ICARDA Annual Report 1990

Abstract

A major service performed by International Centers associated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research is the collection, conservation and evaluation of germplasm. ICARDA's role is particularly important since its region of West Asia and North Africa is the center of origin and diversity of a11 the Center's mandated crops--wheat, barley, chickpea, lentil and faba bean--as well as a wide range of pasture and forage crops. The Center's germplasm conservation work, however, is not confined to its immediate region. In 1990 ICARDA scientists participated in collection missions to Algeria, Bulgaria, China, Japan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and the USSR, acquiring 6000 new accessions to bring the Center's total collection to over 90,000 accessions. Two of these missions dcscrve special mention. For the first time in more than 50 years, an international mission, including ICARDA scientists, ventured into the highlands (if Tibet (see cover), where unique, highly stress-resistant barley landraces were collected. Closer to home, ICARDA staff joined Soviet and Syrian colleagues in a collection mission that retraced the steps of the Russian pioneer plant geneticist, Nicolai I. Vavilov. Sadly, the mission confirmed that severe genetic erosion has taken place in recent decades, lending yet further evidence in support of the ongoing global effort to conserve our precious genetic patrimony for future generations.