scholarly journals Opportunities and challenges for improving a Colombian public research program in plant breeding and plant genetic resources lead by Agrosavia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos H. Galeano ◽  
Katherine Tehelen ◽  
Hugo R. Jiménez ◽  
Carolina González ◽  
Ivania Cerón-Souza
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Participatory Plant Breeding ◽  
Public Research ◽  
Germplasm Bank ◽  
Academic Degree ◽  
Breeding Research ◽  
Sentiment Score

AbstractAgrosavia (Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria) is the Colombian state institution in charge of the agricultural research at the national level, including plant breeding. Since 2014, Agrosavia started to increase its research staff and has reset the leadership of public research to solve the needs of the agricultural sector population, focusing on small producers. However, the current team working on plant breeding and plant genetic resources are facing some challenges associated with generation gaps and the lack of a collaborative working plan for the next years. To identify the opportunities and actions in this research area, we surveyed all the 52 researchers working in Agrosavia in this area in 2017. We analyzed the opinions of researchers to detect the strengths and weaknesses of the program using a sentiment score. We also examined the networking to test both how consolidated the group is and if among top leaders are gender parity and also have a higher academic degree. Results showed that there is a mixed community of old and new researchers with clear gender bias in the proportion of male-female. Within the network, the interactions are weak, with several subgroups where the top-ten of both central leaders and the most influencer are frequently males with mostly an M.Sc. degree but with significant experience in the area. Researchers have an interest in 31 crops. From them, 26 are in the national germplasm bank, but this bank is not the primary source for their breeding programs. The top-five of plants with increasing interest are corn, cocoa tree, golden berries, oil palm, and sugarcane. Researchers also want to establish collaborations with 54 different institutions, where the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which is the top public university in the country, is on the head. Researchers also perceived weaknesses in the marker-assisted selection, experimental design, and participatory plant breeding, but those criticisms have a positive sentiment score average of 1.55 (0.3 SE) across 31 texts analyzed. Based on all results, we identified five critical strategic principles to improve the plant-breeding research program. They include a gender diversity policy to hire new researchers strategically to reduce the gender gap and strength the generational shift. Better collaboration between the national germplasm bank and plant breeding research. A coordinate plan where the studies focus on food security crops that the government supports independently of market trends. And finally, adequate spaces for the project’s design and training programs. Hence, we recommend the creation of a consultant group to implement these policies progressively in the next years.

Access to plant genetic resources for genomic research for the poor: from global policies to target-oriented rules

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels P. Louwaars ◽  
Eva Thörn ◽  
José Esquinas-Alcázar ◽  
Shumin Wang ◽  
Abebe Demissie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Genomic Research ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Multilateral System

Applied genetics combined with practical plant breeding is a powerful tool in agricultural development and for food security. The Green Revolution spurred the world's potential to meet its food, feed and fibre needs at a time when vast regions were notoriously food-insecure. Subsequent adaptations of such strategies, from the late 1980s onwards, in order to develop new plant varieties in a more participatory way, have strengthened the focus on applying technology to farmers' diverse needs, feeding research results into a variety of seed systems. During these developments, there were no major legal impediments to the acquisition of either local or formal knowledge or of the building blocks of plant breeding: genetic resources. The emergence of molecular biology in plant science is creating a wealth of opportunities, both to understand better the limitations of crop production and to use a much wider array of genetic diversity in crop improvement. This ‘Gene Revolution’ needs to incorporate the lessons from the Green Revolution in order to reach its target groups. However, the policy environment has changed. Access to technologies is complicated by the spread of private rights (intellectual property rights), and access to genetic resources by new national access laws. Policies on access to genetic resources have changed from the concept of the ‘Heritage of Mankind’ for use for the benefit of all mankind to ‘National Sovereignty’, based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, for negotiated benefit-sharing between a provider and a user. The Generation Challenge Programme intends to use genomic techniques to identify and use characteristics that are of value to the resource-poor, and is looking for ways to promote freedom-to-operate for plant breeding technologies and materials. Biodiversity provides the basis for the effective use of these genomic techniques. National access regulations usually apply to all biodiversity indiscriminately and may cause obstacles or delays in the use of genetic resources in agriculture. Different policies are being developed in different regions. Some emphasize benefit-sharing, and limit access in order to implement this (the ‘African Model Law’), while others, in recognition of countries' interdependence, provide for facilitated access to all genetic resources under the jurisdiction of countries in the region (the Nordic Region). There are good reasons why the use of agricultural biodiversity needs to be regulated differently from industrial uses of biodiversity. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, provides for facilitated access to agricultural genetic resources, at least for the crops that are included in the Treaty's ‘Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing’. Ratification of the Treaty is proceeding apace, and negotiations have entered a critical stage in the development of practical instruments for its implementation. Although the scope of the Treaty is all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, there are important crops that are not covered by its Multilateral System. Humanitarian licences are being used to provide access for the poor to protected technologies: countries may need to create such a general humanitarian access regime, to ensure the poor have the access they need to agricultural genetic resources.

BITTER VETCH, OR ERVIL (VICIA ERVILIA (L.) WILLD.): EVALUATION OF ACCESSIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENTS OF TAMBOV PROVINCE, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.A. SERGEEV ◽  
◽  
N.N. ANDREEVA ◽  
N.V. VAVKINA ◽  
T.G. ALEKSANDROVA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Seed Yield ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Geographic Origin ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Evaluation Data ◽  
Bitter Vetch

The catalogue contains the evaluation data for 267 bitter vetch accessions from the collection held by the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), grown in 2010–2016 and 2021 at Yekaterinino Experiment Station of VIR. The study covered bitter vetch accessions of diverse geographic origin from 23 countries. The testing of Vicia ervilia accessions in years with different weather conditions showed the variability of the main agrobiological characteristics in the studied accessions: duration of the growing season, and seed yield per 1 m². The catalogue is addressed to plant breeding experts.

scholarly journals PhenoApp: A mobile tool for plant phenotyping to record field and greenhouse observations

F1000Research ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Franco Röckel ◽  
Toni Schreiber ◽  
Danuta Schüler ◽  
Ulrike Braun ◽  
Ina Krukenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Plant Phenotyping ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Genebank Management ◽  
Breeding Research ◽  
Versatile Tool ◽  
Information Management Systems ◽  
Cost Efficient

With the ongoing cost decrease of genotyping and sequencing technologies, accurate and fast phenotyping remains the bottleneck in the utilizing of plant genetic resources for breeding and breeding research. Although cost-efficient high-throughput phenotyping platforms are emerging for specific traits and/or species, manual phenotyping is still widely used and is a time- and money-consuming step. Approaches that improve data recording, processing or handling are pivotal steps towards the efficient use of genetic resources and are demanded by the research community. Therefore, we developed PhenoApp, an open-source Android app for tablets and smartphones to facilitate the digital recording of phenotypical data in the field and in greenhouses. It is a versatile tool that offers the possibility to fully customize the descriptors/scales for any possible scenario, also in accordance with international information standards such as MIAPPE (Minimum Information About a Plant Phenotyping Experiment) and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles. Furthermore, PhenoApp enables the use of pre-integrated ready-to-use BBCH (Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie) scales for apple, cereals, grapevine, maize, potato, rapeseed and rice. Additional BBCH scales can easily be added. The simple and adaptable structure of input and output files enables an easy data handling by either spreadsheet software or even the integration in the workflow of laboratory information management systems (LIMS). PhenoApp is therefore a decisive contribution to increase efficiency of digital data acquisition in genebank management but also contributes to breeding and breeding research by accelerating the labour intensive and time-consuming acquisition of phenotyping data.

Participatory plant breeding programs to optimize use of crop genetic resources

2021 ◽  
pp. 251-270
Author(s):  
Margaret Smith ◽  
◽  
J. C. Dawson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Local Level ◽  
In Situ Conservation ◽  
Participatory Plant Breeding ◽  
Breeding Method ◽  
Crop Genetic Resources ◽  
Participatory Breeding ◽  
On Farm

This chapter summarizes a sample of variety evaluation, experimental design, and breeding method innovations that have served as solid approaches for participatory plant breeding (PPB) efforts. With success in PPB comes success in conservation at a local level of useful alleles and allele assemblages in the form of on-farm crop genetic resources. PPB programs of this sort have the potential to add value to local or traditional varieties that might otherwise be abandoned, thus promoting their in situ conservation. This chapter briefly touches on methodologies to assess farmers’ variety preferences. This is followed by sections that highlight some experimental designs for on-farm variety evaluation and farmer-participatory breeding methods for combining in-situ conservation with genetic improvement. Finally, some of the challenges that may limit genetic gain from PPB programs are noted – problems that increase the risk of wholesale replacement of on-farm genetic diversity rather than conservation through improvement.

scholarly journals Genetic resources: the basis for sustainable and competitive plant breeding

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (spe) ◽  
pp. 75-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano Lourenço Nass ◽  
Mário Sérgio Sigrist ◽  
Cláudia Silva da Costa Ribeiro ◽  
Francisco José Becker Reifschneider
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Genetic Vulnerability ◽  
Germplasm Banks

Plant genetic resources are the fuel for breeding, which in the search for higher yield and adapted genotypes, manipulates genes in order to meet the needs of farmers, and especially, of the current market. However, the use of accessions available in germplasm banks is low. Topics discussed in this paper emphasize the importance of plant genetic resources, and warn about problems related to genetic vulnerability; also, they discuss about aspects of costs involved in conservation and suggest recommendations for strengthening the area in Brazil.

scholarly journals Genetic resources of fodder crops in Croatia: current state and future prospects

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 00137
Author(s):  
Aleš Vokurka ◽  
Tihomir Čupić ◽  
Leonarda Sigal ◽  
Hrvoje Kutnjak ◽  
Dubravka Dujmović Purgar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Gene Bank ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Current State ◽  
Fodder Crops ◽  
Xix Century

Plant breeding as an important discipline in agriculture started in Croatia during the last decades of XIX century at several institutions and farms, but was mainly focused on arable grains, but to less extent to fodder, and other crops. The efforts in the research, collecting and evaluation of genetic resources of fodder crops started in the second half of XX century, but were interrupted and ceased by the war in 1990-ies, with a part of material being lost. The activities started almost from scratch by establishing the Croatian Gene Bank in early 1990ties that existed only for few years. A new National Plant Gene Bank was established in 2004 as a network working in synergy with the SEEDNet programme, and was directed by National Plant Genetic Resources Programme based on the valid international treaties on biodiversity, and conducted according to good practice in genetic resources maintenance and research, with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and EU funds. The paper presents the short outline of the research of the genetic resources of fodder crops.

Fishing in the gene pool – how useful was the catch?

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-287
Author(s):  
Robert Koebner ◽  
Rodomiro Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Gene Pool ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Section Meeting ◽  
Breeding Programmes

A commentary on the highlights of the 2013 EUCARPIA (the European Associationc for Research on Plant Breeding) Plant Genetic Resources Section meeting at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp is presented here. The central theme of the meeting was the use of plant genetic resources in pre-breeding programmes, particularly in the context of incipient climate change and human population pressure.

Plant genomics in view of plant genetic resources – an introduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (S1) ◽  
pp. S6-S8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald L. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
New Era ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
The Future ◽  
Global Food

Genetic resources form the basis of the new era of global food security. The food crises in many developing countries, reflected by food riots correlated with food prices, have been termed the Silent Tsunami. Plant genetic resources are clearly essential to food security for the future. Fortunately, genetic resources are generally considered a public good and shared internationally. Wild relatives of crop species and their derivatives represent the reservoir of genetic diversity that will help to meet the food demands of nine billion people by 2050. New technologies from genomics bolster conventional plant breeding for enhancing traits to meet these food demands. Genetic diversity is the lifeblood of traditional and modern plant breeding. The dramatic increase in the number of biotech crops reveals the value of new genetic resources. Genetic resources will provide a gateway to a new era of global food security. Although 7.4 million plant accessions are stored in 1750 germplasm banks around the world, only a small portion of the accessions has been used so far to produce commercial varieties. Our challenge is to find better ways to make more efficient use of gene bank materials for meeting food demands in the future.

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