The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) Genebank has extended support to the Cotton Research Institute of Zimbabwe for establishing its first seed storage unit.
The core purpose of Genebanks is the conservation and management of genes or plant genotypes, from wild and cultivated species outside of their natural habitat, for current or future use.
Responding to questions from the Sunday News, Icrisat Zimbabwe country representative who is also the farming and systems analysis principal scientist, Dr Martin Moyo said the support rendered to the institute include all aspects related to the effective and efficient conservation of plant genetic resources.
The Icrisat Genebank also extended support to the Cotton Research Institute of Zimbabwe for establishing its first seed storage unit. The support rendered included all aspects related to the effective and efficient conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, ranging from training on germplasm acquisition and maintenance to ideal storage facility infrastructure,” he said.
“The staff from the institute were also trained on the best practices to ensure the longevity of germplasm viability and seed health as well as technical know-how on ideal conditions for storage and regeneration processes.”
He said Icrisat plays a fundamental role in the efficient conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) from various regions across the world.
Dr Moyo said in particular, Icrisat’s Eastern and Southern African (ESA) Genebank, a medium-term storage facility located in Bulawayo conserves over 10 000 unique accessions of dryland crops, namely sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, chickpea, pigeon pea, and groundnut.
He added: “The Icrisat Genebank plays an active role in providing capacity building within the region. Over the last year, it has aided different organisations, in the private and public sectors, in developing and strengthening the operations, processes, and resource management strategies that organisations and communities need in order to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world.”
Dr Moyo said collaborative work between Icrisat and the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) remains at an all-time high as the Genebank continues to work with the Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Institute of Zimbabwe.
He said the collaboration has since led to the provision of support to the NARS through collaborative characterisation and regeneration procedures in a bid to assist the institute in achieving Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development’s mandate to generate enough germplasm for back-up conservation in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Dr Moyo said the Genebank has also collaborated with the Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO) in providing base material for the ‘Seeds for the future’ project, a donor-funded project being conducted in Masvingo, Chiredzi and Mwenezi, which aims to improve access to climate-resilient crop varieties in vulnerable communities.
“This initiative also saw the Icrisat Genebank in Bulawayo providing technical backstopping to the project as it conducted a training workshop for CTDO staff that focused on standard operating procedures for characterisation and regeneration. The reasons behind these operations in support of effective germplasm conservation at community level (community seedbanks).”
