Abstract
The greatest challenge facing humanity today is to feed tomorrow’s population of more than 9 billion people. Production has to increase by about 70 % with the additional uncertainties associated with climate change, against a background of less land and less water being available for agriculture. More than ever before, this will require the wise use of plant genetic resources. Scientific advances such as high-throughput sequencing, marker assisted selection and direct manipulation of the genome have allowed breeders to identify traits and incorporate them into improved varieties more efficiently and more rapidly. The problem is that the genetic resources that are the foundation of these efforts are not being managed effectively. Ex-situ collections are currently scattered across roughly 1750 genebanks, many of which are in poor physical condition and which continue to be degraded as a result of insufficient and insecure funding. Many of the accessions are duplicates, which is a waste of precious resources. There is little publicly available information about the accessions. Crop wild relatives, which are so important for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, are poorly represented in genebanks and in any case need also to be conserved in the wild so that they can continue to evolve in response to those stresses. There is an urgent need to address all these issues by building an effective global system for the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. It will require close collaboration and partnership to ensure efficiency, which in turn will require a commitment to a global system of access and benefit sharing as foreseen by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It will require secure and sustainable funding so that we do not have to go through this process again every few decades. And it will require a global information system that guarantees access to much more useful information as well as to the accessions themselves. The challenges are many and complex. As the paper will show, we have the means to meet them, if we engage strongly now, and if we do not, we have little hope of feeding the future population adequately.
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Notes
- 1.
“SRES scenarios refer to the scenarios described in the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES 2000). The SRES scenarios are grouped into four scenario families (A1, A2, B1 and B2) that explore alternative development pathways, covering a wide range of demographic, economic and technological driving forces and resulting GHG emissions. The SRES scenarios do not include additional climate policies above current ones. The emissions projections are widely used in the assessments of future climate change, and their underlying assumptions with respect to socio-economic, demographic and technological change serve as inputs to many recent climate change vulnerability and impact assessments. The A1 storyline assumes a world of very rapid economic growth, a global population that peaks in mid-century and rapid introduction of new and more efficient technologies. A1 is divided into three groups that describe alternative directions of technological change: fossil intensive (A1FI), non-fossil energy resources (A1T) and a balance across all sources (A1B). B1 describes a convergent world, with the same global population as A1, but with more rapid changes in economic structures toward a service and information economy. B2 describes a world with intermediate population and economic growth, emphasising local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. A2 describes a very heterogeneous world with high population growth, slow economic development and slow technological change. No likelihood has been attached to any of the SRES scenarios” (IPCC, 2007).
- 2.
SINGER. http://singer.cgiar.org/index.jsp (last accessed: 22 November 2011).
- 3.
- 4.
Hunter D. and Heywood V. (Eds). 2010. Crop Wild Relatives: A Manual of in situ Conservation. Issues in Agricultural Biodiversity. Earthscan. 440 p.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
In 2012, it was decided to implement these activities through different CRPs, rather than including them all in CRP 1.1.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
https://research.cip.cgiar.org/confluence/display/GILBWEB/Home.
- 19.
CIP. 2010. Late Blight: Action plan for an effective response to a global threat. White paper prepared by the participants to the Bellagio Late Blight Conference, Bellagio, Italy, 16 −20 Nov, 2009. International Potato Centre (CIP). Available at: http://cipotato.org/publications/pdf/222222.pdf (last accessed: 19 December 2011).
- 20.
- 21.
CGIAR report to the 2nd Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/agp/planttreaty/gb2/gb2i12e.pdf; CGIAR report to the 3rd Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/agp/planttreaty/gb3/gb3i15e.pdf; and CGIAR report to the 4th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: http://www.itpgrfa.net/International/sites/default/files/gb4i05e.pdf.
Abbreviations
- AEGIS:
-
A European Genebank Integrated System
- AVRDC:
-
World Vegetable Centre
- BGRI:
-
Borlaug Global Rust Initiative
- CAAS:
-
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- CATIE:
-
Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center
- CBD:
-
Convention on Biological Diversity
- CGIAR:
-
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
- CGRFA:
-
Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
- CIMMYT:
-
International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement
- CIP:
-
International Potato Center
- CO2 :
-
Carbon Dioxide
- COP-10:
-
Tenth Conference of the Parties of the CBD
- CRP:
-
CGIAR Research Programme
- CWR:
-
Crop Wild Relatives
- EAPGRIN:
-
East African Plant Genetic Resources Network
- ECPGR:
-
European Cooperative Programme for Genetic Resources
- EMBRAPA:
-
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária
- EURISCO:
-
European Internet Search Catalogue
- FAO:
-
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- GCDT:
-
Global Crop Diversity Trust
- GCP:
-
CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme
- GEF:
-
Global Environmental Facility
- GHG:
-
Greenhouse Gas
- GILB:
-
Global Initiative on Late Blight
- GIS:
-
Geographical Information System
- GPA:
-
Global Plan of Action on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
- GRI:
-
Global Rust Initiative
- GRIN:
-
Germplasm Resources Information Network
- IBPGR:
-
International Board for Plant Genetic Resources
- ICARDA:
-
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
- ICWG-GR:
-
CGIAR Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources
- ILRI:
-
International Livestock Research Institute
- IPCC:
-
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- ITPGRFA:
-
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
- IUCN:
-
International Union for Conservation of Nature
- LB:
-
Late Blight
- NARS:
-
National Agricultural Research System
- NBPGR-India:
-
Indian National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources
- NGRP:
-
National Genetic Resources Program
- NordGen:
-
Nordic Genetic Resources Centre
- NUS:
-
Neglected and Underutilized Species
- PGRFA:
-
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
- SANPGR:
-
South Asia Network on Plant Genetic Resources
- SGRP:
-
CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme
- SGSV:
-
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
- SINGER:
-
CGIAR System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources
- SPGRC:
-
Southern African Development Community Plant Genetic Resources Centre
- SRES:
-
Special Report on Emissions Secnarios
- SMTA:
-
Standard Material Transfer Agreement
- UNEP:
-
United Nations Environmental Programme
- USA:
-
United States of America
- USDA:
-
United States Department of Agriculture
- USDA-ARS:
-
Agricultural Research Service of the USDA
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Frison, E., Demers, N. (2014). Building a Global Plant Genetic Resources System. In: Tuberosa, R., Graner, A., Frison, E. (eds) Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7572-5_1
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