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A rapid survey of
the world’s genebanks.
It is impossible to say exactly when the world’s
crop diversity collections began: people have been collecting
and conserving plants in botanic gardens for many hundreds
of years. There was enormous activity in the 18th and
19th Centuries as science and colonialism advanced in
parallel. The greatest plant pioneer of the modern era
was the Russian Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov
(1887-1943). In a series of extraordinary and often intrepid
expeditions, mainly between 1916 and 1933, Vavilov and
his many disciples collected more than 250 000 plant accessions
from around the world. Vavilov fell foul of Stalin’s
regime but his name has long been properly honoured in
the N I Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in St
Petersburg, which houses one of the world’s most
important genebanks. Outstanding among those who picked
up Vavilov’s baton was the Austrian/Australian Sir
Otto Frankel (1900-1999). Frankel truly bridged the generations;
he knew Vavilov from the 1930s, and in the ‘70s
was a key figure in the creation of the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), today
the world’s foremost international guardian of crop
diversity collections.
Today, FAO’s World Information and Early Warning
System on Plant Genetic Resources (WIEWS) lists nearly
1 470 genebanks worldwide; nearly two thirds of these
are in developing countries. At least 100 countries maintain
field genebanks, and about 60 have facilities to conserve
germplasm in vitro (in test tubes). Between them,
the world’s genebanks maintain more than 5.4 million
accessions--although many of the accessions are duplicates
so the total of genuinely distinct accessions is probably
less than two million. More than a third of the total
accessions are held by 15 national genebanks.
The 15 largest national
genetics resource collections.
Among the most important crop diversity
collections are theld in the Future Harvest Centres of
the CGIAR. The Centres are located on every habitable
continent except Australia and each has a different brief:
some specialize in just one or a few crops; one deals
in livestock; others deal with whole systems of agriculture
existing in particular kinds of regions, like the dry
areas or the semi-arid tropics; others are concerned with
forestry, water or fish. Two of the Centres manage themes
that may extend across each or all or the others.
Eleven of the 16 Future Harvest Centres have genebanks,
which between them hold 530 000 samples of crops, which
it is estimated, accounts for as many as 60% of the non-duplicate
samples of material held in genebanks around the world.
In addition, whereas only 16 per cent of the samples in
national collections are from landraces and wild species,
landraces and wild species—material that is particularly
rich in diversity--account for 73 per cent of the material
in the Centre collections. The Future Harvest genebanks
are very well used. Between them they send out about 100
000 samples of germplasm each year--about 80 per cent
to developing countries.
The material in the Future Harvest genebanks is held ‘in
trust,’ which means that it does not belong to the
Centres but is looked after by them on behalf of the world
community. The Future Harvest Centres actual have a legal
obligation, under the terms of agreements signed with
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in
1994, to protect the collections in their care and to
make the in trust material available to anyone that can
use them. Crop Samples Held in Trust by the Future
Harvest Centres |
|
Centre |
Crop |
Number
of Accessions |
|
CIAT |
Cassava |
5,728 |
| |
Forages |
18,138 |
| |
Bean |
31,718 |
|
CIMMYT |
Maize |
20,411 |
| |
Wheat |
95,113 |
|
CIP |
CIP Andean roots
and tubers |
1,112 |
| |
Sweet potato |
6,413 |
| |
Potato |
5,057 |
|
ICARDA |
Barley |
24,218 |
| |
Chickpea |
9,116 |
| |
Faba bean |
9,074 |
| |
Wheat |
30,270 |
| |
Forages |
24,581 |
| |
Lentil |
7,827 |
|
ICRAF |
Sesbania |
25 |
|
ICRISAT |
Chickpea |
16,961 |
| |
Groundnut |
14,357 |
| |
Pearl millet |
21,250 |
| |
Pigeon pea |
12,698 |
| |
Sorghum |
35,780 |
| |
Minor millets |
9,050 |
|
IITA |
Bambara groundnut |
2,029 |
| |
Cassava |
2,158 |
| |
Cowpea |
15,001 |
| |
Soybean |
1,909 |
| |
Wild Vigna |
1,634 |
| |
Yam |
2,878 |
|
ILRI |
Forages |
11,537 |
|
IPGRI |
Bananas, plantains |
931 |
|
IRRI |
Rice |
80,617 |
|
WARDA |
Rice |
14,917 |
|
Total |
|
532,508 |
|
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On the face of things, the world’s
collection of crop plant genes seems encouraging. Growth
has been rapid this past two decades (there were only
about 54 seed banks worldwide at the end of the 1970s)
and total numbers of accessions under conservation, running
into millions, seem impressive. But there are important
gaps in the present collections, particularly among crops
that need to be stored as tubers, such as cassava; and
many existing banks fall short of world standards for
genebank management. In short, the world’s collection
of crop diversity is far from comprehensive, and far from
secure.
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