Record Details

Approaches to enhance the value of genetic resources in crop improvement

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/4199/
http://www.fao.org/documents/pub_dett.asp?lang=en&pub_id=263069
 
Title Approaches to enhance the value of genetic resources in crop improvement
 
Creator Dwivedi, S L
Upadhyaya, H D
Gowda, C L L
 
Subject Genetics and Genomics
Plant Virology
Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description Plant genetic resources are the basic raw materials for future genetic progress and an
insurance against unforeseen threats to future agricultural production. Its use in crop
improvement is one of the most sustainable ways to conserve valuable genetic resources.
Over 6 million ex situ germplasm accessions are conserved in 1308 genebanks globally, of
which, about 10% ARE held in trust by the CGIAR centers’ genebanks. ICRISAT has one
of the largest genebanks in the CGIAR system, holding 119,074 accessions of its mandate
crops from 144 countries (as of May 09). Of these, 113,830 accessions are designated to the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture under the
auspices of FAO. The genetic base of improved cultivars of many crops, including
ICRISAT mandate crops, is narrow. In spite of large number of germplasm accessions
available in the genebanks, there has been very limited use of these accessions in crop
improvement programs. The reasons for the underutilization of germplasm include i) lack
of accurate and precise large scale multi-location evaluation of germplasm, ii) lack of
rational systematic entry points into the vast international collections, and the iii) lack of
robust, cost-effective tools to facilitate the efficient utilization of exotic germplasm in plant
breeding programs. Clearly, there is a need to increase the use of genetically diverse
germplasm with beneficial traits in crop improvement programs to meet the emerging
challenges in agricultural production. We discuss below the range of information that we
have generated about the germplasm collections and the approaches to use information to
identify genetically diverse germplasm. Included in the discussion are also updates on the
manual for genebank operations and procedures, information bulletin on mini core, crop
germplasm registration, feedback on germplasm utilization, and impact of germplasm in
crop improvement.
 
Date 2009
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/4199/1/Approaches_to_enhance_the_value_of_genetic_resources_in_Crop.pdf
Dwivedi, S L and Upadhyaya, H D and Gowda, C L L (2009) Approaches to enhance the value of genetic resources in crop improvement. In: Strengthening information on Plant Genetic Resources in Asia, 2009, Bangkok, Thailand.