Biotech Updates

GCDT and GIPB Award Grants to Support Climate-Ready Crops

May 29, 2009

The Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) have made available grant awards to support scientists working to breed disease-resistant, high yielding and climate-proof crops. The scientists will explore the millions of seed samples maintained in 1,500 crop genebanks around the world in search for traits needed to protect food production from the ravages of climate change.

"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 GCDT-GIPB partnership is also supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Grant recipients include researchers from the Philippines searching for bananas that are resistant to the dreaded banana streak virus, scientists in India searching for pearl millet varieties that can tolerate scorching temperatures, plant breeders from Burkina Faso and South Africa working to develop climate-proof maize varieties and scientists from Chile transferring traits from a wild to a cultivated variety of potato that convey resistance to bacterial wilt.

The press release is available at http://km.fao.org/gipb/images/pdf_files/FinalResultAnnouncementPrebreedingGrantsGIPBwebsite_220509.pdf For the complete list of the grant recipients, visit http://www.generationcp.org/sp5/?da=09142800