Plant Genetic Resources : A Review of Current Research and Future Needs

"It is likely that Plant genetic resources will become the essential methods manual to facilitate their international exchange and local dissemination. It may well become the standard reference for researchers at universities, institutes, government departments and plant nurseries for many years. It provides an indispensable contribution as a handbook for plant collectors."
(Plant Science Bulletin - Botanical Society of America)

Maintaining and benefitting from plant genetic diversity are key challenges facing agriculture. Challenges include a narrowing genetic base for many key crops, the loss of landraces and wild varieties with agricultural intensification and urbanisation, and the need to develop the role of existing gene banks from repository of genetic diversity to enablers of the flow of germplasm and genetic information for breeding more robust varieties.

Plant genetic resources: A review of current research and future needs surveys the wealth of research addressing these challenges and the opportunity for a more integrated, global approach to protecting and leveraging plant genetic diversity for a more sustainable agriculture. The book assesses ways of valuing and monitoring plant genetic diversity and discusses advances in in-situ and ex-situ strategies for conserving plant genetic diversity. The book concludes by reviewing ways of enhancing the use of plant genetic diversity, including participatory plant breeding programmes and more effective seed systems.

With its eminent editor and range of international expertise, Plant genetic resources: A review of current research and future needs will be a standard reference for university and other researchers studying crop genetic resources and breeding, staff managing genebanks and germplasm collections, government and other agencies regulating the collection, storage and exchange of germplasm, as well as companies involved in crop breeding.

Dr M. Ehsan Dulloo is Principal Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. He is also co-Leader of the Genetic Diversity Cluster in the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas. He has previously served as Senior Policy Officer, Plant Genetic Resources, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He was the lead author of the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report, FAO first and second State of the World Reports on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and, more recently, lead author of Chapter 2.2 Status and Trends - Nature in the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Report. He won the World Bank 2009 Development Marketplace Award on Climate Adaptation. Dr Dulloo has published widely on biodiversity and the conservation of genetic resources.