Genetic Resources: Seeds Conservation
Introduction..................................................................................................123
Conservation of Orthodox Seeds...............................................................123
Conservation of Nonorthodox Seeds........................................................124
Management of Seed Collections...............................................................124
Main Challenges and Priorities for Improving Seed Conservation.......124
Research Priorities for Orthodox Seed Species • Research Priorities for Florent Engelmann Nonorthodox Seed Species
Institute of Research for Conclusion....................................................................................................126
Development (IRDI References......................................................................................................127
Introduction
In the 1950s and 1960s, major advances in plant breeding brought about the “green revolution,” which resulted in wide-scale adoption of high-yielding varieties and genetically uniform cultivars of staple crops, particularly wheat and rice. Consequently, global concern about the loss of genetic diversity in these crops increased, as farmers abandoned their locally adapted landraces and traditional varieties, replacing them with improved, yet genetically uniform modern ones. The International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) started to assemble germplasm collections of the major crop species within their respective mandates. The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGRs) was established in 1974 in this context to coordinate the global effort to systematically collect and conserve the world’s threatened plant genetic diversity. Today, as a result of this effort, over 1750 genebanks and germplasm collections exist around the world, maintaining ~7,400,000 accessions, largely of major food crops including cereals and some legumes, i.e., species that can be conserved easily as seed.111
This entry reviews the current storage technologies and management procedures developed for seeds, describes the problems and achievements with seed storage, and identifies priorities for improving the efficiency of seed conservation.
