Conservation Costs of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: Seed Gene banks

Abstract

Recognizing the importance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the sovereign rights conferred on the countries by the Convention on Biological Diversity, concerted efforts are under way worldwide toward the conservation of these priceless genetic resources. The information available on this topic largely dwells on the value and opportunity offered by such conservation, rather than focus on the costs of establishing the required facilities and or on the performance of the various activities necessary to meet the planned objectives. This study is based on the practical experience gained in the preparation of large collections and in the restoration of the collections of Indian origin from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, to the Indian National Program. In this study, the costs were calculated for the establishment of the facilities, acquisition of the germplasm, processing of the seed material, storage of the seed material as per the objectives in medium- or long-term stores, monitoring of germplasm to keep it dynamic, and regeneration/rejuvenation of accessions falling below genebank standards in crops with different breeding systems, different seed sizes and compositions. The article draws inferences about the financial commitment needed and future conservation strategies for formulating cost-effective conservation approaches.