Landraces and On farm conservation Flashcards
Why define landraces?
Explains what they are and include, required for intellectual property rights, farmers rights and access to benefit sharing
Issues with defining landraces
Do you include wildtypes? just farmers varieties?
Different types of landraces
Agro-ecotypes, heritage varieties, selection, folk variety, heirloom and local variety
Define Landraces
Populations that have evolved in subsistence agricultural societies as a result of millennia-long, artificial human selection pressures, mediated through human migration, seed exchanges as well as natural selection
Features attributed to landraces
Historical origin Distinct identity Lacks formal crop improvement Genetically diverse Locally adapted Uses traditional farming systems
Threats to landraces
Unknown how many exist Older generation maintain landraces Farmers need to maintain commerciality and grow high yields Seed companies promote modern cultivars No comprehensive inventory Costs £4.5k to register seeds
Landrace case study
67 LR found in Scotland, formed database
The survey was incomplete due to lack of funding, majority where just sustained by one person
Scottish Highlands
Have the highest levels of biodiversity, soils are high in magnesium (machair), high yielding varieties won’t grow on these soils
Grown by ageing populations and area is becoming more and more depopulated and subsidy payments keep changing
Barnacle geese eat the crops so the RSPB now fund the farmers
How to establish national landrace inventory
What constitutes a LR? nomenclatural, real genetic diversity
Scope of inventory
The scale of cultivation: commercial/single farmer/Home garden
Collate information regarding to LR diversity
How to collate information regarding LR diversity
Ex situ duplication Expert advice Commerical companies Scientific literature Unpublished reports Internet searches Official documents farmer interviews
Define on-farm conservation
Sustainable management of genetic diversity of locally developed traditional crop varieties with associated wild and weedy species or forms by farmers within traditional agricultural, horticultural or agri-silvicultural cultivation systems
Lead by farmers
Phases of on-farm conservation project
- Site selection
- On-farm project sustainability
- Identify on-farm project partners
- Implementation of on-farm management plan
- On-farm monitoring
- Review of on-farm management
- Utilise diversity
Explain site selection
Need high levels of genetic diversity Interest from the community Lack of previous conservation The threat of genetic erosion High pest and disease diversity Presence of wild relatives Sustainability and cost
Explain project sustainability
No industrial projects planned
Market for the produce
Farmers are keen
Funding and development
On-farm project partners
Farmers/Small landholders who want to grow LR
Agricultural extension workers
NGOs
Community leaders
