Modern Crop Varieties can Increase Local Genetic Diversity

"Participatory breeding and client-oriented breeding programs should choose locally adapted varieties as parents for breeding. It ensures that landrace genes are conserved and increases the likelihood that the breeding program will succeed." This was the conclusion of a paper published in the journal Field Crops Research. The study began in the early 1990s, when a Ph.D student in Bangor University, United Kingdom started work on developing three rice varieties that can be planted in upland Nepal. Bhuwon Sthapit, now a senior scientist in Bioversity International, worked closely with the farmers in setting the goals of his program and in deciding which varieties to choose among the many crosses that would occur.

These varieties were widely adopted, and by 2004, 60 percent of the lands involved in Sthapit's study were used for at least one of the three chosen rice varieties, while 40 per cent was used for the traditional varieties. An international team of researchers from Bangor and Nepal assessed the genetic diversity in the area through DNA analysis of three client-oriented breeding (COB) varieties, a random selection of landraces and a control group of modern varieties. It was determined that as long as the COB varieties were adopted, there would be an increase in diversity due to the presence of high-yielding parental alleles which were previously unavailable in the area. Also, the landraces were preserved, as the alleles from the landraces were transferred to the modern varieties.

The full article is available for viewing at: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/news_and_events/news/news.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=796&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=250&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=null&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=null&tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=null&tx_ttnews%5BpL%5D=null&tx_ttnews%5Barc%5D=null&cHash=0a32f0c29b