Genebank News
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FAO launches new standards for plant genebanks
A new FAO publication is aimed at improving conservation of food crops, many of which are crucial to the world’s food and nutrition security. The publication, Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, outlines voluntary, international standards for the many repositories – or genebanks - around the world that store seeds and other materials used to ...
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Plant Genebanking: Investing Seeds for the Future
For many years, the agricultural sector has worked on the continuous development of sustainable practices to provide sufficient food and medicine supply for a growing population. Among the many challenges they aim to resolve are the issues inflicted by plant disease outbreaks and upsurge, pests, and climate change. The conservation and increase of diversity of plant species are recognized ...
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ARS helps preserve indigenous crops in Ecuador
An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist is working with an international group of researchers on a project to improve the livelihoods of people in rural Ecuador by promoting the conservation and use of indigenous crops. People in and around Cotacachi, in the northern Andean highlands, have been farming for thousands of years, and the result is a stunning diversity of crops, some of them ...
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‘Genebank can save South Asian fish stocks’
As South Asian fish stocks rapidly dwindle through overfishing, experts have suggested the setting up of a regional genebank as a remedy. Other suggestions that came up at a regional consultative workshop on management and dissemination of improved fish breeds to preserve their diversity in South Asia, held in Islamabad last month (March), were the sharing of databases and technologies. The ...
By SciDev.Net
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New project will collect vital knowledge about tree genetic resources to support conservation
A workshop in Nairobi, Kenya last week saw representatives from 43 African nations participate in an ambitious project to document the status of the world's forest genetic resources; a vital step in conserving and sustainably managing forests. "Forest genetic resources are unique and irreplaceable; from plants that provide timber and essential nourishment when crops fail to those that may be ...
By SciDev.Net
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International crop breeding programme needed for African farming
Climate change poses a large threat to African agriculture, but there is little research on how to respond. A recent study indicates that traditional adaptation methods are not enough and international collaboration is needed in 'planned adaptation' by collecting and conserving certain crops for the future. A large proportion of the African population - mainly the poor - depend on agriculture ...
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Rising emissions may double sweet potato size
Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere caused by human-driven emissions might lead to larger sweet potatoes, a staple food for many African and Asian countries, research reveals. Sweet potatoes could double in size with the increase in CO2 levels currently forecasted for the end of this century, according to research by a team from the University of Hawaii, United States. The ...
By SciDev.Net
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Ancient crops preserved for future generations in Arctic seed vault
Varieties of one of the world's most important staple crops will be stored for perpetuity deep in the Arctic ice today. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is joining scientific experts and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway to witness a ceremony here this afternoon that will help to preserve these vital ...
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A worldwide network of seed information is taking root
As an increasingly bloody civil war raged around them, a team of scientists in the Syrian capital Aleppo quietly packaged and shipped a series of nondescript cardboard boxes to an island not far from the North Pole. The boxes bore no sign of the conflict that had surrounded them or the precious material they contained. The scientists, from an International Centre for Agricultural Research in the ...
By SciDev.Net
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