Regenerating Andean Crop Collections

Bioversity International is working as part of a regeneration project in the Americas to help maintain crop collections for food security. The project, supported by the Global Crop Diversity Trust  [2], was launched in 2008 aiming to regenerate about 100 collections of 21 priority crops maintained by more than 50 organizations worldwide. 

Seeds, plants in field genebanks and tissue culture need to be regenerated to remain viable as all forms deteriorate to some extent over time. Ensuring that accessions remain viable is a complex process for genebanks, requiring adequate funding and considerable technical expertise.

Bioversity is providing technical advice to the project partners about how to follow protocols so that regenerated material meets international standards and is safely duplicated. We are also offering support to project partners on matters relating to regeneration methodologies and processes.

Jesús María Salcedo, based in Bioversity’s Regional Office for the Americas, recently visited project sites in Peru and Ecuador and was pleased to see that the work to regenerate Andean crops is on schedule and moving forward.

In Peru, the Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA  [3]) and Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina (UNALM  [4]), along with the Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP  [5]) in Ecuador, have been working on collections of cassava, faba beans, maize and wild potatoes. These collections, started in the 1970s and 1990s, contain unique material and this is the first time they have been regenerated. 

Salcedo reports that safety duplication is also going well with 377 accessions of maize, 300 of beans, 600 of cassava and a shipment of faba beans already on their way to international genebanks at CIMMYT  [6], CIAT  [7] and ICARDA  [8].

For further information
Contact:  Jesús María Salcedo  [9] at Bioversity's Regional Office for the Americas, Colombia