Rome, Italy
May 22, 2009Source:
Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity
Building (GIPB)
The awards (see Table) support
a range of innovative projects across crops and continents, and
seek a variety of important plant traits. The call for proposals
went out late in 2008 as a coordinated effort among GIPB, the
Global Crop Diversity Trust (the Trust), and the Generation
Challenge Programme (GCP) of the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research. Each of these organizations
places high priority on genetic solutions to adaptation to the
effects of climate change. GIPB is supporting efforts by plant
breeders to use such information to breed new, high-yielding
varieties adapted to conditions on the ground. The GCP is
offering funding for scientists to use molecular mapping
technology to identify the “DNA fingerprint” of the desired
trait once crops have been identified. The Trust, in partnership
with the UN Foundation and with the support of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, is supporting the GIPB-funded
projects.
|
Project
title |
Grant
recipient |
Country
|
|
Morpho-physiological
characterization of Burkina Faso rice collection for
drought and iron toxicity tolerance |
Institut National de
l’Environnement et de la Recherche Agronomique (INERA) |
Burkina Faso
|
|
Improvement of rice
varieties/breeding lines for low water availability in
South and Southeast Asia |
School of Environmental
and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and
Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan |
Malaysia |
|
Broadening the genetic
base of potato for the tropics, in preparation for
climate change |
International Potato
Center (CIP) |
Peru |
|
Recurrent and genome-wide
selection for enhancing yield in rice |
Philippine Rice Research
Institute |
The Philippines
|
Evaluation of activation
of endogenous banana streak virus sequences in Musa
germplasm from Southeast Asia and the Pacific
|
Institute of Plant
Breeding – Crop Science Cluster, College of Agriculture,
University of the Philippines Los Baños |
The Philippines |
|
Improvement of African
maize germplasm by introgressing temperate genes to
enhance nutritional quality and adaptability to climate
change |
African Centre for Crop
Improvement, University of Kwazulu-Natal |
Republic of South Africa
|
“We want to support scientists
to probe crop genebanks for natural traits that will allow farm
production to stay one step ahead of climate change,” said Cary
Fowler, executive director of the Trust. “The data are now clear
that rising temperatures, radically altered precipitation
patterns and new infestations of plant pests are on the near
horizon, and we need to look to our crop genebanks for the
traits that will help us avoid a crisis.” (Details
on the web page of Generation).
By the end of this century, scientists now predict that
temperatures during growing seasons in the tropics and
subtropics are destined to be even hotter than what are now
considered extreme temperatures. New data also show steadily
drier conditions in many regions. But there is widespread
concern, particularly in the developing world, that plant
breeding efforts are not moving fast enough to develop new
varieties that can withstand these stresses and enable farmers
to avoid steep drops in food production.
“It’s not enough to just identify the trait,” said Humberto
Gómez, the Coordinator of GCP’s Genotyping Support Service. “To
produce a viable crop variety, one has to go further and also
conduct molecular analysis and then the breeding. This work can
take up to ten years from the point of discovering the trait to
having a new crop actually growing in a farmer’s field. We’re
seeking to speed up that process by supporting breeders in the
developing world.”
“Together, these efforts will increase our ability to be ready
for climate change,” said Elcio Guimaraes of GIPB. “It will be
much easier for young plant breeders to identify and use
promising traits that arm crops against climate change.”
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