A global initiative to collect, conserve, and use crop wild relatives
This paper by Hannes Dempewolf and colleagues of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Germany, and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, informs researchers interested in the 'Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change' initiative and to encourage them to start collaborating under its umbrella. The authors explain that the main objective of the project is to collect and protect the genetic diversity of a range of plants with characteristics that are required for adapting the world's most important food crops to climate change. The initiative also makes these plants available to plant breeders who can readily use them to produce varieties adapted to the new climatic conditions.
Editor’s note: What mechanisms are in place to ensure equal access to the genetic diversity collected and that countries derive economic and social benefits from any sale or profits from their indigenous resources?
(Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 18/02/2014)