“weirding” and unpredictable weather patterns, increasing populations or human and man-made natural disasters, we must acknowledge that ecosystems do come under threat for a myriad of reasons. Demands of the future will call for more food grown
emerged on the planet is where the greatest diversity will be found. Harkening back to our tale of corn, we see that it emerged somewhere near South Mexico and Central America. Thus, this is where CIMMYT is located, The International Maize and Wheat
methods over millennia. Genebanks around the world store PGR in the form of seeds ex situ , which just means that it is being conserved off-site from where it is from, whereas in situ conservation strategies would be keeping the seeds stored (as living
on smaller tracts of land, all while utilizing less water and less energy. As I say, “it’s too late to be pessimistic,” and we should all revel in a grand challenge! What tools do we possess to adapt to these mounting factors? Can anyone guess? Yup–you got it–SEEDS! Think about your father who lives in Colorado, your mother in New England and your brother down in Panama–they are all from the same family but have adjusted to the high/dry, rainy/cold, hot/humid climates respectively. So now, let’s consider corn, Zea mays , a sacred staple food crop around the planet,
plants) in the soils where they are. Seeds are indeed living embryos, however through desiccation and temperature control techniques, each of these unique accessions metabolic states can be slowed down–placing them into a state of hibernation. Viability varies amongst different plant families, and can be anywhere from a few days to thousands of years. CIMMYT is one of the eleven main CGIAR Platform Genebanks that collectively manages over 850,000 accessions focusing on 35 of our planet's most important crop cultivars. The Genebank
GLOBAL CROP DIVERSITY TRUST
that was derived from thousands of years of selection from the pebble-like crop wild relative, or plant ancestor, Teosinte. The Incas were eating popcorn almost 7,000 years ago! This ancient crop has been held sacred both in ceremony and for sustenance throughout the lands for millenia. Seeds were carried all over the world by roaming tribes and were used to establish civilizations, transitioning from hunter/ gatherer societies to agrarian communities. Farmers cultivated and selected for the expressed genetics of the seeds that thrived in their local terroir and ecosystems–eventually creating new varieties and landraces that were bio-regionally adapted. Thus, these seeds that came from shared parental material , were selected for vigor, yield, pest resistance and palatability to the citizens of that region creating their own cultivars. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was a Russian ethnobotanical explorer who went on over a hundred expeditions in the early 1900’s to gather, catalogue and safeguard seed diversity from around the globe– forming the largest collection of his time and pioneering the seedbank concept. During his travels he developed a map of the centres of origin of cultivated crops. His theory purported that where crops first
GLOBAL CROP DIVERSITY TRUST
Improvement Center. This genebank houses almost 30,000 varieties of maize, not to mention around 150,000 varieties of wheat. Plant genetic resource or PGR is the scientific term that references the vast variability found amongst plants that have been selected by both human and natural
Platform functions under the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO’s) treaty for conservation and use, namedThe International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). This Multilateral System stipulates that any country that has signed the WESTONMAGAZINEGROUP.COM 137
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