Seed banks and world food

security

John Wasswa Mulumba

Plant Genetic Resources Centre

NARO

How to meet present and future food

demands?

• Population est. to increase to > 9 b. by 2050

• World’s agricultural production must increase

by at least 70%

• Limited availability of new land for agriculture

• 70% of the increase in cereal production alone

will need to come from increased yields

• Largely achievable by exploring genetic

variability in seed (germplasm)

What are the three categories of

plants important for food and

agriculture?

Modern varieties

•Developed by

breeders

•Uniform

•High yielding

•Pest and disease

resistance

•Marketable

•Narrow genetic

base

Farmer varieties

•Developed by

farmers

•Variable and diverse

•Wide genetic base

•Low input

•Adapted to micro-

environments

•Special to small-scale

farmers

•Source of breeding

material for breeders

•Continue evolving on-

farm

Wild relatives of

crops

•In the wilderness

•Source of genes

for crop

improvement

•Continue adapting

to change

•Link to ancestral

homes of crops

Wild food plants

•Over 10,000 spp

edible

•Only a handful

developed to

commercial scale

•Five crops provide

over 80 % of calories

•Could be future crops

•Domestication

process

Challenges to the three categories

Challenges to modern varieties

• Development process discards a lot of genes

• Uniformity increases vulnerability to new

enemies

• Wide scale cultivation corresponds to wide

scale potential for damage

Challenges to farmer varieties

• Less productive

• Face continuous displacement by modern

varieties

• Challenges to wild relatives

•Natural Ecosystem

destruction

•Little recognition

•Climate change

effects

• Challenges to wild food

plants

Ecosystem destruction

Climate change

Lack of R&D efforts

Opportunities

• Increasing biological constraints

• Increasing population

• Increasing demands for food diversification

• Increasing poor nutrition (urban poor and

‘rich’) due to poor eating habits

• Increasing/changing market opportunities

• Call for diverse base of crop diversity to fall

back to

Role of a Genebank

• To ensure the safety and security of crop

diversity for present and future generations.

Functions of Genebanks

• Exploration & status assesment

• Collection of germplasm

• Conservation

• Safety duplication

• Describe the germplasm (characterization)

• Test germplasm (preliminary evaluation)

• Generate knowledge about germplasm

• Document all info

• Avail germplasm and info to users

Exploration & status assessment

Germplasm collection

Processing

Conservation

Safety duplication

Germplasm descriptionphenotypic and molecular

Germplasm evaluation

Knowledge generation

Relationship between richness and Weighted Damage I ndex (WDI = 0-100) –Common bean in Uganda (Mulumba et al., 2012)

Black sigatoka Weevils

ALS Anthracnose

Richness Richness

Simpson (evenness) Simpson (evenness)

In times of higher disease incidence

(Anthracnose) higher relationship of varietal

diversity with reduced damage

Higher variety richness/evenness – less variance in damage: a risk minimizing

argument for crop variety diversity in the production system

ALS severity scores for the ten least and 10 most i nfected varieties (Field)

Documentation

Key:

O. eichingeri

Kampala

O. longistaminata O.punctata

HH4 Jane

Kiiza

HH6 Sarah

Bebwa

HH3 Miliam

Muheirwe

HH7 Peruth

Rutundu HH10 Dina

Mugarasi

HH11

Enid B.

HH12Jane

siririHH8 Jowelia

Mulezi

HH1 -Juliet

Katunda

HH9 Lydia

Bantu

HH14 Kerodonia

R.

HH5

HH15

Brenda R.

HH2 E.

Muhumuza

Sanyu

J.

Handagana

Kisoso

Byarugaba

KatungiaMrs. Baker

Kyambeishikyi

Kadiya K.

John Night

Elinah

Donozio K

Jovia N

Nathan

B Jane M

Zebia M.

Beyanga

Silvia

M

Tobi

HH13

Mary M.

Seed flow in Nyamirima village, Kabwohe site

Awareness & Knowledge sharing

Availing germplasm to users

Types of Genebanks

• Community-based

• Institutional

• National

characteristics

• Community Genebank

•Based in a

community

•Managed by

community

•Directly serves

community

•Based on simple seed

preservation

approaches

•Monitors variety

dynamics in a

community

•Small range of crops

•Short-term seed

Characteristics

• National Genebank

•National mandate

•Wide range of crops

•Applies high management standards

•Seed viability up to 50 years

•Has both active and base collection

•Distributes seed to all users

National Genebank National Genebank

PackagingPackaging

Germination testingGermination testing

Moisture contentMoisture content

Storage for DistributionStorage for Distribution

ReceptionReception

CleaningCleaning

Documentation unit

Genebank

Registration

Conclusion

• Genebanks are central in the transformation

of agriculture and ensuring world food

security for today and the future