'The role of crop diversity and food resilience in a changing climate'

A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated plant.
A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated plant.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG, Kew) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) will be jointly organising a one-day symposium on November 23 bringing together experts from around the UK to discuss the role of crop diversity and Crop Wild Relatives (CWR), in building more sustainable and resilient agriculture and food security.

The objective of this symposium is to inform research scientists and decision makers about the critical importance of CWR in climate change adaptation, and the ongoing UK work in this field.

This vital meeting of minds comes in the lead-up to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), which takes place in Paris in December 2015. There will be discussions around a legally binding global agreement to combat climate change through both adaptation and mitigation, and promote the transition towards more resilient, low-carbon societies and economies.

Agriculture and food security are major issues in this regard, but have thus far been generally left off of the COP21 agenda. Breeding better-adapted and more efficient crops is key to achieving these objectives.

The recently adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals specifically mentions the importance of crop wild relatives in Target 2.5, “By 2020 maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional and international levels, and ensure access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge as internationally agreed.”

The Crop Trust and the Millennium Seed Bank of RBG, Kew jointly manage the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives project to collect many of the most important crop wild relative species, ensure their long-term conservation, and facilitate their use in breeding new, improved crops. This is a ten-year project, supported by the Government of Norway.

Kathy Willis, Director of Science at RBG, Kew, said, “Our best allies in the fight against climate change are organisms that can withstand climate change. By identifying, collecting and conserving those species which can adapt to changing conditions, we can mitigate against the potentially catastrophic effects of food scarcity related to climate change. To do this, we need to continuously maintain and update the vast, interconnected gene pool of our key food crops.

“The UK is one of the leading centres for this work. We have many different collections across the country, ranging from peas to fruits, to the wild relatives of cultivated food crops. These living collections are vital to ensuring resilience to possible future threats. Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank is at the heart of this effort, and the CWR programme, run jointly with the Crop Trust is a Kew’s flagship project.”

Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, said, “The diversity of crop wild relatives represents a game changer for agriculture. This project is providing scientists, breeders and farmers around the world with access to crop wild relatives, which will have resistance to diseases and pests that the world has never seen before. If we are to adapt agriculture to climate change, we need to stack the odds heavily in the farmers’ favour. This project does just that.”

The 29 crops and their wild relatives targeted by the project, are covered by Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). They are: African rice, alfalfa, apple, eggplant (aubergine), bambara groundnut, banana, barley, wheat, lima bean (butter bean), carrot, chickpea, common bean, cowpea, faba bean (broad bean), finger millet, grasspea, lentil, oat, pea, pearl millet, pigeon pea, plantain, potato, rice, rye, sorghum, sunflower, sweet potato and vetch.

Countries with the richest number of priority crop wild relatives include: Australia, Bolivia, China, Cyprus, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey and USA. Although these countries are mostly located in the traditionally recognised centres of high wild crop diversity, notable exceptions are USA, Australia and the European countries. For example, northern Australia has been identified as rich in the wild relatives of African staple sorghum