PHOTO ESSAY: Preserving global crop diversity

(Credit: Charlie Pye-Smith)

This collection of fruit trees, representing more than 190 species from 45 countries, is part of ICRAF’s overall efforts to introduce more fruit trees, including from other parts of the world, to farmers across Africa. The domestication of these fruit trees and their introduction to local markets could help improve the region’s diet. The baobab tree, for example, is the source of a popular vitamin C-rich fruit juice, and its leaves are widely used as a vegetable, while the marula produces a fruit used to make not just juice, but also jam, beer and a liqueur. Such trees are becoming more popular with farmers across the African continent, increasing the demand for varieties that can grow in diverse conditions.

POTATOES, SWEET POTATOES & TUBERS

16,000 accessions at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru

(Credit: Asociacion ANDES)

The genebank at CIP is thought to hold more than 80 percent of the world’s native potato and sweet potato cultivars, as well as more than 80 percent of known wild potato species. First domesticated by farmers over 7,000 years ago in the Andes, potatoes are now grown in more than 170 countries and are considered the world’s most important non-cereal crop. The genebank at CIP also conserves a variety of other root and tuber crops, less well known around the world than potatoes. Durable in the face of drought, freezing temperatures and harsh sunlight, these vegetables - from Achira to Yachon - are essential to the diets of indigenous communities. Researchers from around the world study CIP’s genebank to discover varieties best attuned to specific climates and soil conditions.

Wheat is the second most widely produced crop globally. It is grown as far north as Norway, as far south as Argentina and serves as the basis of meals for billions of people. In the 1970s, Norman Borlaug worked at CIMMYT’s then-new genebank to develop high-yielding varieties of wheat that spawned the Green Revolution in Mexico, and the plains of the Indus and Ganges. He is credited with saving more lives than any other person in history. To pay tribute to his accomplishment, scientists at ICARDA and CIMMYT founded the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative to develop wheat varieties resistant to the deadly, rapidly mutating wheat fungi known as rusts. A major outbreak of stem rust or yellow rust could cause severe crop losses globally. The only way researchers can win the race against such an outbreak is to search among the thousands of varieties held in genebanks for material to help them breed new varieties that can withstand the threat.

(Credit: ICRISAT)

Also known as garbanzos, this nutritious dry legume originated in the Fertile Crescent, and has been farmed in the Middle East for thousands of years, part of the package of crops that launched the Neolithic Revolution. Packed with protein, the chickpea is also a staple throughout Southeast Asia, India and the Mediterranean. Recently, it has become popular in parts of Africa and Latin America. Because the crop has yet to realize its full yield potential, breeders are relying on genebanks to find varieties - such as those resistant to cold shocks - that yield more protein-packed pods per plant.

COWPEA

16,000 cowpea accessions at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria

(Credit: IITA)

High in value and nutrition, this legume feeds livestock and humans alike, mainly in Africa and Asia but also in the Americas - it is known as the black-eyed pea in the southern US. Poor farmers in Africa, where the crop originated, plant cowpeas with other crops to enrich the soil. It releases nitrogen, the same element that expensive fertilizers provide. For this reason, the cowpea thrives in sandy soils and other hostile conditions. To protect the crop from disease and pests, including pod-sucking bugs, IITA used strains found in genebanks to develop resistant, high-yielding, short season varieties. Today, these improved varieties are used in 60 countries.

SORGHUM

46,000 accessions at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) genebanks in India and Africa

(Credit: Neil Palmer - CIAT)

This is a major cereal in Africa, where the crop was born, and on the Indian subcontinent. It is also grown as a livestock feed and biofuel in other parts of the world. This so-called “camel of crops” is prized by farmers battling climate change for its resistance to long dry periods. Researchers at ICRISAT have collected and conserved a huge diversity of sorghum varieties - in particular from its African cradle. The fruits of this effort have already paid off - more than 30 varieties derived from the samples found in the genebank have been released in 17 countries. This includes a strain from Ethiopia that was used to create varieties for Burundi and Burkina Faso that feature excellent grain quality and high yields, and that are resistant to a number of important diseases.

PEARL MILLET

33,000 accessions at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) genebanks in India and Africa

(Credit: Neil Palmer - CIAT)

The go-to crop for many of the world’s poorest farmers in the world’s driest regions, this high-protein grain originated in Africa and is still used widely across the continent for its resistance to high heat and low water. Since the 1980s, a high-yielding variety used by many farmers in India has suffered from downy mildew, a close relative to the disease that contributed to the Irish potato famine. Some farmers in Rajasthan continue to lose 30 percent of their pearl millet yields when outbreaks hit. Breeders, however, have used samples conserved in ICRISAT’s genebanks to develop varieties that can withstand the onslaught of this pathogen.