Coffee (Coffea spp.) is one of the world's most valuable agricultural export commodities produced by small‐scale farmers. Its germplasm, which holds useful traits for crop improvement, has traditionally been conserved in field genebanks, which presents many challenges for conservation. New techniques of in vitro and cryopreservation have been developed to improve the long‐term conservation of coffee. But a question remains as to whether these new techniques are more cost effective than field collections and more efficient at reducing genetic erosion. This study compared the costs of maintaining one of the world's largest coffee field collections with those of establishing a coffee cryo‐collection at the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Costa Rica. The results indicate that cryopreservation costs less (in perpetuity per accession) than conservation in field genebanks. A comparative analysis of the costs of both methods showed that the more accessions there are in cryopreservation storage, the lower the per‐accession cost. In addition to cost, the study examined the advantages of cryopreservation over field collection and showed that for species that are difficult to conserve using seeds, and that can only be conserved as live plants, cryopreservation may be the method of choice for long‐term conservation of genetic diversity.

The effective conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity is vital for creating and maintaining sustainable increases in the productivity of healthy food for mankind, as well as contributing to the increased resilience of agricultural systems. Major advances in the two main complementary strategies for agricultural biodiversity conservation, namely ex situ and in situ, over the last decade are presented to reflect on their current global status and trends. The FAO Second State of the World Report on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture reports that the total number of accessions conserved in ex situ collections is about 7.4 million, in over 1750 genebanks around the world. There has also been increasing awareness of the importance and value of conserving crop wild relatives (CWR) in situ and a greater understanding of the scientific issues surrounding on farm management of genetic diversity. Recent research outputs produced by Bioversity International to ensure the effective and efficient conservation and use of genetic diversity are cited. These have involved development of best practices for genebank management and the development of enhanced technologies and methodologies for conserving and promoting the use of the genetic diversity. Bioversity International has led the development of methodologies for on farm conservation, and promoted the drafting of policies and strategies for the in situ conservation of crop wild relatives and their management inside and outside protected areas. Also an outlook of the research priorities and needs for conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity is described.

Despite being an increasingly important source of genes for crop breeding aimed at improving food security and climate change adaptation, crop wild relatives (CWRs) are globally threatened. A root cause of CWR conservation challenges is a lack of institutions and payment mechanisms by which the beneficiaries of CWR conservation services (such as breeders) could compensate those who can supply them. Given that CWR conservation generates important public good values, for the significant proportion of CWRs found outside of protected areas, there is a strong justification for the design of incentive mechanisms to support landowners whose management practices positively contribute to CWR conservation. This paper contributes to facilitating an improved understanding of the costs of in situ CWR conservation incentive mechanisms, based on a case study application of payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services across 13 community groups in three districts in Malawi. Results demonstrate a high willingness to participate in conservation activities, with average conservation tender bids per community group being a modest MWK 20,000 (USD 25) p.a. and covering 22 species of CWRs across 17 related crops. As such, there appears to be significant potential for community engagement in CWR conservation activities that is complementary to that required in protected areas and can be achieved at modest cost where appropriate incentive mechanisms can be implemented.

This chapter defines wild relatives, and discusses the integration of plant genetic resources conservation with protected area management. Some...

Our knowledge about the status of agrobiodiversity on farms is still very limited. While several studies to assess the crop genetic diversity on farms have been undertaken, there are no systematic documentation and monitoring practices for varietal diversity in space and time. Achievement of the agrobiodiversity Aichi Target 13, established under the Biodiversity Strategy Plan 2011–2020, have failed due to the lack of existing data on varietal diversity at country, regional and global levels. Here, we propose a method for calculating the Varietal Threat Index using the four-cell analysis (FCA) participatory methodology at different geographical scales to monitor changes in the varietal diversity on farms and to compare between areas. We tested the method with datasets collected from the UN-Environment GEF project implemented in India, in which data on crop and varietal diversity were collected across seven states in India, covering five agroecological regions. Results showed that landraces are still commonly grown in the study sites, especially in the central and western regions, and that more than 50% of landraces are considered threatened, suggesting that conservation interventions are required to prevent large-scale genetic erosion. A long-term monitoring framework for varietal diversity in India is proposed.

ISHS XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): III International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources SEED STORAGE CHARACTERISTICS AND CRYOPRESERVATION OF GENETIC RESOURCES OF TROPICAL UNDERUTILIZED FRUITS IN INDIA