ICARDA Annual Report 1990
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Communication Team ICARDA. (1/1/1990). ICARDA Annual Report 1990. Beirut, Lebanon: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
Abstract
A major service performed by International Centers associated with the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research is the collection, conservation and
evaluation of germplasm. ICARDA's role is particularly important since its region of
West Asia and North Africa is the center of origin and diversity of a11 the Center's
mandated crops--wheat, barley, chickpea, lentil and faba bean--as well as a wide range
of pasture and forage crops.
The Center's germplasm conservation work, however, is not confined to its
immediate region. In 1990 ICARDA scientists participated in collection missions to
Algeria, Bulgaria, China, Japan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and the USSR, acquiring
6000 new accessions to bring the Center's total collection to over 90,000 accessions.
Two of these missions dcscrve special mention. For the first time in more than 50
years, an international mission, including ICARDA scientists, ventured into the
highlands (if Tibet (see cover), where unique, highly stress-resistant barley landraces
were collected. Closer to home, ICARDA staff joined Soviet and Syrian colleagues in a
collection mission that retraced the steps of the Russian pioneer plant geneticist,
Nicolai I. Vavilov. Sadly, the mission confirmed that severe genetic erosion has taken
place in recent decades, lending yet further evidence in support of the ongoing global
effort to conserve our precious genetic patrimony for future generations.
