Biogemüsefibel 2024

Infos aus Praxis, Beratung und Forschung rund um den Biogemüse- und Kartoffelbau

European network for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources in nature and on farm

This policy brief presents the key achievements of the Farmer’s Pride project (horizon 2020 project)., that underpin and have enabled the establishment of a European in situ (in-nature) PGR network. Some of the key objectives of Farmer’s Pride are to: (a) improve on-farm and in situ conservation of landraces (LR) and crop wild relatives (CWR), (b) back-up or safety duplicate the seeds of these precious resources through ex situ (off-site) storage, and multiplication in national gene banks and community seed banks, (c) ensure wide accessibility and use of these conserved resources, (d)Harmonize and better integrate formal conservation and informal dynamic conservation management efforts at the global, regional, or national level

Analysis of landrace cultivation in Europe: A means to support in situ conservation of crop diversity

[EN] During the last century, the progressive substitution of landraces with modern, high yielding varieties, led to a dramatic reduction of in situ conserved crop diversity in Europe. Nowadays there is limited and scattered information on where landraces are cultivated. To fill this gap and lay the groundwork for a regional landrace in situ conservation strategy, information on more than 19,335 geo-referenced landrace cultivation sites were collated from 14 European countries. According to collected data, landraces of 141 herbaceous and 48 tree species are cultivated across Europe: Italy (107 species), Greece (93), Portugal (45) and Spain (44) hold the highest numbers. Common bean, onion, tomato, potato and apple are the species of main interest in the covered countries. As from collected data, about 19.8% of landrace cultivation sites are in protected areas of the Natura 2000 network. We also got evidence that 16.7% and 19.3% of conservation varieties of agricultural species and vegetables are currently cultivated, respectively. Results of the GIS analysis allowed the identification of 1261 cells (25 km × 25 km) including all the cultivation sites, distributed across all European biogeographical regions. Data of this study constitute the largest ever produced database of in situ-maintained landraces and the first attempt to create an inventory for the entire Europe. The availability of such resource will serve for better planning of actions and development of policies to protect landraces and foster their use.This project was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No: 774271 `Networking, partnerships and tools to enhance in situ conservation of European plant genetic resources' (Farmer's Pride).Raggi, L.; Pacicco, LC.; Caproni, L.; Álvarez-Muñiz, C.; Annamaa, K.; Barata, AM.; Batir-Rusu, D.... (2022). Analysis of landrace cultivation in Europe: A means to support in situ conservation of crop diversity. Biological Conservation. 267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.10946026