Genebanks: role in climate adaptation

Charlotte Lusty

13 November 2017

Genebanks: role in climate change

Agriculture must transform over next 30 years

• Ensure food security

• Adapt to climate change

• Reduce emissions

Critical challenges

Agriculture must transform in next 30 years • Ensure food security

60% increased production by 2050

• Adapt to climate change Abiotic stress, incidence of pests & disease, etc.

• Reduce emissions From current level of > 19% GHG emissions

Critical challenges

Plant genetic resources (PGR) in agricultural

transformation:

• Soil & nutrient management

• Water use

• Ecosystem enhancement

• Pests and disease management

• Resilience

• Crop yields

Role of PGR in agriculture

Coconut

Resilient and diverse smallholder

crop, providing coastal protection,

ecosystem services and income in

the face of cyclones and rising sea

levels.

Role of PGR in agriculture

Role of PGR in agriculture

Crop wild relatives

Crop wild relatives

Conveying tolerance to:• High temperatures• Low temperatures• Drought• Salinity• Submergence• Changing growing seasons• Pests• Diseases

We don’t know the full value

of what we conserve

We don’t know the extent of

the challenges that we will face

Genebanks = OPTIONS

Genebanks

No one country can possibly be self-sufficient in

PGR

• International Plant Treaty Multi-lateral System of Access & Benefit Sharing

• International genebanks

• Phytosanitary controls

• Global Information System, Genesys, GRIN-Global, etc

Global system

CGIAR Genebank Platform

Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition

and promote sustainable agriculture

Target 2.5

By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and

domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed

and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and

promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of

genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

Core work of genebanks

14

Long-term conservation

• 756,000 accessions

• 724,000 seed

• 24,000 tissue culture

• 29,000 whole plants

Responding to users EVERY YEAR:

~ 2000 requests

~ 80-130,000 samples distributed

> 100 countries worldwide

Two aspects increase our ability to use PGR

• Increased knowledge of genes, their expression and the traits they convey

• Vastly improved capability to integrate useful traits into improved varieties

Increasing use of PGR

Working as a Global System: Collections from the fertile crescent, conserved in Syria in ICARDA, saved in Svalbard Seed vault, returned to Lebanon

Working as a global system: Collected from the High Andes, conserved in CIP for 30 years, repatriated to Peruvian communities

Thank you