July 1995
by John Madeley
ALEPPO, Syria Dr Jan Valkoun has a mission to collect. But it's a mission with a difference. Each year he spends around 6 weeks of his time tramping through fields, remote countryside and arid areas of West Asia and North Africa, plucking wild plants out of the ground.
As he walks along, Dr Valkoun's style is to pull up a single wild plant, usually of wheat, barley or related species, every 20 meters or so. At this stage, he has no idea what he is looking for in a plant. His collecting is totally random.
Jan Valkoun's walking habits may seem bizarre. But there is a huge amount at stake. On his wild plant collecting could depend nothing less than food supplies of the future.
Dr Valkoun is Head of the Genetic Resources Unit at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Based in Aleppo, northern Syria, ICARDA is part of a worldwide network of agricultural research stations which are trying to help Third World countries to increase and sustain the output of basic food crops. One of ICARDA's roles in this scientific network is to improve the wheat, barley, lentils and faba beans (so-called "poor man's meat") which serve as the "daily bread" for millions in West Asia and North Africa. But there is a huge problem.
The population of the region is growing fast and land is becoming degraded. The demand for food is rising and scientists have to continually breed new varieties of crops. The old, genetically diverse varieties maintained by farmers over millenia are being replaced with improved but uniform varieties. Our crops become "genetically eroded" the scientists say. At the same time, agriculture is advancing into marginal habitats where the wild relatives of the crop plants live the wild plants are displaced by the crops and lost. This is another form of genetic erosion. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, about three-quarters of the diversity of agricultural plants have been lost since 1900.
Scientists say that it is difficult to measure the exact loss of these plants, but that the pace is not slowing down. As the population grows and more farmland is taken over for housing, as people cultivate marginal land, and as too many sheep and goats graze the land, so wild crops continue to decline.
The West Asia and North Africa region has the highest rate of population growth in the world, and this is putting severe pressure on land. "The loss of genetic diversity could be higher in this region than in any other," believes Jan Valkoun.
Wheat, barley, lentils and fruit trees originated in the region. "But the wild plants are losing their space," he says, "as nearly every piece of land is now cultivated".
But why do we need this genetic diversity? Modern varieties are developed on experimental stations under optimum growth conditions. Research at ICARDA and elsewhere has shown that these varieties are not adapted to harsh environments. However, the wild relatives are.
To breed new varieties of crops, scientists "cross" existing varieties of plants with new lines. And this is where the collecting activities of Jan Valkoun come in because adapted plants from the wild can be ideal for the "crossing".
When Dr Valkoun returns with his collection he examines each plant for its characteristics in the laboratory and in the field at ICARDA's experimental farm. What he is hoping to find are traits which are different to the plant varieties already held in ICARDA's "genebank".
But every now and again, Jan Valkoun's spirits soar as he sees a wild plant with different traits because then he could be on to a winner. The wild plant could be crossed with an existing variety to breed a new variety that could help to feed the people of the region and beyond.
Dr Valkoun stresses that not enough of the wild plants have been collected, and that it is vital to gather in as many as possible before they are destroyed. Their loss could be a catastrophe.
The plants are vital for food supplies throughout the world, not just in West Asia and North Africa. For, while countries in the western world are rich in material terms, they are poor in wild plant diversity. The world's food supplies ultimately depend on the breeding and development of new crop varieties and the raw material for this is mostly in Third World countries.
Jan Valkoun is one of a small number of scientists throughout the world who specialize in collecting wild plants. On their skills, a great deal depends. The millions who shop for bread and pasta etc. may not know it, but this collecting of wild plants is vital, if there is to be food to buy in the future.
Contact: Guy Manners, Communication, Documentation and Information Services, or Jan Valkoun, Genetic Resources Unit, ICARDA, P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria.
Fax: +963-21 213490, 225105.
Tel.: +963-21 213433, 213477, 235220, 225012, 225112, 225635.
Telex: (492) 331206, 331208, 331263 ICARDA SY.
Cable: ICARDA Aleppo.