and ensuring that they are valued and used by the local population.
“Getting farmers to grow a wider range of traditional crops than they do at present is a challenge that we can only overcome by giving them the right incentives, and these are not just monetary. Biodiversity has a crucial cultural and traditional value for many people, and local varieties still reflect the close link between humankind and agriculture, between one’s self-identity and the natural landscape around us” comments Dr. Frison.
For more information contact:
Bioversity and CIAT researcher awarded with Ebbe Nielsen Prize
CIAT & Bioversity International scientist Andy Jarvis has won the prestigious Ebbe Nielsen Prize, for his pioneering research on agro-biodiversity. He will receive €30,000, which he plans to use to support young Latin American scientists to broaden the scope and impact of his research.
The Prize, sponsored by the Denmark-based Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), is awarded annually to one scientist for their innovative work in “bioinformatics” and “biosystematics” – the use of the latest computer technology in biodiversity research.
At just 31-years-old, Dr Jarvis has already become a world leader in agro-biodiversity research. He has produced groundbreaking studies on the importance of conserving so-called “crop wild relatives” – the naturally-occurring relatives of domesticated crops, and has used geographic modeling to predict the impact of climate change on agriculture. Using this novel technology, Jarvis and his team also mapped the distribution of hundreds of important crop wild relative species, evaluated their state of conservation and provided practical suggestions for their long-term conservation. The studies resulted in some shocking predictions of what climate change will do to these wild species, many of which have valuable genetic traits, that could be used to improve domesticated crops and enhance global food production.
“The news has made my day, my week, my year, and possibly, my decade!” said Dr Jarvis, a UK scientist who has been working in Colombia since 2000. “I’m delighted that the importance of agro-biodiversity research and conservation is now becoming widely-recognized.”
Dr Jarvis will be presented with the award at a ceremony in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2009. “Like most good things in life, the achievements that led to this award were the result of a team effort,” he continued. “While I am British, this is also an award for Latin America: my team members are all from Latin America, they are all under 30-years-old, they are all far smarter than me and they too should feel that they have won this award!”
Dr Ruben Echeverria, Director-General of CIAT, said: “This pathbreaking work of Andy and his team makes a practical contribution to improving the conservation of genetic resources which is absolutely vital to ensuring future food supplies and helping to end global hunger.”
Erick Mata of GBIF’s Science Committee said: “The decision was based on Andy’s excellent work on environmental modeling to improve the conservation and use of species related to agriculture and food security, and in particular to predict the impacts of climate change. This work demonstrates how specimen level data, such as that mobilized by GBIF, combined with taxonomic data from gene bank accessions, geographic and climate data can be used to provide a solid scientific basis for decision making.”
For further information please contact:
Neil Palmer
Modern crop varieties can increase local genetic diversity
For immediate release.
It is often claimed that the introduction of high-yielding crop varieties threatens agricultural biodiversity. Farmers who adopt the modern varieties abandon their traditional varieties and overall genetic diversity falls as a result. Generally this is true, but a new paper published online in Field Crops Research shows that it need not be the case, especially if the modern varieties count farmer varieties among their parents.
In the early 1990s, while a PhD student at Bangor University in the UK, Bhuwon Sthapit, now a senior scientist at Bioversity International, was instrumental in breeding three new varieties of rice suitable for upland rice farms in Nepal. This was no ordinary breeding programme, however. Sthapit worked closely with farmers in a client-oriented approach that involved the farmers in both setting the goals of the breeding programme and participating in the selection of the final varieties from the many crosses. The varieties were selected from crosses of Chhomrong Dhan, a local landrace well adapted to the cold conditions of high-altitude rice farms in Nepal, with Fuji 102 and IR36, more productive material from international breeding programmes.
Farmers selected three lines: Machhapuchhre-3 (M3), Machhapuchhre-9 (M9, which is similar to M3 but with lower cold tolerance) and Lumle-2 (L2, like M3 with better grain quality and easier threshing). Only M3 was officially released, but M9 and L2 have been adopted widely thanks to informal seed exchanges among farmers. By 2004 about 60% of the land in the study villages was sown to one of the three COB (client-oriented breeding) varieties, while traditional varieties occupied the remaining 40%. In adopting the COB varieties, many farmers had dropped traditional landraces, but there was no clear pattern to which landraces were dropped in which villages. The variety dropped most commonly was Chhomrong Dhan, one parent of all three COB varieties.
To assess genetic diversity an international team of researchers from Bangor and Nepal analyzed DNA from the three COB varieties, a random selection of landraces and a control group of modern varieties. Overall, genetic diversity was greatest in the landraces, and least in the COB varieties. However, there was no loss of genetic diversity across the district as a whole, at least as long as the three COB varieties were adopted on less than about 65% of the land. Indeed there is an increase in diversity as the COB varieties are adopted because the high-yielding parental varieties contribute alleles not previously encountered in the area.
Another crucial result is that although some farmers grow COB varieties on 100% of their land, nevertheless, at least 11 diverse landraces survived on some 40% of the land. These landraces clearly meet needs not fulfilled by the COB varieties. For example, although the most commonly dropped variety was Chhomrong Dhan, farmers in the Gurung community continued to grow that variety.
“It is the preferred rice for preparation of the dish Madeko Bhat used during funerals and other ritual and social ceremonies,” Sthapit explained.
The client-oriented breeding programme was clearly a success; it resulted in farmers adopting modern varieties adapted to high altitudes, whose cultivation improved the livelihoods of the farm families. The adoption of the new varieties reduced the number of households and the area for some landraces, but overall genetic diversity increased because the modern varieties contained alleles not seen before in the district. They also contained alleles from the landraces, so preserving that genetic diversity too.
“The conclusion is clear,” said Sthapit. “Participatory breeding and client-oriented breeding programmes should choose locally adapted varieties as parents for breeding. It ensures that landrace genes are conserved and increases the likelihood that the breeding programme will succeed.”
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
New Vavilov-Frankel Fellows seek useful genes in rice and soybeans
Rome, Italy, for immediate release
The Board of Trustees of Bioversity International recently agreed to award Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships to Danilo Eduardo Moreta Mejía, an Ecuadorian currently at the Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, and Esmaeil Ebrahimie from Shiraz University in Iran.
“These keenly-sought fellowships enable outstanding young scientists to carry out relevant, innovative research outside their own countries,” said Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Capacity Development at Bioversity International. “With their proposed research these two Fellows will undoubtedly make a contribution to the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity.”
Moreta Mejía’s proposal focuses on a little-studied mechanism called biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) in rice. Nitrification results in substantial losses to soils as a result of nitrate leaching and the emission of nitrous oxide (which is also a potent greenhouse gas). Some species are able to inhibit nitrification, and if this ability were more widespread it could help to reduce the indiscriminate use of nitrogen fertilizers, which can damage the environment and human health. The idea is to screen accessions of rice in genebanks for possession of the genes underlying BNI and then use those varieties and the information they provide in rice breeding programmes. The work will be carried out at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali and is supported by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
Ebrahimie is also hunting for genes, but in soybeans, and more specifically in the wild relatives of soybeans. Although soybeans are widely cultivated, including in Ebrahimie’s native Iran, they have a narrow genetic base and are susceptible to drought, salinity and heat. Australia’s native wild relatives of soybeans have to cope with those stresses and so are expected to have traits that could be transferred to cultivated soybeans. The work will establish Australia’s first native soybean gene databank, and all information will be publicly available. Together, these information resources will make it easier for others to breed advanced varieties of soybean. The work will be carried out at the University of Adelaide in Australia and is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Australia.
“The Board was impressed with all the short-listed applicants,” said Goldberg, “and encourages all young scientists with an interest in agricultural biodiversity to apply for future Fellowships when they are announced in July.”
Further information: Elizabeth Goldberg.
For more information about the Fellowships and how to apply, see the Bioversity web site.
The use and conservation of diversity must change with climate change.
Copenhagen, Denmark. 12 March 2009
For immediate release.
Changes to agricultural geography – brought about by climate change – require us to change our approach to the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity. Toby Hodgkin, Principal Scientist and Director of the Global Partnership Programme at Bioversity International, told the Climate Congress in Copenhagen that four areas needed to be re-examined.
- Ex-situ conservation in genebanks must expand dramatically.
- Diverse farming systems do adapt and help poor farmers to survive change; more use should be made of biodiversity as an adaptive strategy.
- The relationship between on-farm conservation and genebanks must change.
- Access to genetic diversity, by farmers and by breeders, becomes of paramount importance.
“Increasing, or even maintaining, food production to meet expected demand will require greater use of genetic resources, the diversity present within the plants we depend on,” Hodgkin said. Much of that diversity resides within the varieties grown by poor rural farmers and the wild relatives of crop plants.
Much agricultural biodiversity is stored ex-situ. Over the past 60 years some 6.5 million accessions have been stored in genebanks worldwide. And more recently efforts have been made to promote the wider use and conservation of diversity by farmers in-situ in their fields. Climate change raises the stakes.
“It adds to the forces already threatening farmers' varieties and it puts new pressures on crop wild relatives,” Hodgkin said. He urged a massive increase in collecting, targeted to those areas and those crops and wild relatives that geographical information systems identify as most in danger.
But at a lower level – what precisely to collect in the target areas and of the target crops – Hodgkin urged no targets.
“What you need to collect is diversity,” he said, “precisely because you can't predict what you will need in future.”
One reason to collect diversity now is that diverse agricultural systems have been shown to buffer farmers against changing circumstances. Hodgkin pointed to a study by colleagues who have looked at how farmers in the Sahel belt of Niger use pearl millet. The number of different named varieties more than doubled from 1976 to 2003 as farmers selected plant types that performed better under lower rainfall.
“This is something we need to recognize and promote. Diverse crops and diverse systems allow farmers to adapt and to meet their own needs often more rapidly than more specific scientific breeding programmes.” Hodgkin said.
This changes the way scientists should view the relationships between genebanks and in-situ or on farm conservation, according to Hodgkin. In the past, researchers have tended to focus on the genetic identity of the entities being grown in farmer's fields, concerned with questions such as whether the same name always refers to the same genetic population, or how much diversity is present in a variety.
More important is that being in fields exposes diverse systems to changing conditions and selection by farmers.
“It allows them to evolve, that's the crucial point,” said Hodgkin. Genebank samples remain important, but if conditions have changed then they may well no longer be relevant in the specific places where they were collected. Diversity that remains in the open and shifted around by farmers in response to shifting growing conditions will be crucial in adapting to climate change.
“And that makes access absolutely vital,” said Hodgkin. Access, in this sense, ranges from the international flows to local informal seed systems. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is beginning to ease the movement of material among genebanks and breeders, but far more robust national and regional systems are needed. The informal systems that enable farmers to exchange material and knowledge are also important to allow them to adapt to climate change, and national policies must recognise this.
“As climate change continues to change the geography of agriculture, we have to mimic natural systems ourselves and use a diversity of approaches to ensure that farmers and breeders have the ability to get hold of and make use of as much diversity as possible,” said Hodgkin. “That way, we might stand a chance of creating secure food systems.”
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Geographical information pinpoints climate change opportunities
Copenhagen, Denmark. 11 March 2009
For immediate release.
Scientists and policymakers at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen today heard from CGIAR scientists about research that can help poor farmers to adapt to, and possibly even profit from, climate change. Andy Jarvis, senior scientist at Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, showed how geographical information systems can pinpoint opportunities.
Jarvis, an expert on the use of geographical information systems to interrogate large datasets, asked three related questions. What, broadly, is going to happen to agriculture? How can we best help in the search for sustainable solutions? And how will climate change affect the wild relatives on which many crops depend for their future?
A lot is known about how changing climate will affect the productivity of the main staple crops, precisely because they are the main staples. There are detailed models about how the physiology of those species responds to changes in temperature, water, seasonality and so on.
“The top ten crops account for a lot of calories,” Jarvis said, “But real food and nutrition security depends on far more species.”
Jarvis and his colleagues used a simpler model, Ecocrop, to ask what climate change will do to the 50 most important food crops, from alfalfa to yams, defined by total area planted.
While it does not capture detailed yield forecasts, Ecocrop does reveal a broad picture of the suitability for different crops under different climatic conditions. Overall, global suitability for the top 50 crops rises: the area suitable for growing them increases.
“But agricultural geography changes,” Jarvis said. Latin America will see a drop of 2.5% while Europe's suitable area expands by almost 18%.
Looking in more detail at the number of species, the overall diversity, that will be suitable in each area, there are, Jarvis says, “clear areas of concern”.
Eastern Brazil, the Sahel, south Asia and the Mediterranean could lose up to half of their crop species.
“The challenge will be greatest where a major staple becomes unsuitable, but alternatives exist and we need policies to change now in order to capitalise on the opportunities and minimize the negatives,” Jarvis said.
This is the core of another CGIAR scientist's conference paper on Thursday, which will ask how farmers can be helped to adapt their farming systems.
Homing in on just one species, the common bean (Phaseolous vulgaris) all analyses show clearly that most areas of Africa will experience a severe drop in the area suitable for the crop, largely as a result of lower rainfall. But the climate models also indicate that if farmers in Malawi, Mozambique and the Sahel had access to varieties with a little more drought resistance, their future would be much more secure.
There are about 268,000 accessions of common beans in genebanks. Many don't have data about their drought resistance. Where are breeders or farmers supposed to start looking? Jarvis and his colleagues believe they have an answer.
About one third of all the beans in genebanks can also be found in the datasets made available by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). These records reveal where the samples were collected. “The geographic information gives us the climate,” Jarvis explained.
The researchers looked specifically for varieties that had been collected in places where the rainfall over the three month growing season was less than 300 millimetres, well below the average needed for a good bean crop. There were 3608 accessions that had been collected in drier areas, mostly in Central Europe but with some representatives from the Sahel and dry parts of the southern Andes.
“Those are the best candidates for a breeding programme,” said Jarvis, “and our models also show that drought resistant beans would have a huge impact in parts of Africa.”
Quite apart from direct effects of climate change, shifting patterns of pests and diseases also threaten future agriculture. Already the world is seeing new disease patterns, for example UG99 rust disease of wheat and Asian soybean rust in North America. An invaluable source of solutions in the past has always been wild relatives, which have supplied plant breeders with resistance to various challenges. But the crop wild relatives are themselves threatened by climate change. Jarvis and his colleagues have previously looked at the potential impact on target species such as peanut, potato and cowpea. In the latest study they have used information gathered through GBIF to paint a broad-brush picture of the impact on a pool of 343 species relevant to 11 different crops.
Knowing where the specimens were collected makes it possible to calculate all the places that share a similar climate, and that therefore could host those species. The climate change models then show how the areas with those specific climates shrink or grow, which in turn shows which areas are at greatest risk of losing crop wild relatives, and therefore where efforts to save them should be concentrated.
“Sub-Saharan Africa, eastern Turkey, the Mediterranean and parts of Mexico,” summarised Jarvis. “Those are the priority places to collect crop wild relatives.”
New datasets and new computing methods, along with more widely available data, have enabled scientists like Jarvis to be a lot more precise about their predictions for the impact of climate change on agriculture. And that, in turn, has enabled them to identify the places and actions that are most likely to have a positive impact, which should be good news for policy-makers struggling to make the most of limited resources.
For further information contact Jeremy Cherfas in Copenhagen, +39 339 382 9162
Women play a key role in feeding the world
On the Occasion of the International Women’s Day 8 March the International Alliance Against Hunger makes an appeal to take Action.
Kwesi Atta-Krah, Deputy Director General of Bioversity International, is the new chair of the International Alliance Against Hunger. He said "it is vital to recognize the work that women do in providing a healthy diet for their families, and to give women, especially poor rural women, a louder voice in deciding their priorities for agricultural development."
Women play a vital role in farming and food security in developing countries. In rural areas women grow most of the crops for domestic consumption and are primarily responsible for preparing, storing and processing food. They also handle livestock, gather food, fodder and fuel wood and manage the domestic water supply. In addition, they provide most of the labour for post-harvest activities. In Southeast Asia, for example, it is women who provide up to 90 percent of the labour for rice cultivation. They also play a big role in growing secondary crops, such as pulses and other vegetables that are crucial ingredients for a healthy and well–balanced diet.
However, studies have shown that in almost all societies women tend to work longer hours than men. The difference in workloads is particularly marked for rural women. In addition to being the world's principal food producers, women are responsible for preparing and cooking food while also fulfilling their fundamental role of nurturing and caring for children and tending to elderly members of the household. Unfortunately, the voices of women are seldom heard by decision-makers. Action is needed to enable rural women to have equal access to resources, such as land, water, credit and technology, and to open the way for them to participate fully in policy making.
Statistics show that
- Women make up 51 percent of the agricultural labour force worldwide.
- In Africa and Asia, women work about 13 hours more than men each week.
- In Southeast Asia, women provide up to 90 percent of the labour for rice cultivation.
- In the world's least developed countries, 23 percent of rural households are headed by women.
As a response, many international organizations are becoming increasingly engaged in activities to enhance the status of women in rural societies.
Bioversity International recognizes the principal role of women as guardians of genetic resources and in the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Bioversity takes great care to disaggregate gender roles in many of its projects for retaining agricultural biodiversity. For example, women often have knowledge that is important for decisions regarding the varieties of crops that the family grows. They know that some varieties have superior nutritional traits, that others taste better or are easy to prepare and cook, while yet other varieties have a special role in rituals and social activities. Men have tended to have other priorities in selecting preferred varieties.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working with its member countries to eliminate legal constraints to women's access to resources and agricultural support services. Initiatives such as the Dimitra project focus on empowering rural populations in Africa, and women in particular, through sharing knowledge in order to improve their living conditions and food security. The Organization is also actively promoting equitable benefit-sharing between women and men in its work on enhancing crop diversity, preserving traditional knowledge systems, and reducing risks in cropping systems so as to achieve higher levels of food security. In many countries, women have gained in self-confidence through taking part in farmer field schools in which they have discovered that they have the capacity to overcome, through their own efforts, many of the problems faced by their communities and families.
The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has been supporting development activities that target poor women in all regions of the developing world, aiming to increase their access to key assets such as land and water, and to strengthen their decision-making role within their communities.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has a special commitment to helping women gain equal access to life's basic necessity. Women are responsible for food production, but they also take care that the food they produce reaches the mouths of needy children. For these reasons focus on women is a major part of WFP’s programmes and projects.
Rural women’s organizations such as the International Food Security Network (IFSN) and Action Aid have been running campaigns and projects worldwide with the aim of enhancing the capacities of rural women, and to improve their access to land and resources.
At a global level, the International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH) – a voluntary partnership of local, national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations brings together major international institutions responsible for agriculture, food and nutrition with a growing number of international NGOs committed to ensuring that all people have enough to eat healthy diets.
As part of its global advocacy programme, the IAAH would like to make an appeal to all concerned on the occasion of the International Women’s Day – 8th March - to act to improve the status of rural women.
Together, we can make the difference!
For further information please contact Jeremy Cherfas
Fellowships for molecular work in China
Rome, Italy, For immediate release
Two scientists, one from Egypt and one from Nigeria, have been awarded post-doctoral fellowships for advanced training at Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) in Wuhan, China. Mohamed Hamdy Amar and Olagorite Adetula are the first beneficiaries of a strengthened programme between Bioversity International and the Centre of Excellence for Training on Molecular Technologies for Management of Plant Genetic Resources established by Bioversity and HZAU in 2003.
Dr Adetula, Chief Research Officer at the National Horticultural Research Institute in Ibadan, Nigeria, will use molecular techniques to look for traits that can be used to improve varieties of okra (Abelmoschus esculentusAfrica and it is still an important source of good nutrition in much of the continent. Unfortunately, the plant is subject to pest and disease infestations and as a result is proving unprofitable for farmers to grow or sell in markets. Adetula plans to screen some 500 samples of okra to assess the amount of genetic variability available and then to use that information to help breed varieties more resistant to the prevailing fungal diseases.
Dr Amar is casting his net considerably wider. He is a researcher at the genebank of Egypt’s Desert Research Centre and has surveyed and collected the many plants used therapeutically by the people of Egypt’s Southern Sinai, in order to construct an Atlas of the medical plants of the region. Molecular technologies, he believes, will help to characterize the different materials and ensure their most effective use. Along with other sources of information, such data will add to the usefulness of the Atlas. It may also be possible to link biochemical analyses of active ingredients in the various medicinal plants to molecular characteristics, thus enabling research that could potentially improve the yield and purity of these plants.
Bioversity and HZAU have already conducted five training courses on the use of molecular markers to characterize genetic resources, with participants from around the world. “The new fellowships emerged from feedback from those courses,” explained Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Bioversity’s Capacity Development Unit. “Scholars wanted more and more depth.”
The fellowships are intended to give PhD level scientists from developing countries further training in the use of advanced molecular techniques to reveal useful characteristics in genebank and other collections of agricultural biodiversity. The scholars are expected to return to their country and contribute to national work on conservation and use of diversity.
“Molecular techniques are useful tools for characterizing and using the genetic diversity of species important for the people in the world”, said Professor Xiuxin Deng, President of HZAU. “We aim to train scientists from developing countries for using the molecular tools to promote the use of their germplasm collection for a better life for the people”.
“Our goal is to strengthen the links among genebanks, breeders and farmers so that each is better able to make use of the others’ resources. These fellowships are a contribution to that,” said Goldberg.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Stefano Padulosi interview on Geo&Geo - Raitre
La biodiversità agraria come risorsa da proteggere ed elemento fondamentale per la salute e l’alimentazione degli esseri umani. Questo uno dei temi dell’intervista di Sveva Sagramola a Stefano Padulosi, andata in onda Venerdì 23 Gennaio su Geo& geo, il programma di natura e scienza di Rai Tre. Si parla inoltre del lavoro che Bioversity International svolge per riscoprire colture dimenticate e permettere l’accesso e la conservazione delle risorse genetiche e della biodiversità in agricoltura.
Interview with Emile Frison in London
In December 2008 the Science Museum in London launched an "exhibition debating genetic modification". The exhibit, called Future Foods, is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, represented the CGIAR at the opening, and was interviewed by Andy Duckworth of The Guardian for a podcast about the exhibit. We have extracted his contribution, and you can listen to it here.
Award for Central Asia and Caucasus Program
For immediate release
The CGIAR Program for Sustainable Agriculture in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC Program) was awarded the King Baudouin Science Award for Outstanding Partnership at the Annual General Meeting of the CGIAR in Maputo, Mozambique.
The CAC Program was launched in 1998 to improve agricultural activity after geopolitical changes in the region. Bioversity International is one of the eight CGIAR centres that, with national agricultural research systems (NARS), form part of the implementing Consortium for the program.
Dr Christopher Martius, Head of the Program Facilitation Unit (PFU) based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, collected the award on behalf of the entire Consortium. He said, “I am very pleased to receive the prize, and do so in the name of the Consortium and of the partners that collaborate for more sustainable, and more profitable agriculture in the highly degraded lands of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The Program is an example of fruitful and constructive collaboration between the NARS in all our partner countries and the CG centres, and across all centres involved.”
Bioversity has several projects in the region that come under the umbrella of the CAC Program. Among these are efforts to protect and make greater use of the wide diversity of fruits local to the region, including assistance to the world’s largest collection of pomegranate diversity at Garrygala in Turkmenistan and unique collections of local apple varieties in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan’s great diversity of melons has been catalogued and protected too. A global project on crop wild relatives has strong components in Armenia and Uzbekistan. Social, economic and cultural aspects of agrobiodiversity management are being studied in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and a new project on fruit crops is looking specifically at the local farmers who conserve agricultural biodiversity: what do they do, how do they do it, and why do they do it?
Muhabbat Turdieva, Bioversity’s regional project coordinator, welcomed the award. “This award recognizes the enormous progress that has been made to build a more productive and more sustainable agriculture right across this huge region,” she said. “That has been possible because everyone has worked together with an agreed set of common priorities and objectives.”
The US$ 10,000 prize, along with matching funds from the CGIAR centres, may be used to establish a capacity-development scholarship to allow a scientist from the region to study abroad for a PhD.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas and see the CGIAR web site.
New Fellowships for African scientists
Rome, Italy, for immediate release
Bioversity International is proud to announce the winners of two fellowships. Eunice Githae, a Kenyan, receives the Abdou Salam Ouédraogo fellowship, established by Bioversity International to honour the memory of this pioneering African forester. Judith Nantongo from Uganda has been awarded a fellowship funded by Austria to study forest genetic resources.
Eunice Githae is currently a research assistant at KEFRI, the Kenyan Forestry Research Institute. and is registered for a PhD at the University of Nairobi. She will use her fellowship to look in detail at the genetic diversity inherent in Acacia senegal, the source of gum Arabic, which is valuable also because it is a nitrogen-fixing tree that can be of great use in combating desertification and restoring damaged arid areas.
Acacia senegal is a very variable species. At least four varieties have been recognized, differing not only in external characteristics such as shape and size but also in the quality of the gum they exude. Githae will use molecular methods to examine populations of A. senegal and then to use that information to improve management plans for this economically important species.
"Knowledge of genetic structure and diversity is crucial in making appropriate strategies for improvement, sustainable utilization and conservation" Githae said. Despite its long history of utilization, there been no exhaustive evaluation of the genetic resource base of A. senegal. Her results will benefit the farmers, pastoralists, gum collectors and traders who make use of A. senegal directly and also the policy makers and agencies such as KEFRI that have to manage dryland species. Regional activities, such as the Network for Natural Gums and Resins in Africa (NGARA), will also be able to make use of the results.
Judith Nantongo will also be using molecular tools to look at a species of economic importance. In her case, the fellowship is part of a larger project, supported by the government of Austria, to investigate strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of Prunus africana to improve the livelihood of small-scale farmers. This tree has been much in the news because its bark contains compounds that are effective against enlarged prostate. As a result of pharmaceutical demand the tree is endangered throughout much of its range.
Among other things the project is attempting to domesticate superior examples of P. africana and to establish suitable reserves to preserve the genetic diversity of the species. The two-year fellowship will make a direct contribution to the larger project. Nantongo will be based in Austria at the Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, where she will analyze the genetic diversity of samples from her native Uganda. This will help researchers to understand the pattern of variation in the population as a whole and to use that information to decide on areas for protection.
"Bioversity is committed to helping scientists in developing countries gain the skills and experience they need to make a greater contribution" said Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Bioversity's Capacity Development Unit. " These two fellowships are the latest in a long line, and I am particularly happy that both went to women."
For further information, contact Elizabeth Goldberg.
Crops for the Future: New international organisation announced
For immediate release.
A new international organisation dedicated to neglected and underutilised crops will be announced on Sunday 30 November 2008 at the Annual General Meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research in Maputo, Mozambique. Crops for the Future has evolved from a union of the International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) and the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU). It will be hosted in Malaysia by Bioversity International in a joint venture with the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.
Over half of humanity’s food comes from only three crops – rice, wheat and maize. Thousands of others are also important, but overlooked, as sources of nutrition, food, animal feed, medicines and other resources. Hannah Jaenicke, interim Global Coordinator of Crops for the Future, explained that “In times of changing climates, and economic and social upheavals, it is essential that we promote diversity. These underutilised or orphan crops are vital to support poor peoples’ coping strategies and to encourage sustainability.”
Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International was enthusiastic about the role of Crops for the Future. “Bioversity International has been working on neglected and underutilized species for many years. I am delighted that by hosting and supporting Crops for the Future, we will strengthen the global commitment to the use of a wide range of agricultural biodiversity.”
Sayed Azam-Ali, Professor of Tropical Agronomy and Vice-President (Research) at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus also welcomed the new organization. “This partnership has enormous significance for the future of underutilised crops,” he said. “I am delighted that we can use our excellent facilities and expertise to help carry out studies on a wide range of potentially important crops.”
Hannah Jaenicke explained that the mission of Crops for the Future is “to support, collect, synthesize and promote knowledge on neglected and underutilised species for the benefit of the poor and the environment. It will do so by complementing and strengthening the efforts of other players active in international agricultural research and development”.
The new organization is expected to start operating early in the new year.
—Ends —
Notes to editors:
The University of Nottingham is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 100 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and Times Higher (THES) World University Rankings.
Bioversity International, part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to researching the use of agricultural biodiversity to improve the lives of poor people.
For further information:
Professor Sayed Azam-Ali Tel: +603 8924 8306
Dr Jeremy Cherfas Tel: +39 06 6118 234
Dr Hannah Jaenicke, Tel: +94 777 418471
Lindsay Brooke, Tel: +44 (0)115 951 5751
Belgium extends banana support
Rome Italy, for immediate release
The Government of Belgium has extended its commitment to the banana with a substantial increase in its support for the banana genebank, hosted at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) and managed by Bioversity International. Belgium has pledged euros 600,000 a year to the International Musa Collection.
"This is a tremendous vote of confidence in the work of the banana collection and in Bioversity," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International.
The collection houses more than 1200 varieties of banana, including traditional varieties, improved cultivars and several wild relatives vital to breeding efforts. These accessions are held in trust for the global community under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. In addition to conserving banana diversity in storage, the centre also distributes disease-free material around the world to more than 100 countries and carries out fundamental research on cryopreservation (long-term storage at ultra-low temperatures) in its Global Centre of Excellence in Plant Cryobiology.
"This support will enable us to continue to take care of and expand the world's banana resources to nearly 2000 varieties in years to come and, moreover, to help poorer tropical countries to make better use of banana diversity," said Professor Rony Swennen, director of the collection.
Belgium plays a key role in banana research and conservation. In addition to supporting the genebank, it also funds the activities of the Consortium for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA), which is building integrated systems to enhance food production in D.R. Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Banking on a new approach to cacao identification
Here’s the problem: You inherit an attic full of old books, mostly junk, but some of them may be really precious first editions. You want to get rid of them. How do you realize their proper value? One way is to call in a general household clearance person, who will pay a little, cart the books away and quite possibly burn them. You get a little cash, but the world loses those expensive volumes. Or you can call a specialist book disposal person, who will pay a slightly higher bulk rate and perhaps make big money by recognizing, and sorting, the first editions. You get rid of the books just the same, someone else gets the opportunity to profit from the good stuff, and the good stuff brings pleasure to a book collector.
Believe it or not, that’s like the problem faced by many small cacao growers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their holdings grow mostly nondescript “ordinary” varieties of cacao, but scattered among them are a few special varieties that offer extraordinary tastes to discerning chocolate eaters. Alas, neither the growers nor the buyers of cocoa beans know how to identify the rare and potentially valuable high-quality beans. If they could, cacao growers could charge more for special beans, and chocolate lovers could enjoy better experiences.
The World Bank recently decided to fund the development of a solution to the problem. A proposal from Bioversity International to use the latest molecular biology techniques to identify important cacao diversity was one of the 22 finalists in the World Bank’s Development Marketplace, an annual competition to find innovative projects that will improve the lives of farmers in developing countries.
Jan Engels, the project leader, is a senior scientist at Bioversity International with long experience of cacao diversity. “I am very pleased with the Bank’s decision,” he said. “This will encourage farmers to conserve cacao diversity for the best possible reason: because it earns them more money.”
The core of the project is to develop standardized, reliable methods to identify the valuable beans. The approach depends on the sequence of some DNA separate from the chromosomes that carry the bulk of a plant’s genes. These independent DNA elements, called plastids, are generally unique to individual varieties. Until recently it has been too expensive routinely to sequence plastids in order to identify varieties. New developments, however, now make it feasible.
Hannes Dempewolf, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, will be closely involved with the molecular work. “This is like DNA fingerprinting for varieties,” he explained. Unlike chromosomes, plastids very rarely exchange genetic material during sexual reproduction. So the plastids of individual varieties tend to be fixed and different from one another. They could thus be used to identify specific varieties unequivocally. In the past year it has become possible to sequence entire plastids with the speed and reliability required to make the project feasible. UBC and the United States Department of Agriculture will be contributing their expertise in DNA analysis to the project.
The approach will be trialled in Trinidad and Tobago, where farmers who specialize in older, high-quality varieties routinely receive double the world price for their crop. Engels cautions that older is not necessarily better, but that by working together to identify the best varieties, growers, chocolate makers and chocolate lovers can all benefit. “Our project brings together two highly innovative strands, cutting edge molecular technology and participatory traditional germplasm selection, to complete the chain between grower and consumer,” he said.
Victoria Henson-Apollonio, head of the CGIAR’s Central Advisory Service for Intellectual Property is also excited by the possibilities of the project. “There’s a lot of interest in gourmet chocolates,” she said. Educated consumers want single source, sustainably-produced chocolate. This demand is increasing the interest of commercial buyers in cocoa of proven quality from particular places, which should benefit local producers. “But only if their cacao can be authenticated,” adds Henson-Apollonio. “This project could give us a way to know which cacao varieties produce premium chocolate and to ensure that the beans going into processing are from those varieties.”
The Peruvian government recently approved a similar project to identify and promote high-value cacao. As one of the centres of diversity of cacao, the Peruvian Amazon is home to a wide range of types, but as in Trinidad and Tobago most of the cacao is sold by smallholder farmers as undifferentiated bulk commodity cacao, for a low price. “We’ll be working with partners not only to identify the best varieties, but also to train the growers to ferment their beans more carefully,” said Michael Hermann, project coordinator. Fermentation is crucial to the quality of the beans, and hence to the price chocolate-makers will pay, Hermann explained. Another crucial element of the project will be to strengthen links between the producers and markets.
These two projects on cacao exemplify Bioversity’s approach to research on agricultural biodiversity. “The crucial point is to improve livelihoods, using whatever means are appropriate, whether that’s the latest molecular biology or participatory selection or capacity building,” said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International. “Together, they help add value to agricultural biodiversity, and that makes it more likely that people will conserve it.”
Additional recognition for Ecuadorian farmers
The UNDP Equator Award to the Union of Indigenous Farmer Organizations of Cotacachi gave the project even more praise than originally reported here. During the ceremony in Barcelona it was one of five projects singled out for special recognition and an additional award of USD 15,000.
“To be selected a winner, out of 310 applicants from 70 countries, is quite an achievement,” said David Williams of Bioversity. “But to be chosen from all those very strong entries for a special award that best exemplifies the conservation of agricultural biodiversity is praise indeed. We are all very proud.”
Williams and Marleni Ramirez, Regional Director for Bioversity’s office in the Americas, through their intellectual input and operational oversight, contributed significantly to the success of UNORCAC’s project. The project was further supported by the Ecuadorian National Institute for Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIAP) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Ecuadorian farmers’ efforts rewarded
Rome, Italy Versione Italiano En Espanol
Embargoed until 6 October 2008 12 noon CEST
They’ve rescued their local crops, reinvigorated the local food culture and taught a new generation the secrets of self-sufficiency and good nutrition. They’ve boosted their family incomes, improved their community’s health and established a botanic garden. And now the farmers of Cotacachi in northern Ecuador have been honoured with one of 2008’s Equator Prizes, awarded by the United Nations Development Programme to recognize outstanding local efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
“This award is a timely recognition of the importance of agricultural biodiversity and the role of women in family livelihoods,” said Marleni Ramirez, Director of Bioversity’s regional office in the Americas, who has been involved in the project from its inception.
Cotacachi is a small town northeast of Quito, the capital. Starting in 2002 the local farmers’ group UNORCAC (Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas de Cotacachi) teamed up with Bioversity International, the state National Agricultural Research Institute (INIAP) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provided most of the funding, in order to increase the use and conservation of local crops. Since then the project has worked with more than 3000 families to pioneer innovative approaches to boost the importance of native crops and thus to promote their use and conservation.
Although the project has worked with all farmers, its focus has been the women of Cotacachi, who play a fundamental and varied role in Andean agriculture. Thanks to the project, local women are today growing a wider variety of Andean grains, vegetables, fruits, roots and tubers in their backyard gardens. Nutrition workshops and classes in traditional cookery have helped younger Quichua women to use native crops to improve the nutrition and health of their families.
“As well as reviving the traditional cuisine of the region, the project has also reduced the women’s reliance upon expensive store-bought ingredients,” said Ramirez. “The Andean crops diversify home gardens, promoting stability and boosting incomes because any surplus can be sold at the market.”
The project has also helped the women from several communities to organize themselves into cooperatives that make high-quality handicrafts using native crop diversity. Cabuya fibre, from the fique plant (Furcraea spp), a relative of agave, is made into traditional espadrilles. Decorative weavings feature Andean crops. There is even a traditional game called Tortas, very similar to marbles, that uses colourful Lima beans as pieces. These beans are from varieties that are grown specifically to provide pieces for the game. The project collected the diversity of the Lima beans and has been multiplying them for re-introduction to home gardens so that they can be used to play Tortas.
A group of local midwives uses medicinal plants in its work and provides an important service to rural farm families. The project has supported the group by establishing a botanic garden that propagates medicinal plants for the midwives. The garden is run by the community, and is also an income-generating attraction, where visitors can see and learn about the astonishing diversity of useful Andean plants.
The garden is also part of a very successful larger effort to promote agricultural tourism in the area. One of the most spectacular events is Inti Raymi, the harvest-time Festival of the Sun. More than a week of ceremonies, sumptuous communal feasts and ritual dancing attract visitors from far and wide. The women’s groups have taken a lead role in reviving the traditional foods for the feasts; roast guinea pig with a savoury pumpkin-seed sauce, accompanied by native potato varieties and a mouth-watering cornucopia of other Andean crops. The locals and their visitors drink maize and fruit concoctions called champús and mazamorra, or stronger alcoholic beverages like chica de yamor, fermented from up to eight different maize varieties.
“Inti Raymi truly is something to experience,” said Ramirez. “The prize rewards the community for the efforts it has made to make better use of agricultural biodiversity, and I hope it also encourages visitors to come and see for themselves how that diversity supports the local communities.”
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas in Rome or Marleni Ramirez in Colombia.
Japan International Award for Bioversity Partner
Ms Maryam Imbumi, an ethnobotanist from the Kenya Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (KENRIK) at the National Museums of Kenya, has received the Japan International Award 2008 for Young Agricultural Researchers. The award, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in Japan, is worth US$5000 and is administered by the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS).
The award is intended to recognize and reward the contributions of young agricultural researchers to technological developments that improve food security and the environment in developing countries. Ms Imbumi has been working with Bioversity International on African leafy vegetables since 2004. Her work focused initially on providing evidence about the value of African leafy vegetables and in particular the seed systems: how to obtain seeds from wild samples, bulk them up, cultivate them and supply seeds to farmers. In addition, Ms Imbumi developed protocols for the cultivation and use of African leafy vegetables in a series of 14 booklets and took part in training sessions to help farmers to make use of that information.
Maryam says that her great passion for her work stems from her early childhood experiences.
“I grew up and went to school in a rural village in Western Kenya, a region where the tradition of vegetable consumption is deeply rooted in the local culture,” she said. Her family used plants from the wild and also grew many local vegetable crops on their farm.
“As a girl, I learned from my mother and grandparents how to identify, pick and prepare dozens of these vegetables for the family.”
Due to the lack of clinics in the village and the family’s inability to afford health care, their grandmother was the main source of information about plants for nutrition and health care. “Whenever my mother had a baby, my grandmother would tell me to prepare spider plant (Cleome gynandra), and she explained that this vegetable would help my mother to produce milk for the new baby.”
Maryam was keen to understand the scientific reasons why the traditional foods she grew up eating contributed to the health of her family, particularly as sources of micronutrients for mother and child. She plans to use the award to pursue further research work on nutrients of the African leafy vegetables in Kenya and has enrolled for a Master’s degree in Nutrition at North West University, Potchefstroom campus, South Africa.
For further information, contact Elizabeth Obel-Lawson at Bioversity's Nairobi office.
Online Learning Resources for Agriculture: the way forward
A workshop to review progress over the past four years of the CGIAR’s Online Learning Resources Project and plan for the future has made considerable progress towards defining the goals of a third phase for the project.
The OLR project is intended to provide an educational technology platform that gives access to information that can strengthen research skills, to facilitate cooperation between educators and researchers and to improve access to learning materials generated by the international, publicly funded research of the CGIAR. It helps to ensure quality training and education in the CGIAR and for partners.
The workshop brought together several stakeholders, among them universities in developed and developing countries, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the ARIADNE Foundation for the European Knowledge Pool.
Aissetou Yayé, Executive Secretary of the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) welcomed the opportunity for partnership between the CGIAR and the 128 agricultural colleges and universities in 34 African countries that ANAFE represents. "The improved ability to access and share learning resources based on research results will benefit higher education institutions in Africa," she said.
The workshop, hosted by Bioversity International at its headquarters in Rome, devoted most of its attention to starting the process of developing a new phase for the OLR project. The goal is to help to address the complex, growing and inter-related challenges of global poverty, food security, climate change and environmentally-sustainable agriculture.
Wayne Nelles of the International Potato Centre, the new OLR project co-ordinator, explained that the meeting made progress towards ensuring that future CGIAR open learning resources will be more widely accessible, available in the appropriate open digital formats and easier to use, re-use and redistribute. "Our hope is that these tools and resources will also help strengthen the research capacities of partners, users and CG scientists, thereby contributing to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals".
One of the OLR project’s early achievements was to create a web-based repository of learning resources linked to Moodle, an open source learning management system. The repository hosts more than 500 such resources, and in the past year CGIAR staff and partners have delivered several courses through Moodle, ranging from Urban Agriculture to Research Methods.
"Thanks to our partnership with ARIADNE, the Moodle platform allows trainers to reach a geographically distributed audience more effectively," said Jan Beniest of the World Agroforestry Centre, former coordinator of the OLR Project. For a global organization like the CGIAR, producing international public goods, this is very important.
Other project achievements included federated searching across learning repositories from many other organizations around the world, vastly increasing the number of resources that can be easily located.
"Our relatively small investment has helped strengthen the community of education specialists in the CGIAR and vital connections with our partners to create processes and products that can be built into larger initiatives, some of which are already in the pipeline," noted Enrica Porcari, Chief Information Officer and leader of the CGIAR’s ICT-KM Programme, which launched and supports the Online Learning Resources Project.
One of the most exciting developments for the OLR project in the future will be for the CGIAR to evaluate the recent ISO standard for quality assurance for education, training and learning. "This could enhance the quality of CGIAR learning resources and partnerships," said Thomas Zschocke of the United Nations University, who conducted a preliminary study for the partnership. "Applying quality standards would also enable the CGIAR training community to serve external partners effectively and efficiently."
For further information, contact Elizabeth Goldberg at Bioversity International.
GIGA project to ease access to global genebanks
A multimillion dollar project is poised to make it much easier for breeders and others to use the material stored in genebanks and, just as important, information about those accessions. The project, called Global Information on Germplasm Accessions (GIGA), specifically addresses the obstacles faced by breeders, crop researchers and others who seek hard-to-find information about germplasm that can provide resistance to pests, diseases and other stresses that reduce productivity and yields.
“GIGA will build on a decade of previous investments to make it simpler for everyone to make better use of the diversity stored in genebanks around the world,” said Michael Mackay, the Bioversity scientist who is coordinating the project.
The GIGA project is helping to implement the rational system foreseen by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture by bringing together Bioversity’s expertise in coordinating the efforts of the CGIAR’s genebanks through the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme with the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s interest in effective and efficient conservation and use. Bioversity and the Global Trust are contributing US$1.7 million each over three years. The Secretariat of the Treaty has pledged at least US$150,000 to include in the system a “shopping cart” that will enable exchange of material and make it easy to monitor and track such exchanges, as required by the Treaty.
The diversity of crop species is vital to ensuring more consistent, abundant and nutritious harvests, especially in developing countries where famine and malnutrition are widespread. But in addition to the diversity, researchers also need access to the information that will allow them to choose the most appropriate diversity to work with. While considerable amounts of diversity are stored in genebanks, particularly those of the CGIAR, information about agricultural biodiversity is both fragmentary and scattered, and is particularly difficult to access in the resource-poor countries where it is needed most.
GIGA will deploy three components to address the difficulties in making greater use of genebank accessions
“We need to develop common information standards to describe the key characteristics of genetic resources, so everyone can communicate effectively,” said Michael Mackay. In addition, GIGA will deploy a new version of genebank data-management software being developed by the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture and will build a user-friendly system to help people find what they are looking for, be it information or samples from the genebanks.
The project will go beyond the 700,000 accessions held in the 11 genebanks of the CGIAR to include the holdings gathered under EURISCO, the web catalogue that lists 1.1 million samples of crop diversity in European genebank collections. Other sources can be added in future.
Emile Frison, Director-General of Bioversity, described the launch of GIGA as “an exciting opportunity”.
“Working together,” he added, “Bioversity and its partners are contributing to the development of a global system of information and exchange for agricultural biodiversity. This will facilitate the wider use of biodiversity, which in turn is the key to agricultural development in a time of increasing food and fuel prices, climate change and water scarcity.”
For further information, contact Michael Mackay.
Making the most of Musa
As consumers throughout the world face higher food prices, CGIAR scientists and their partners are moving on many fronts to strengthen food security, including unprecedented efforts to enhance the production and marketing of banana and plantain (Musa spp.) in sub-Saharan Africa.
One country in the region that has experienced considerably less food price inflation than others is Uganda. A chief reason is the country’s self-sufficiency in the production of banana, which is much more important in local diets than internationally traded grains. In fact, banana is so important in Uganda that the same word – matooke – is used both for “banana” and “food.”
A bunch of problems
Sub-Saharan Africa produces about 30 million tons of banana and plantain per year, providing food for about 100 million people. The crops are especially important as staples and cash earners in Eastern Africa’s Great Lakes Zone and in the humid lowlands of West Africa. During recent decades, however, yields in sub-Saharan Africa have declined drastically, posing a serious threat to regional food security. Harvests are failing because of a combination of problems, which interact with one another to compound losses.
One of the worst threats is a fungal disease called black Sigatoka or black leaf streak disease. Originating in the Pacific, it first appeared in West Africa during the 1980s, where it has caused yield losses of 30 to 50 percent.
Another more recent disease problem in Africa is banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), caused by a bacterium previously restricted to Ethiopia. Reported in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001 and then in Rwanda in 2002, it emerged as a serious threat to the region’s food security. A survey in 2004 revealed that fully one third of the banana plants were infected with BXW. Yields dropped 30 to 50 percent on average and by up to 80 percent in heavily infected areas.
Further obstacles to progress in Africa’s banana and plantain production include major pests, particularly banana weevil and parasitic nematodes, and the more general limitations of declining soil fertility, inadequate crop management and weak market links.
Research focus
A few years ago, scientists feared that, in the absence of adequate control measures, black Sigatoka and BXW could devastate banana production in sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda alone, it was expected that about US$4 billion in income could be lost just to BXW by 2010.
Fortunately, such dire consequences have been averted through research and extension efforts, centering on practical, effective and environmentally sound approaches to disease management. Helping find such approaches is a central focus of banana and plantain research at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Bioversity International.
To curb the black Sigatoka threat, scientists at IITA developed high-yielding, disease-resistant hybrids, an achievement that earned them the CGIAR’s 1994 King Baudouin Award. National research partners are evaluating some of the resistant hybrids and releasing them to farmers, with especially good adoption rates reported in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria. Apart from the hybrids’ high yields and disease resistance, farmers appreciate their capacity for rapid multiplication (a result of excellent proliferation of the rhizomes, or “suckers,” used for propagation), their good taste and cooking qualities and their resistance to other diseases and pests. Some farmers who have adopted the hybrids are generating significant income from the sale of suckers, in addition to boosting returns from the sale of fruit.
The resistant hybrids are not suitable for the East African highlands, though, where farmers prefer different qualities in their bananas. Ugandan scientists are instead using genetic modification to put black sigatoka resistance into the region’s most favored varieties. Field trials recently began at a secure site in Kampala, Uganda, and preliminary results are encouraging.
Banana researchers seeking genetic solutions to BXW, in contrast, have yet to identify resistant varieties. Breeding for resistance will require years of dedicated work because of the high levels of sterility in most domesticated bananas.
Genetic engineering offers a possible solution, and biotechnology specialists at IITA, working in partnership with Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), are exploring its potential. They have developed h undreds of transgenic lines of banana, using genes from sweet pepper that confer resistance against BXW. Screening of the lines for resistance under lab conditions has given promising preliminary results.
“Developing resistant varieties is a sustainable solution for controlling pests and diseases. Improving the plant’s defense mechanism against BXW through genetic engineering offers many advantages,” says IITA molecular biologist Leena Tripathi.
Meanwhile the disease has been partially brought under control through a combination of research on crop management and education in improved practices. “We discovered what worked to control the disease, and how to encourage farmers to manage their plantations with this in mind,” says Eldad Karamura, a Bioversity scientist who has been instrumental in the campaign against BXW.
The global network of banana researchers managed by Bioversity was of great value in the campaign. “Our experience with bugtok, a similar disease in Asia, gave us the approach we needed to deal with BXW,” says Emile Frison, director general of Bioversity. That approach consists of a two-pronged strategy. A management component helps farmers to sustain production in affected areas and to slow or even halt the spread of the disease, while a surveillance component ensures that new outbreaks are spotted quickly and dealt with appropriately.
To ensure that the advice offered to farmers is sound, CGIAR scientists collaborated with colleagues at NARO to test control options. Working with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and other partners, researchers developed a comprehensive package of measures that has been rolled out now to more than 31,000 farmers. Despite glitches that inevitably arise when coping with a new disease, more and more success stories show that the disease can be contained.
Wider impact
To widen the impact of achievements in Musa genetic improvement and other research will require stronger support for national and community-based efforts to make improved cultivars and practices more readily available. That’s why IITA and Bioversity International included several of those technologies in an inventory of “best bets” for boosting sub-Saharan Africa’s crop production, which was compiled recently by CGIAR scientists in collaboration with the World Bank. Lucrative small-scale enterprises are already emerging in parts of Africa, which employ in vitro techniques to produce disease-free banana and plantain plantlets for massive dissemination of improved cultivars.
Meanwhile, banana breeders have expanded the scope of their work to include other traits that are important for poor producers and consumers, such as postharvest qualities and nutritional value. Researchers are also engaged in major efforts to conserve and better understand Musa diversity, which is critical for continued crop improvement. They are working toward that end through systematic assessment of cultivated and wild samples, for example, and by further developing germplasm information systems.
Best minds
For decades, banana and plantain research has centered mainly on the development of technologies that can help boost and stabilize production. As farmers gain better access to new germplasm and knowledge generated by that research, they will be better able not only to enhance crop productivity but to strengthen their ties with markets for surplus production.
New opportunities to accomplish both ends are rapidly emerging. For example, large international banana producers have recently announced plans for strategic investment in commercial banana production in sub-Saharan, with the aim of catering to lucrative markets in the Middle East and Europe. Sub-Saharan Africa offers other options as well for better marketing of banana and plantain within the region. A major challenge is to find ways of ensuring that small farmers are able to capture benefits from such developments through stronger market links.
In an unprecedented attempt to confront that challenge, CGIAR Centers, together with regional and national partners are organizing the first-ever pan-African banana and plantain conference designed to link research with marketing. Its organization is being led by IITA, in partnership with Bioversity, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS) and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The event will bring together the best minds from both the public and private sectors at Mombassa, Kenya, in early October, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, FARA, the Belgium Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC), and many others, who are recognized on the event Web site at www.banana2008.com.
Participants will hammer out a 10-year strategy for radically improving the way banana and plantain are produced and marketed in Africa. New partnerships involving the public and private sectors as well as civil society will figure importantly in this renewed effort to realize the vast potential of Musa spp. for strengthening food security and contributing to agricultural growth.
David Williams interview
Dr David Williams, coordinator of the CGIAR's System-wide Genetic Resources Programme, is in California for Harlan II, a symposium at UC Davis honouring the great exploring agro-botanist Jack Harlan. He appeared on Insight, a daily in-depth interview programme hosted by radio station KXJZ in Sacramento, California. In the interview David touched on domestication, genetic modification, the history of collecting and the importance of crop wild relatives.
Listen here.
Educating a new generation of foresters
Rome, Italy. For immediate release
Bioversity researchers have identified several areas in which the education of foresters needs to adapt to new realities in the use and conservation of trees and forests. They made their contribution at the First Global Workshop on Improving Forestry Education, held in Nairobi in September 2007. The workshop proceedings have now been published.
At the workshop 85 experts from 29 countries discussed how the forestry profession and forestry education need to change.
“Forests are more than sources of timber; they are also about people and the environment” said Per Rudebjer, a forester in Bioversity’s Capacity Development Unit. “Foresters need to understand more about how farmers use and conserve the diversity of trees and forests.”
Rudebjer points out that traditional education for foresters covers topics such as tree breeding, seed technology and the conservation of diversity in protected forest ecosystems, but there are gaps.
“Foresters need to know more about how local people use forests and trees to improve their livelihoods, and about conservation strategies that focus on the whole landscape,” Rudebjer said.
About 1.2 billion people in developing countries use trees to generate food and cash, according to FAO estimates, with wood for fuel by far the most important product. However, other products – generally lumped as non-timber forest products (NTFPs) – are crucial to the livelihoods of at least 600 million people. Sales of medicinal parts, fruit and other products contribute to incomes. Fruits and other foods gathered from forests and trees outside forests also provide essential nutrition to many people. Often, local people make use of forests and trees as part of their strategies to cope with risk, such as crop failures or market declines.
Efforts are underway to domesticate some of the more important species, with the aim of reducing over-exploitation and improving yields. At the same time, foresters need to ensure that sufficient genetic diversity remains among wild populations and in managed agro-ecosystems to enable them to adapt to changing conditions. Forest regeneration also needs to adapt to ensure that a suitable diversity of species is included so that forests can continue to deliver ecosystem services.
The Bioversity contribution to the workshop identified specific gaps in the curricula for the training of foresters. Plans are now underway to join hands with universities to address these gaps.
“Trees are often managed by farmers rather than foresters,” says Rudebjer. A wider approach to teaching foresters about genetic resources will improve matters, and teaching methods will also need to bring farmers into the circle.
For further information, contact Per Rudebjer.
Note to Editors:
The workshop was held at the World Agroforestry Centre and sponsored by the Government of Finland, Kenya Forest Service (KFS), ICRAF, ANAFE, AFORNET, Sida, the Commonwealth of Learning and FAO.
Bioversity ex Board Member honoured
Florence Wambugu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of two recipients of the 2008 Yara Prize. Professor Wambugu served on the Board of Bioversity International from 2000 to 2006, during which she repeatedly championed the needs of smallholder banana growers. The Prize noted her role in the development and introduction of disease-free tissue culture for banana cultivation, which has resulted in greatly increased yields, thus providing income for small-scale producers, many of them women.
Yara is the world's leading producer and marketer of mineral fertilizers, and the Yara Prize "recognizes efforts that increase food production and value creation in any field related to African agriculture".
Bioversity Board meets
The Board of Trustees of Bioversity International last week concluded a very successful meeting in Budapest, Hungary. The Board elected two new members and adopted a new mentoring policy that will promote the growth and on-the-job training of Bioversity staff. Members also spent considerable time in extensive discussion of the Change Process being undertaken by the CGIAR, in order to help Bioversity to continue to play an important role within a reinvigorated CGIAR system.
At the official opening of the meeting Tony Gregson, Board Chair, noted Hungary’s founding membership of both the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) and the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN). Dr Gregson paid tribute to the “expertise, knowledge and experience of Hungary’s contributions” to the two networks, both of which are coordinated by a Bioversity secretariat.
The Board also heard about important steps that Hungary has taken to secure the future of its national genebank at Tápiószele. Dr Katalin Rodics, Head of the Biodiversity Unit at the Hungarian Ministry of the Environment, told the Bioversity Board that as the focal point of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity she had come to realize not only that agricultural biodiversity was as threatened as wildlife, but also that the situation is worse for agrobiodiversity “because most people and decision makers have not noticed this pressing situation”.
Dr Rodics determined to “pull down the wall” between nature conservation and agriculture, and to that end instigated a joint programme of the ministries of environment and of agriculture to raise money for the genebank and to promote its importance.
Her colleague, Dr Zsolt Feldman, deputy head of the Department of Agriculture, supported the project. He told the Board that in his view, while collecting crop varieties was important, “more important is to maintain and share them”. This, he explained, was the “farseeing intention” of Andor Jánossy, the founder of the National Institute of Agrobotany in Tápiószele, who was born 100 years ago in 1908.
Dr Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, warmly welcomed the joint ministerial initiative to preserve its national genebank. “Hungary has a very strong tradition of home gardens and the maintenance of traditional varieties and livestock breeds,” he said, and he encouraged the commitment to maintain and make available those resources.
During its meeting the Board bade farewell to Dr Olga Linares and Dr Stephen Smith, both of whom came to the end of their final term of office. The Board elected Dr Jeremy Burdon, Chief of CSIRO Plant Industry, Australia, and Dr Cristián Samper, Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Biodiversity (and Bioversity) impress Kenyan government
Showing vegetables to President Kibaki of Kenya is Maryam Imbumi, a botanist at National Museums of Kenya, who has been working with Bioversity International on a variety of projects related to the use of traditional African leafy vegetables to enhance dietary diversity and thereby improve nutrition.
The occasion was the official opening of the 25th FAO Africa Regional Conference. Bioversity mounted a stall displaying the diversity of traditional leafy vegetables, which attracted considerable attention from President Kibaki and his entourage. The President asked for a copy of a Bioversity publication on traditional leafy vegetables, and engaged in a lively discussion about the importance of making use of the full range of agricultural biodiversity to address issues of food security in Kenya. Bioversity's Regional Director Joseph Baidu-Forson emphasized the need for further research into neglected and underutilized species, and Honourable William Ruto, Kenya's Minister of Agriculture, was in full agreement.
The Daily Nation's report on the event, and a copy of President Kibaki's speech, can be viewed online.
Training course on in vitro and cryopreservation techniques
Bioversity International and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in India are once again organizing an international training course to teach techniques for conserving genetic diversity. The course will focus on in vitro conservation and cryopreservation, vital approaches to the conservation of some crops, such as fruit trees and many root and tubers, that cannot be conserved as seeds. It is designed to enhance the skills of young scientists who are already working in genebank conservation. "We are very pleased to be able to offer the course again, thanks to the sustained and strong support from NBPGR and India," said Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Capacity Development at Bioversity International."Last year we had ten participants from seven countries," said Prem Mathur, Bioversity's local organiser in New Delhi, "and they found it very worthwhile."The participants' feedback bears this out.Dr Maizura Ithnin, from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, praised the interactions with the experts. "Hands-on experience, the tips, do's and don'ts, were valuable," she said, adding that she would recommend the course unhesitatingly to anyone seeking to establish cryopreservation facilities.Participants valued the formal teaching. "It had a very high technical and scientific standard, it far exceeded my expectations," said Sandra Constantino, of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. "Lectures and practicals were very good, very well planned and delivered." And because the course required students to have some prior experience "no time was lost on very basic things that all the students already knew".Justin Ugochukwu Ogbu, a Research Officer at the Root Crop Research Institute in Nigeria said that the course "armed me with enhanced skill and knowledge which I have applied in solving related problems in my home institution, as well as in my on-going PhD research programme".
The training course on In Vitro and Cryopreservation Techniques for Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources will take place at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India from 3 to 15 November 2008. NBPGR is one of the leading institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and is a Bioversity International Centre of Excellence. The course is co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), a programme of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (AAPARI). The course consists of lectures and practical sessions using various species. Young scientists are encouraged to participate. They may also bring material for hands-on practice.
Full details of the course and an application form are available at the Bioversity web site. Closing date for applications is 30 August 2008.
Perhaps the only quibble was with the food; many participants found it too highly spiced.
"We'll be taking care of that this time," joked Prem Mathur. "I do urge anyone with an interest to apply for the course," he added.
For further information, contact Elizabeth Goldberg.
Cautious Welcome For Food Summit Declaration
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
Bioversity International, one of the 15 international agricultural research centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), today broadly welcomed the declaration adopted yesterday by the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome.
"While there was a lot that governments could not agree on, such as trade agreements and biofuels, two things were mentioned in almost every statement; the need for humanitarian aid and the need to invest more in agricultural research and development," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, who represented the CGIAR at the High-Level Conference.
Thanks to pledges of additional support, The World Food Programme and others will be able to help those in greatest need.
"That's excellent, but we also need to see money to match the rhetoric of more research and development. Otherwise, when the food crisis reoccurs, as it will, it will be even worse than this time," Frison warned.
The Declaration "urge[s] the international community, including the private sector, to decisively step up investment in science and technology for food and agriculture".
Among the many delegates calling for greater support for research and development was Ed Schafer, US Secretary of Agriculture.
"We must invest in scientists and research institutions," he told the conference on the opening day. He also said that he had discussed how to increase agricultural productivity in developing countries with Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Laureate whose work with the forerunners of the CGIAR produced the Green Revolution and is estimated to have saved a billion lives.
"That's ironic," Frison said. He noted that the US government has cut its allocation to the CGIAR by about US$30 million this year, equivalent to eliminating one entire centre and effectively blocking all new research.
"Dr Borlaug has written several letters to the administration asking them to reconsider the decision to cut funding," said Frison. "I hope that with all the promises made here in Rome they will now reconsider."
The Declaration separates immediate and short-term measures from medium- and long-term measures. Among the former, it calls for support to give the worst affected farmers "access to appropriate locally adapted seeds, fertilizers, animal feed and other inputs ... to increase agricultural production."
An Action Plan for coping with the current food price crisis drawn up by the CGIAR Centres and presented to the meeting indicated that this was one area in which the Centres were ready to contribute right now.
"With donor support, CGIAR Centres can certainly provide the seeds, technology and know-how that partners can then use to help farmers increase their harvests," Frison said.
For the medium and long term, the Declaration points out that "it is essential to address the fundamental question of how to increase the resilience of present food production systems to challenges posed by climate change."
"The Declaration says that 'maintaining biodiversity is key to sustaining future production performance'. I'd go further than that. We need to make much greater use of agricultural biodiversity now," Frison said.
"This is a very important point," he continued. "The farming systems of poor people in marginal lands can become more productive and more resilient in the face of external pressures, and not just those of climate change. That will take research, and to do that will take additional investment."
ENDS
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas
Agricultural Researchers Call for a Revolution in Sustainable Agriculture
<h5>Earlier Efforts to Achieve Sustainable Agriculture Stalled by Declining Support</h5>
Rome, Italy
For immediate release
With the aim of helping avert future food crises, the world's largest organization dedicated to international agricultural research called today for renewed commitment to a revolution in sustainable agriculture, which was set for success in the 1990s but then stalled as a result of waning financial support.
Just as all the elements needed for such a revolution came together more than a decade ago, support for agriculture, at the international and national levels, went into a tailspin, explained Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International – one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Frison spoke on behalf of the Alliance of CGIAR Centers during the High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bio-energy, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, Frison noted, wealthy countries cut their support roughly in half from US$6 billion to $2.8 billion between 1980 and 2006. “The new revolution in sustainable agriculture was essentially put on hold,” he remarked.
“That's one of the reasons we're facing a food price crisis now,” Frison continued. “It also helps explain why we're not better prepared to confront the impacts of climate change in agriculture. Farmers would be much further along in adapting to those impacts, if more of them had the resilient varieties now available and if more were using improved practices for managing natural resources, including biodiversity, soils, water and small-scale fisheries.”
Beginning in the 1960s, international agricultural research centers later supported by the CGIAR began developing modern varieties of rice and wheat, which made possible the worldwide Green Revolution in agriculture. Responding well to fertilizer, the new varieties gave crop yields a large boost, especially in irrigated areas with uniformly favorable conditions. The steady stream of improved varieties and other technologies had huge impact. For every dollar invested in CGIAR research since 1971, nine dollars worth of additional food has been produced, according to a 2003 study led by Yale economist Robert Evenson.
The Green Revolution even offered environmental benefits, lessening the pressure on fragile land that otherwise would have been brought into cultivation. But it also had environmental costs. More intensive cultivation, without proper resource management, led in many places to severe degradation of soils and water.
By the 1990s, however, the CGIAR had in place a strong program of research to achieve a more sustainable revolution in agriculture. Through that research, they found ways to balance the need for more intensive crop production with the need to protect natural resources. A notable example is the spread of “zero-till” technology in the rice-wheat systems of South Asia's Indo-Gangetic Plain. Close to half a million farmers are using this technology on more than 3.2 million hectares, according to CGIAR impact reports. Crop yields are higher, and production costs are down, mainly because of savings in energy and water. Economic benefits were estimated several years ago to have reached a total of $147 million.
Increased harvests and steadily declining food prices throughout the 1980s and 1990s lulled donors into complacency about agriculture, Frison commented, and they shifted attention to other development challenges. Despite the funding cuts to agriculture, key research received support and produced important results. For that reason, Frison asserted, the Alliance of CGIAR Centers is ready to help resolve the current food crisis and reduce the risk of future crises through a set of short-, medium- and long-term measures, outlined in an action plan presented at the FAO High-Level Conference.
“We urgently need to accelerate the flow of new varieties tolerant to heat, drought and other stresses that will become worse with climate change,” Frison said. “We must also spread more widely the new tools and methods from research on natural resource management. But there are no simple solutions and no magic bullets.
“Nor should we concentrate just on globally important staples,” Frison added. Locally important crops and livestock, for example millets in India, bananas across much of Africa, and Andean roots and tubers and grains in South America, are often the key source of sustenance for poor, rural people. Production in such systems, which are common in marginal areas, must be increased to improve food security and nutrition for the poorest farmers.
“Success will require a substantial increase in funding and collective action among all key actors and players,” Frison stressed. ”We believe that, in order to deliver the knowledge and technologies required, we must double our annual investment in pro-poor research.” The Alliance will continue to work in concert with other international institutions, such as FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme and World Bank, as well as with many regional, national and local partners.
ENDS
For further information, contact Jeff Haskins,/a> at Burness Communications or Jeremy Cherfas at Bioversity International
About the CGIAR:
The CGIAR, established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting the work of 15 international Centers. In collaboration with national agricultural research systems, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources. For more information, please visit www.cgiar.org.
Tailor-made genebank training
Two scientists from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), a key Bioversity partner, have just completed three weeks of high-level training at a state of the art genebank in Suwon, South Korea. The genebank is operated by the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of South Korea. Delivering training is one of the goals of an agreement between RDA and Bioversity International.
Zulhairil bin Ariffin and Azuan Bin Amron, researchers at the Strategic Resource Research Centre of MARDI, learned about various aspects of genebank management, including seed processing for storage, use of molecular markers to characterize and evaluate plant genetic resources, documentation and information management and how to develop a genebank operation manual.
Dr Salma Idris, MARDI's principal research officer, welcomed the training programme. “This will enhance genebank management in Malaysia. It will also complement the establishment of MARDI's new genebank, set to be completed in 2010 at Serdang, Malaysia and create opportunities to gain new information in addition to what is currently being practiced in the country.“
Dr Cho Myoung Rae, a senior RDA scientist, currently on secondment to Bioversity's regional office in Malaysia agreed. “It is indeed an opportune moment for Bioversity International and RDA to forge closer ties with partners through programmes like these which greatly enhance the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources.“
The training will be extended to genebank curators in other countries of the Asia-Pacific-Oceania region. Two to three countries will be selected on a yearly basis, and the programme will be tailor-made to meet specific national needs.
Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Bioversity's Capacity Development Unit, commented: “We value RDA's important regional collaboration. By offering in-depth, tailor-made training genebank managers in the region will be enabled to manage and use their collections to address pressing needs for greater food security.“
For further information, contact Elizabeth Goldberg.
International Day for Biodiversity in Africa
In Nairobi yesterday Honourable Japhet Kareke Mbiuki, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Livestock in charge of Crop Production, launched the Kenyan portion of Diversity for Life, the global communication initiative. Much of the campaign's work in Kenya will focus on the importance of agricultural biodiversity, and especially traditional African leafy vegetables, in delivering dietary diversity and better nutrition and health. School feeding programmes will be a particular target.
Regional Director Jojo Baidu Forson and Bioversity staff members were interviewed by NTV Kenya. The report stressed the importance of agricultural biodiversity in improving nutrition and health and in boosting self-sufficiency. A diversity exhibit mounted in collaboration with National Museums of Kenya provided a colourful backdrop to the report. You can see the segment on YouTube.
Celebrations in Benin continued this morning, where an Information Sharing break took place over coffee at the offices of the international agricultural research organizations there. A brief presentation to staff at the Africa Rice Centre helped to familiarize them with the importance of biodiversity for humanity, helped by a display of local products that make use of agricultural biodiversity. National and local broadcast media covered the event. The three local CGIAR centres (Africa Rice Centre, Bioversity International and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture) plan a briefing on agricultural biodiversity for international journalists next week.
For further information, contact Elizabeth Obel-Lawson.
Bioversity marks International Day for Biodiversity and Agriculture
Bioversity International and its partners are taking part in several events to mark the International Day of Biodiversity, which this year is dedicated to Biodiversity and Agriculture. Rome sees the launch of a global awareness campaign to heighten appreciation of the importance of agricultural biodiversity.
Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity, said at the launch: "In the build up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, we want politicians, policy-makers and ordinary people to begin to give agricultural biodiversity the attention and respect it deserves. By 2010 we need politicians to be taking serious action to ensure that agricultural biodiversity can be a big part of the solution to the huge challenges we face today. Diversity for Life, the global campaign we are launching tonight, will help them to do so."
Via video, Frison also addressed a side event organised by the Secretariat of the convention on Biological Diversity at the 9th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Bonn. You can see his presentation here.
Bioversity and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) are hosting a seminar on Agriculture and Biodiversity: New Challenges and Emerging Issues, which coincides with the launching of a book on Agrobiodiversity in Malaysia.
In Latin America Bioversity International and its partners are staging several events for the day. In Ecuador, DENAREF is hosting an open house and press conference dedicated to agricultural biodiversity and how it can be used to fight the food price crisis and the loss of local underused species. INIFAT in Cuba, which worked with Bioversity on a home gardens project, is organizing a diversity fair with farmers who are part of an in-situ conservation project. And in Colombia, the Instituto Humboldt will hold a series of lectures in different cities. Peru will celebrate International Day for Biodiversity at the national Potato Congress in Huancayo. In addition, INRENA (the National Institute of Natural Resources) will celebrate the day in Lima. A much larger celebration, featuring a fair with native products, farmers offering local products for sale and culinary displays (supported by Gastrotur and the Ministry of Tourism) is being organized for June 21st, to coincide with the Farmers' Day celebration.
"This list of some of the events celebrating Biodiversity and Agriculture Day is a great demonstration of the importance of agricultural biodiversity," said Emile Frison. "Of course agrobiodiversity is important for breeding, but its scope goes much further. Agricultural biodiversity also delivers better nutrition and health. It makes harvests more sustainable and minimizes the risk of failure. It offers income-earning opportunities and is especially valuable to the poorest people on the most marginal lands. It confers greater sustainability on farming systems. And in the medium term, it will be absolutely essential to cope with climate change. That's a pretty important list."
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas.
Diversity for Life: Global campaign launched in Rome
Rome, Italy
Embargoed until 00.01 CEST, 22 May 2008
[Italian]
A global campaign to draw attention to the importance of agricultural biodiversity for human survival and well-being will be launched at 18.30 CEST today in Rome. A round table, moderated by the renowned Italian television and radio journalist Emanuela Falcetti, and a performance by the world-famous Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, will kicked off a two and a half year effort to ensure that agricultural biodiversity is recognized as the very basis of human culture and development.
This launch event is a result of collaboration between Bioversity International and the Institute of Science and Nutrition of Italy's National Research Council, which was responsible for selecting the Italian scientists for the round table.
"Culture depends on agriculture, which gave people the leisure to develop art, philosophy, science and all the other activities we take for granted in a civilized society," said Dr Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International in opening the programme. "And agriculture depends on biodiversity."
The campaign, Diversity for Life, is being launched on 22 May, the International Day for Biodiversity, which this year is devoted to biodiversity and agriculture. Simultaneous launch events are taking place in key countries -- among them Kenya, Malaysia and Uzbekistan -- to launch national and regional communications initiatives. The global campaign will culminate in 2010, which has been designated the International Year of Biodiversity.
Agricultural biodiversity is made up of the various ecosystems, plants, animals and microbes that support human life with food, fibres, building materials and such like. Plant and animal diversity – the many different kinds of apples, or cattle breeds, for example– is the product of generations of breeding and selection by farmers and, more recently, scientific breeders and is the foundation of all improvements to crops and livestock.
"This is not just about breeding," said Emile Frison, "although that is certainly important. Agricultural biodiversity also delivers better nutrition and health. It makes harvests more sustainable and minimizes the risk of failure. It offers income-earning opportunities and is especially valuable to the poorest people on the most marginal lands. It confers greater sustainability on farming systems. And in the medium term, it will be absolutely essential to cope with climate change. That's a pretty important list."
Speakers at the round table will address a range of topics concerned with agriculture and biodiversity. Among them, Professor Giovanni Aliotta of the Institute of Science and Nutrition and lecturer at the Second University of Naples in Caserta will discuss the links between biodiversity and what he calls "agri … culture," echoing the idea that culture, diversity and agriculture are inextricably intertwined.
Professor Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza, President of the National Academy of Sciences, will cover Italy's contribution to international efforts on agricultural biodiversity.
Philosophical question will be addressed too. Aldo Masullo, professor emeritus at the Federico II Unversity in Naples will discuss the right to diversity, while writer Beppe Bigazzi asks about population and biodiversity: is there enough to nourish everyone?
"There is more to this than science and philosophy. We also want to celebrate the human diversity and culture that springs from agricultural riches," said Ruth Raymond, Head of the Public Awareness Unit at Bioversity International and Co-ordinator of the global campaign. "I'm thrilled that the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio has agreed to play for us. They are a living embodiment of everything the campaign is about: diversity, culture and celebration."
"Our health also depends on biodiversity," explained Antonio Malorni, director of the CNR's Institute of Science and Nutrition, "because the golden rule for healthy living is to eat little but to eat the greatest diversity possible."
Participants in the round table will also see a short film that explores the relationship between members of the Orchestra and food. What do they miss about home cooking? And what do they think of Italy's cuisine?
"There is a very serious message in all of this," stressed Emile Frison. "In the build up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, we want politicians, policy-makers and ordinary people to begin to give agricultural biodiversity the attention and respect it deserves. It is, quite literally, the basis of future human prosperity and survival, and with all the challenges pressing down on us, we continue to ignore it at our peril."
Note to Editors
Bioversity International is the world's largest organization dedicated to the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity. It is one of the centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
The launch event is supported by the President of the Republic of Italy and by:
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Consiglio Nationale delle Richerche (CNR)
Istituto Agronomico per l'Oltromare (IAO)
Ecoagriculture Partners
Roma Congressi
With the additional support of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests, Ministry of Health, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture.
Other supporters include Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA), Istituto Nationale di Ricerca per gli Alimentazi e la Nutrizione (INRAN) and Countdown 2010 (IUCN).
For further information, contact Ruth Raymond.
One stop shop for information on crop wild relatives
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
A Global Portal that offers a wealth of information on wild relatives of crops will be launched on 20 May in Bonn, Germany at the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. By making such information widely accessible the Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) Global Portal will contribute to more effective conservation and sustainable use of wild relatives through better-informed decision making by policymakers, researchers and conservationists. The portal is part of a five-year project with five countries -- Armenia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan -- implemented by Bioversity International with funding provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Crop wild relatives are a vital weapon in the fight for global food security. Wild relatives of plants such as potato and wheat contain genes that confer resistance to devastating pests and diseases or permit them to survive extreme drought and temperatures. These traits can be bred into crops to confer those essential characteristics as well and others such as enhanced nutritional quality. Crop wild relatives will be an increasingly important line of defence in helping adapt crops to changing climatic conditions.
“Climate change, increasing demand for food and increasing prices for fossil fuels make it more urgent that we conserve crop wild relatives, especially in situ, under natural conditions to ensure that the evolutionary processes that result in their many beneficial traits are able to continue,“ said Danny Hunter, Global Coordinator of the project.
“We are launching the Global Portal at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity precisely because it is a landmark event in the conservation of biological diversity,“ said Hunter. “Natural populations of crop wild relatives are at great risk, primarily from habitat loss but increasingly from climate change. To ensure their availability to enhance future agricultural yields, we must strive for effective conservation of crop wild relatives, but that is a challenge because the information about them is not readily available. The Global Portal is an important step in addressing this challenge.“
The range of information available through the CWR Global Portal covers ex situ conservation, taxonomy, conservation status and distribution, relevant contacts, literature sources, latest news and photos. Information sources include the project's country partners, international partners (BGCI, FAO, IUCN, and UNEP-WCMC), and data from other countries, accessible via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
“The five country partners in the project have carried out significant in situ conservation and management actions focusing on 36 genera of crop wild relatives. Establishing effective partnerships and collaborations between relevant groups and stakeholders, they have been able to set priorities, undertake national surveys and develop national inventories and databases, and have been active in public awareness and integrating material on wild relatives into national educational curricula,“ said Hunter. “These countries are committed to sharing this information with the international community in the hope that it increases awareness and understanding of crop wild relatives, demonstrates how to ensure their effective conservation and encourages other countries to do likewise.“
Note to Editors:
The Crop Wild Relatives Project
In situ conservation of Crop Wild Relatives Through Enhanced Information Management and Field Application is being implemented in five countries – Armenia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. The project is coordinated by Bioversity International with financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Additional funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); co-funding from all partners.
For further information, contact Danny Hunter (Project Coordinator)
Tel: +39.066118316 email: d.hunter@cgiar.org
www.cropwildrelatives.org
International Partners
- Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
- Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), Germany
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Bioversity International awards two research fellowships
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
Bioversity International's Board of Trustees recently approved two Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships for research into agricultural biodiversity. Enoch G. Achigan-Dako, of Benin, will study watermelon and its wild relatives with a view to improving conservation and use of genetic diversity. Dorin Gupta, from India, plans to mine the genome of Medicago truncatula (barrel medic) in search of markers that can be used in lentil breeding. The Fellowships are intended to advance the careers of younger scientists from developing countries by enabling them to carry out relevant, innovative research outside their own countries. Research must also be valuable and applicable to the home country.
Medicago trunculata was selected as a model legume for genome sequencing and the results are now being used to further research in many areas. Gupta will work with Dr Paul Taylor at BioMarka at the University of Melbourne in Australia, looking for markers in medic that could help to identify useful genes in lentil, especially wild relatives. Cultivated lentil diversity is not all that broad, and Gupta's previous research has been somewhat hampered by the lack of useful variability from which to breed improved varieties. Although she has had some success with using wild lentils to improve cultivated varieties, Gupta believes that molecular markers will improve the efficiency of lentil breeding by enabling her and all breeders to target genes of interest. Gupta will be co-supervised by Sarkar Ashutosh, a lentil breeder at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which will also be supplying some of the materials for the study in Australia.
For most people watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is first and foremost a juicy, refreshing fruit associated with hot summer days. In west Africa, however, there are species of C. lanatus and its close wild relative C. colocynthis that have bitter, inedible flesh. Both species are widely used as sources of proteins, vitamins and oil, and also provide an income for small farmers. Some researchers have taken that as evidence that watermelon was domesticated in Africa. However, the situation is unclear, with the relationship between C. lanatus and C. colocynthis confused, and several other species or subspecies adding to the confusion. Achigan-Dako plans to use molecular tools to characterize various species of melon collected in Africa and elsewhere and to use the data to build a better tree of family relationships among the various groups. This will help both to conserve genetic diversity and to make use of that diversity, for example by breeding new watermelon varieties with seeds appropriate for infant food, an increasingly important use in sub-Saharan Africa. Achigan-Dako will be hosted by the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Research at Gatersleben in Germany.
Dr Olga Linares, leader of the Bioversity Board's Fellowships Task Group, commented that all the short-listed applications had been strong, and both of the chosen applications were very good.
"I am very happy with the quality of our Vavilov-Frankel Fellows again this year," said Elizabeth Goldberg, head of training at Bioversity. "In future we hope to be able to strengthen the programme even further."
Note to editors:
The Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships were established in 1989 to commemorate the achievements of Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov and Sir Otto Frankel. The Fellowships are supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation in Australia and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc in the USA. For further information, visit the Fellowship web site.
Forestry fellowship: call for applications
Bioversity International invites young African scientists to apply for the Abdou-Salam Ouédraogo Fellowship, which offers support for research on conservation and use of forest genetic resources. For full details of the fellowship and how to apply, see Bioversity's Training web site. Closing date for applications is 30 May 2008.
Angola to Brazil and back again
South-south collaboration strengthens the use of agricultural biodiversity
Almost three years ago, José Pedro won an MSc scholarship linking Africa and Brazil in training for plant genetic resources. Having completed his dissertation, Pedro is now back in Angola, putting his training to good work and full of confidence for the future. José Pedro was, by his own admission, an “experiment” in an effort to strengthen links between academic institutions and national agricultural research systems of countries in the global “South”. The government of Brazil funded a scholarship, managed by Bioversity, which allowed Pedro to travel from Agostinho Neto University in Angola to do his research at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil. Pedro had already completed a study of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) at the Angolan Plant Genetic Resources Center (CNRF), and planned to extend his research to cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). “I chose cowpea to try to expand my knowledge to other legumes,” Pedro said. “Cowpea and common beans are important because both are basic foods for the Angolan population.” Cowpea is grown throughout Angola, and the genebank holds about 300 accessions that need to be characterized. Pedro worked with Professor Antonio Carlos Alves at UFSC to design his research, which he then carried out back in Angola. He collected germplasm throughout the country, asked farmers about how they use cowpea and manage their cropping systems, and did a detailed characterization of varieties from the CNRF genebank. He then went back to UFSC to analyze the data and to write his thesis. Liz Matos, Lecturer and Reader in Genetics, Evolution, and Conservation and Management of Biological Resources at the Agostinho Neto University, and Pedro's supervisor, said that his research and training were “extremely useful for the CNRF. He returned with excellent training”.
That training was put to work almost immediately on Pedro's return to Angola. “He is National Advisor of a technical cooperation programme organized by FAO,” Matos said. That involves training 8 Angolan technicians to use the characterization skills that he has developed. Matos thinks that Pedro has excellent prospects with CNRF, responsible for characterization and storage of accessions collected throughout the country.
Overall, both Pedro and Matos think that the “experiment” was a great success. Matos singles out the ease with which Portuguese-speaking scientists from Africa can make use of materials and teaching available in Brazil. “It confirmed the advantage of sending staff for training in Brazilian institutions,” she said. “There is no problem of language and study material is available in Portuguese.”
Pedro goes further. “Southern cooperation to develop agricultural biodiversity can provide added value in the fight against hunger, poverty and social inequality in many countries of this region.” He is also convinced that his research could provide a model for similar studies on other crops and in other countries in the region.
Further scholarships are under discussion, and José Pedro is convinced of their value. “I think the partnership between Bioversity and UFSC, to strengthen research in the area of plant genetic resources and oriented to Portuguese-speaking countries, should be encouraged to continue.”
Pedro also knows that these plans will be watched with keen interest. “I have a colleague, head of the seed laboratory, who is very interested in following her studies on germplasm conservation.”
For further information contact Margarita Baena.
Farmers grow more diversity than expected, in unexpected ways
For immediate release
Rome, Italy
A 10-year study in eight countries has revealed that farmers maintain more diversity than previously thought, and do so in two distinct ways for two distinct reasons.
“Perhaps the most important result overall is that farmers who choose to grow traditional varieties are generally growing more than one variety, which is presumably a deliberate choice in favour of diversity“ said Devra Jarvis, senior scientist at Bioversity, who coordinated the study.
The paper by Jarvis and her colleagues is published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (see details below). On more than 2000 small farms across five continents the team measured the richness and the evenness of the varieties farmers grow in their fields and gardens. Richness and evenness are two measurements of diversity that have long been used by ecologists. Richness refers to the number of different varieties, regardless of how common each may be. Evenness, by contrast, measures how common each variety is. If all the varieties are planted on roughly equal areas of land, then evenness is high, whereas if one or two varieties dominate the area planted to that crop, evenness is low.
“The point of these measures,“ said Jarvis “is that they let us compare different crops in different places and different cultures. They're not often used in small-scale or single species studies.“
The partnership studied 27 crops in 26 communities, representing about 63,600 hectares distributed across eight countries. Sites ranged from sea level, in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, to above 3000 metres in Nepal. Environments included arid and semi-arid areas of Burkina Faso and Morocco, temperate areas in Hungary and Nepal, tropical highlands in Ethiopia, and tropical and subtropical lowlands in Mexico, Amazonian Peru and Vietnam. Farming systems were rain-fed or irrigated, stable or shifting cultivation.
“We wanted to be sure that we were covering different cultures and also different crop breeding systems,“ Jarvis explained. “We also had to concentrate on the major subsistence crops in each country, and on crops of global importance. And we wanted to develop tools that could be used anywhere to assess the diversity farmers are maintaining and using.“
The results show that, despite the differences among crops, cultures and countries, there are consistent patterns to the ways farmers use and maintain diversity.
On any given farm, staple crops tend to have low evenness, so that one variety is dominant, while non staples are more even, with each variety occupying roughly the same area. Jarvis believes this reflects two different strategies. For staples, farmers are ensuring that they have diversity available for future use, for example to cope with environmental change or social and economic needs. For non-staples, they are growing different varieties that they currently need for different purposes. “The difference between the two situations has implications for the use and conservation of traditional variety diversity,“ Jarvis said.
Others have welcomed the results of the study. Jean-Louis Pham, at the French Institute of Research for Development in Montpellier, France, paid tribute to the painstaking efforts needed to assemble so much relatively simple data. He told a reporter that the results will no doubt be widely used as a reference, “providing us with a kind of state of the world of crop diversity at the beginning of the 21st century“.
Reference: A global perspective of the richness and evenness of traditional crop-variety diversity maintained by farming communities PNAS published March 24, 2008, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0800607105
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas.
Banana and plantain researchers get a new web site
The ProMusa network—established in 1997 by Bioversity to provide expert support to the world's (very few) banana breeders—has a new website that features discussions, an electronic newsletter, an e-mail alert for registered users and commenting facilities to express opinions on individual articles.
The changes come on the heels of the re-launch of the ProMusa network under the auspices of the International Society for Horticultural Sciences (ISHS). The involvement with ISHS provides the opportunity to draw in expertise from other crops and to increase impact through the dissemination of results in the Society's publications, such as Acta Horticulturae and Scripta Horticulturae. In the process, the number of working groups has been reduced from six to three (Crop Improvement, Crop Protection and Crop Production) to encourage inter-disciplinary thinking, to enable a more rapid response to changing research priorities and to facilitate the development of inter-group projects. The working groups take the lead in organizing annual research meetings, rotating between topics and moving around banana-producing regions.
The interactive tools on the website are designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas among scientists and other stakeholders with an interest in banana and plantain. Each working group has a discussion forum where scientists can jointly reflect on the many R&D challenges that the ProMusa community addresses and reach an initial consensus on actions to address specific problems.
There is also scope for opinions and broader debate. For instance, virologists are debating whether the guidelines for the safe movement of banana germplasm, which currently impede the dissemination of about one-third of the accessions in the international Musa collection, should be revised.
The ProMusa website is maintained by Bioversity, which also provides a full-time Coordinator and logistic support. Other organizations provide the elected chairs of the working groups.
The ProMusa website is accessible at www.promusa.org.
For further information, contact Anne Vezina.
Svalbard not the only safe haven for crop diversity
Embargoed until 00.01 hrs CET 26 February 2008
As the sun finally clears the horizon, signalling an end to the long winter night, the eyes of the world will be on the Global Seed Vault, dug into the mountainside above the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. The first boxes of 12 tonnes - a hundred million seeds - will be carried down the long tunnel to the deep freezers within, there to be kept in safety just in case. The specimens will all be what scientists call orthodox seeds, those that can be dried and stored at low temperatures without harm. Ironically, species that cannot be dried and stored have no place in the frozen Svalbard vault. They need cold, but they also need regular human attention. Where will they be secure?
For some, in the sunny south of France.
The first few hundred samples of banana and plantain from the International Musa Germplasm Collection, managed by Bioversity International and supported by the Belgian government, have been safely delivered from the International Transit Centre (ITC) at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium to the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Montpellier, France.
The "black box" collection at IRD - in reality a large vat kept at an extremely chilly -196°C by liquid nitrogen - represents the same kind of safety backup that Svalbard offers for orthodox seeds. Should anything happen to the samples at Leuven, like the typhoon that damaged the Philippine rice genebank or the looters who wiped out the genebank at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, duplicates will be available at IRD.
"It's a mirror of the need for crop diversity itself," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, which is working closely with the Global Crop Diversity Trust to secure important collections of agricultural biodiversity. "Just as humanity needs different varieties of different crops, so different crops need different kinds of long-term storage."
Like bananas and plantains, crops such as coconut, cassava, yam, potato, sweet potato and taro are vitally important foods that are best conserved in field genebanks and tissue culture. But those methods are expensive, so scientists are working to develop protocols for cryopreservation, long-term storage at very low temperatures. KULeuven is a leader in this area and has been designated a Global Centre of Excellence on Plant Cryobiology. The experts there have been working with the genebanks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and others to develop cryopreservation protocols and safety duplicates of important collections.
"The safety duplicates are at KULeuven in Belgium," Frison said. "But because the primary banana collection is already there, we had to put the safety duplicate somewhere else."
"We chose IRD to house the black box collection because of the expertise of their scientists in cryopreservation," said Professor Rony Swennen, Honorary Research Fellow at Bioversity and Director of the ITC. IRD researchers made an important contribution to cryopreservation by working out how many samples of each variety should be conserved.
"There is no guarantee that a thawed piece of plant tissue will regenerate into a fully viable plant," Swennen explained. "IRD scientists solved that problem by developing a method to calculate the number of samples needed to ensure a 95% chance that at least one of them will produce a plant."
The method is based on the survival rate of the accession, the risk level the genebank manager is willing to accept, and the time between regenerations. Armed with this information Bart Piette and Bart Panis, Belgian scientists at KULeuven, cryopreserved a batch of accessions three separate times, to minimise the risk that all might be contaminated. One of each repetition has gone to France while the other two remain in Belgium.
Just as the Trust is supporting the ongoing operations of the Global Seed Vault and the preparation and shipping of seeds to Svalbard, it is also supporting research into cryopreservation and safety backups for crops that need it. Tissue culture is expensive and time-consuming because fresh cultures must frequently be made, while field collections are vulnerable to environmental disasters. Research at the Global Centre of Excellence on Plant Cryobiology at KULeuven and elsewhere is delivering improved cryopreservation protocols that enable much longer storage without the need for human interference.
"The Trust's support in making sure that crops such as banana are safely stored for the global community is very much appreciated," said Frison. "But I think it is also important to recognize Belgium's contributions. The government has been a long-term supporter of research on the banana, from laboratory studies at KULeuven to field deployment of improved varieties and growing techniques. Without that, we might not have had any cryopreserved specimens to send to France."
For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas at Bioversity International.
New rice descriptors published
Bioversity International, with the International Rice Research Institute and the Africa Rice Centre, has just published a completely revised set of descriptors for wild and cultivated rice. Descriptor Lists are a vital tool for researchers interested in diversity to ensure that they have standardized metrics for describing varieties under study.
"The original list of descriptors for rice was published in 1980," said Adriana Alercia, who is responsible for descriptors at Bioversity. "It was in wide use and was considered the most valid system for rice." The new set of descriptors has been expanded to include wild relatives of the genus Oryza and to harmonize the descriptors as far as possible with those of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which are geared to new commercial varieties. The list also highlights a set of minimum descriptors which can be used to discriminate among varieties with a high degree of certainty.
The new descriptor list has been drawn up in close consultation with experts at IRRI and the African Rice Centre and has been reviewed by 22 experts in the field.
Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, who heads IRRI's rice genebank, welcomed the new descriptor list. "The descriptor list offers a universal language for describing rice diversity," he said. "If all rice researchers adopt this scheme it will produce a rapid, reliable and efficient means to store, retrieve and communicate information about rice diversity. And that is essential to make better use of the genebanks."
Also published recently by Bioversity International, descriptors for durian, a tropical fruit, and a translation into Portuguese of the descriptors for cowpea. A technical brief on how to develop crop descriptor lists is also available.
For further information, contact Adriana Alercia
