ICARDA Innovates a New Research Tool for Food Security

A research team from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas adopts a new approach to rapidly identify genetic material that can produce new crop varieties. This new method is called FIGS which stands for Focus Identification of Germplasm Strategy. It uses applied Bayesian mathematics and geographical information to help breeders to easily identify traits that can be used to develop different varieties of crops with resistance to drought, frost, insect pests, and other diseases that affect the crop yields in developing countries.

Dr. Ken Street, a senior genetic resource scientist at ICARDA, explains the unique FIGS approach: "The method uses detailed information about the environment from which the plant genetic samples were collected to precisely predict where plant traits – such as disease resistance or adaptability to extreme weather conditions – are likely to evolve. Accessions from these areas have a higher probability of containing the traits and genes of interest. From this we assemble smaller subsets of genetic material that have a high potential of containing the plant traits that breeders need to develop their robust new varieties," he explained.

For more information about FIGS, visit http://icardablog.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/a-new-approach-to-mining-agricultural-gene-banks-promises-to-speed-the-pace-of-research-innovation-for-food-security/.