Towards a Regional strategy on plant genetic resources

Jozef TurokRegional Director, Bioversity International

El Tahir Ibrahim MohamedAgricultural Research Centre, PGR Unit, Sudan

Outline of presentation

• Agricultural biodiversity in the Region

• Towards a Regional strategy on plant genetic

resources (PGR)

• Climate change, adaptation and opportunities for

collaborative research

• Regional collaboration for effective and efficient

conservation and management of PGR

Bioversity International

• Committed to harnessing science of biodiversity towards its conservation and use in development

• Mission: “…undertakes, encourages and supports research and other activities on the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity, especially genetic resources, to create more productive, resilient and sustainable harvests”

• Works in partnerships with others

Agricultural biodiversity in West Asia and North Africa

• Important centres of plant biodiversity (Near Eastern, Mediterranean and Central Asian)

• Flora of 32,000 species of higher plants with a high proportion of endemic and threatened

• Origin of many major temperate crops (cereals, pulses, vegetables, spices, oil crops, pasture and forage species, dyes, fruit and nut trees, timber tree species)

• Diverse range of wild relatives, weedy forms and traditional varieties, landraces

• Scarcity of water (and cultivable land)• Largest food-importing region in the developing world

Diversity and climate change• Biodiversity is affected by changes in the

environment: extinction of species, fragmentation• Loss of genetic variation: the changes are

continuous - quantitative and qualitative effects• The changes of climate are generally inert (unlikely

to return to the original conditions)• Biodiversity is essential for environmental health• Biodiversity and especially genetic resources can be

managed and used for adaptation• Key role in helping agriculture to adapt to climate

change

Towards a Regional strategy for the conservation of PGR

• Initiated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust and developed in consultation with the Association of Agricultural Research Institutes of the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) with input from a wide range of partners, stakeholders

• Adopted in July 2006, Dr M. Zehni facilitator• “…further development of the strategy and

related networking capacities in future AARINENA workplans leading to a PGR coordinating mechanism in the Region…”

• Comprehensive and evolving

Regional strategy: outputs• Evaluation and assessment of the collections in

the Region (crops of Annex I of the International Treaty on PGRFA, but not only)

• Ranking of the collections (considering size, extent of diversity, holding wild relatives, etc.)

• Indication of the upgrading needs and needs for building the capacity of the genebanks

• Regional collaborative arrangements for the rationalization of the priority collections and the sharing of responsibilities

• Strengthening coordination

PGR accessions stored in genebanks in the countries (2006)

Holder All crops Annex I crops

Iran, NPGB 60,000 49,079

Turkey, AARI 56,000 25,620

Pakistan, NARC 23,000 15,835Morocco, INRA 22,000 15,405

Egypt, NGB 20,000 12,127

Syria, GCSAR 11,500 8,252

Jordan, NCARE 4,500 2,301

Yemen, AREA 3,000 2,571

Oman, MAF 900 259

Libya, ARC 600 328

Tunisia, MOA n.a. 3132

Algeria, INRAA n.a. 525

ClimateChange

Challenges

• Climate

• Population growth

• Pests and diseases

• Resource scarcity

• Social and economic disorder

Contributions of agricultural biodiversity

• Breeding new varieties and their dissemination to farmers

• Health and Nutrition (hidden hunger)

• Resilience and Stability• Wider impact on income

and sustainable livelihoods of people

Adaptation and adaptability

• Selection and adaptation require diversity

• New climates– New varieties – start breeding now– New crops – social factors unknown

2025 2050 2075

Overlap with historical climate 100%0%

Accelerating adaptation: opportunities for collaborative

research on PGR• Breeding of climate-resilient varieties

– Develop crop varieties with a greater resistance to abiotic stresses (e.g., drought)

• Using the genetic diversity of crop wild relatives and traditional varieties– Crop wild relatives and traditional

varieties contain resistance genes for breeding climate-resilient varieties

– Local knowledge to guide crop and variety selection

Wild banana, MadagascarSource: Annie Lane

Dynamic in situ management of genetic diversity

• Valuable resources in the natural environment, spatially and temporally diverse populations

• Limitations of ex situ conservation in genebanks• In situ conservation of naturally occurring and

evolving populations (e.g., emmer wheat, wild almond, pistachio)

• On-farm management• Levels and patterns of genetic variation determine the

potential to adapt• Collecting strategies

(from Jaradat, 1998)

(from http://gisweb.ciat.cgiar.org/GapAnalysis/)

Factors and processes of evolutionary adaptation

• Populations adjust their genetic structures

through evolutionary processes:– Natural selection

– Genetic drift

– Mutation

– Geneflow

– Mating systems

• Phenotypic plasticity

Adaptation strategies

• Feasible at local and Regional levels• Consideration of the wider environmental and

social pressures, adapting land use patterns• Practices that support communities in their use of

diversity to maintain and improve productivity and resilience in production systems

• Influences on and collaboration with policy making

PGR transfers for climate change:experience from provenance trials

(from Rehfeldt et al. 2002)

Collaboration on PGR

• Nature of PGR makes collaboration necessary• Credibility and trust amongst collection holders• Willingness to collaborate with partners• Links with existing collaborative mechanisms• Adequate funding to support the system• Agreed conservation standards and strong links to users• Effective mechanisms for monitoring & evaluation

Collaboration in the Region… need for renewal

• Positive developments in National Programmes during recent years• Previous networking efforts (WANANET) were not sustainable• Strategy recommended to establish a country driven, self-sustained and broad-based Network under the structure of AARINENA• Implementation in accordance with the FAO International Treaty and the Global Plan of Action• Inter-Regional collaboration

Regional Network: objectives• Foster the conservation and sustainable use• Promote the exchange of scientific and technical experience, information and knowledge• Strengthen national research capacities for providing timely information to policy makers• Encourage the establishment of research and training activities based on needs and priorities• Strengthen linkages between national, regional and international research organizations• Assist in the mobilization of support

Areas for collaboration

• Germplasm management: regeneration, characterization, evaluation, documentation, use• Conservation: seed storage, field genebanks, in vitro, multi-location evaluation trials• Germplasm movement: safety duplication, germplasm health, exchange and distribution• Capacity building: training, technology transfer, policy and legislation• Joint research: collecting missions, joint publications, scientific meetings

Summary of a Regional Workshop held 30-31 January

• Focal points from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen attended (Syria and Tunisia also nominated participants)• Held at NCARE and organized by Bioversity, AARINENA with participation of ICARDA and Trust• Documentation:

–Global Information on Germplasm Accessions – involvement of the Region and capacity building–Discussion on data standards and use–Introduction to GRIN-Global curator tool interface

Summary of Workshop (cont’d)

• Sharing best practices for genebank management:–Crop Genebank Knowledge Base – a comprehensive tool developed by the CGIAR–Feedback and proposals for updating, dissemination

• Need for assistance in the implementation of the Treaty, use of Standard Material Transfer Agreement• Centres of Excellence for three key areas identified• Objectives, structure and governance of the new Regional PGR Network discussed

Perspectives• Commitment and endorsement of the Network by participating countries (through AARINENA)• Human resources for PGR work• Communication and involvement; sharing best practices and best approaches• Reaching out to other Networks (Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus…)• Rationalization of conservation efforts• Strengthening links with users of germplasm• Holistic approaches to PGR conservation