Establishment and Current Status of Community Seed-Banks

Farmers were organized and trained on crop conservation and management, seed selection. Farmers were organized by District Cooperative office with collaboration to EBI for legal entities The key supporter of CSB is District Agricultural office, District Administration office, District youth and women office, District trade office, District land administration office university, NGO and district cooperative office. The members of executive committee are elected every three year by members. Twenty four CSBs have been established, and crop conservation associations are organized and 6 CSBs were under establishment. Twenty one crop type were conserved.

Effect of the Biodegradable Coatings the Base on Microalgae and Oil of the Seed of the Pomegranate in the Conservation Powder-Crop of the Papaya ‘Golden’

It is very challenging to the quality of the papaya culture’s fruits (Carica papaya L.) after the crop, especially due to their significance to the international market, that is, their elevated exportation demands. The purpose of this work was the application of biodegradable coatings composed of Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp. associated or not with pomegranate seed oil in ‘Golden’ papaya and to evaluate their effect in the conservation powder-crop. The installation of the experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, with a 6 x 6 factorial outline, that is, six concentrations (C: control; SO: 0.5% of Scenedesmus sp. + 0.3% of pomegranate seed oil; S: 0.5% of Scenedesmus sp.; CO: 0.5% of Chlorella sp. + 0.3% of pomegranate seed oil; CH: 0.5% of Chlorella sp.; O: 0.3% of pomegranate seed oil) and six evaluation periods (0, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 days), stored at a temperature of 18±2 °C with 60±5% RH with three repetitions of two fruits per portion. The use of coverings composed of Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp. in association or not with pomegranate seed oil was proven efficient in the reduction of the breathing tax of ‘Golden’ papaya, delaying the ripening process, and therefore representing a promising alternative for these fruits’ powder-crop conservation. The coating composed of 0.5% of Chlorella sp. + 0.3% of pomegranate seed oil (CO) provided a better powder-crop conservation of ‘Golden’ papaya during 15 days of storage.

Diversity of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) at in situ conservation sites in North Shewa and Bale, Ethiopia

Biological resources used by local people for a long period of time preserve historical records and scientific competence attained while they develop, conserve, maintain and utilize the landrace varieties of those crops sustainably, ensuring their descent to successive generations. Ethiopian farmers and the traditional farming systems they still exercise have a tremendous positive impact on maintaining wheat genetic diversity with the associated indigenous knowledge. Twenty-one durum wheat landraces, 11 of which were collected from North Shewa and the remaining 10 from Bale were examined for five qualitative morphological characters. The long beak character was monomorphic at lower altitude (< 2100 m a.s.l.). The phenotypic frequencies for characters showed that the long and intermediate beak types were found in both sites, with the long one being the predominant type in most of the strategic sites (localities). The short beak type was rare in most of the strategic sites (localities) in Bale whereas in North Shewa its frequency reached a maximum of 51%. Black glume was in rare frequency in most of the strategic sites (localities) and districts (depending on size, a district contains several localities). The three seed colour groups (white, brown and purple) were found in a similar proportion across districts, and in situ conservation zones (farmer-based on-farm crop conservation zones, and depending on size a zone contains several districts) with considerable differences among strategic sites (localities). While white glume colour was predominant at lower altitude (< 2300 m a.s.l.), brown glume was most frequent at higher altitude (> 2301 m a.s.l.). The frequency of the purple seed colour increases with increasing altitude. Intra-population polymorphism was common for most traits. The overall estimate of diversity in in situ crop conservation sites is very high (H′ = 0·81±0·01). The first three canonical functions accounted for 85·5% (48·5, 19·7 and 17·4% respectively) of the variation between varieties. The hierarchical cluster analysis revealed two major clusters and eight subclusters. In most cases, the cluster analysis based on the qualitative traits did not necessarily cluster varieties on the basis of their collection sites. The two major clusters contained varieties from Bale and North Shewa in situ crop conservation zones.