Ground Cover Issue 61 - April/May 2006
01.05.06
Conservation targets crop diversity
By Gio Braidotti
International efforts to conserve the global plant gene pool, particularly of plants from which food crops originate, is moving up a gear as the recently created Global Crop Diversity Trust begins its work.
Australia is the biggest donor to the new international organisation, established to safeguard the genetic diversity that allows crops to evolve and adapt to changing environmental circumstances.
The trust's executive director, Dr Cary Fowler, was recently in Australia explaining why crop diversity needs to be viewed as a global resource that requires "painstaking conservation".
[Photo (left) by Brad Collis: Cary Fowler: "If we left maize alone, for example, the crop would be gone in about 10 years."]
He points out the stark reality that the planet's plant gene pool represents all the genetic options a crop has. Crop plants require specialised conservation because they are domesticated and rely on ongoing breeding programs to conserve varieties developed over time for agriculture.
Dr Fowler estimates there are about 6.5 million plant samples (or 'accessions') stored in nearly 1500 collections worldwide. Many of these collections are struggling, with little financial support. The establishment of the trust is seeking to address this issue. The collections are vulnerable to dangers as simple as a generator failure or as misguided as budget cuts.
He adds that without ongoing breeding efforts, many modern cultivars have a limited life expectancy.
"If we left maize alone, for example, the crop would be gone in about 10 years. Wheat is essentially a human artefact the oldest artefact still in use. If we repeated the breeding that created wheat, the plant would be considered a GMO (genetically modified organism). Maintaining these crops in a viable state is an active process that requires access to wild relatives and other sources of novel genetic material."
Dr Fowler also points out that less than two per cent of the world's plant genetic diversity is held in Australian gene banks three per cent for wheat, two per cent for barley and four per cent for chickpeas: "All your crops, with the sole exception of macadamias, are foreign imports. Genetic resources to maintain these crops don't exist in Australia.
"For example, about 90 per cent of Australian wheat is sourced from varieties collected and stored at CIMMYT (the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico)."
This is why the Australian Government and the GRDC, supported by graingrowers, have combined to contribute more than $20 million, the largest single donation from any country.
The trust was created to match long term conservation efforts with secure, long-term funding. It is seeking to raise $260 million in endowments to generate funds for protecting the most important crop collections. The trust is also working on a more efficient system to coordinate conservation efforts between gene banks.
"There are a number of large collections worldwide but no global system that is sufficiently efficient and effective at conserving genetic resources," he says. "The trust is attempting to solve that problem."
GRDC Research Code GRD172
More information: www.croptrust.org/items/homepage.php;
Vince Logan, GRDC, 02 6272 5525
