| Afghanistan is the center of diversity for a number of important crops, but years of turmoil has placed the country’s priceless genetic heritage at risk. With help from ICARDA and its Future Harvest Consortium partners, Afghanistan has regained much of its lost germplasm, and is now moving ahead with its plans for crop improvement and income generation. |
 |
| An unusually large wild population of Lens odemensis, Sweda Province, Syria. |
In post-conflict situations, ICARDA can help by restoring functional, cost-effective, cold storage facilities to hold national germplasm collections, and help repatriate duplicate accessions being held at international facilities. Using a community-based participatory approach that focuses on adding value to indigenous plant products, the Center also promotes on-farm (in situ) conservation of valuable agrobiodiversity.
The indigenous varieties of any country evolve with genetic adaptations specific to their environment. These genetic resources form the raw material from which new crop species are derived, and they form a pool from which all species draw traits that allow them to adapt to stresses, such as diseases and pests. The ICARDA mandate region has the distinction of being the birthplace of agriculture and a center of genetic diversity. Afghanistan, for example, is the center of diversity for several species of global significance: carrot, radish, cherry, plum, apricot, peach, pear, apple, walnut, pistachio, fig, grape, pomegranate, melon, and almond.
| Afghan germplasm preserved in the genebank of the Consortium members of the CGIAR. | ||
| Centers |
Crop collections
|
Number
of accessions
|
| CIAT |
Beans
|
73
|
| CIMMYT |
Maize, wheat
|
21
|
| ICARDA |
Genetic resources collection, wheat, barley, lentil,
chickpea, forage legumes
|
2217
|
| ICRISAT |
Chickpea, small millets, sorghum
|
723
|
| IITA |
Genetic resources collection
|
77
|
| ILRI |
Genetic resources collection
|
23
|
| IRRI |
Rice collection
|
69
|
| CIAT: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical; CIMMYT: Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo; ICARDA: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; ICRISAT: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics; IITA: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture; ILRI: International Livestock Research Institute; IRRI: International Rice Research Institute. | ||
 |
| A view of ICARDA’s genebank where 2217 accessions of wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea and forage legumes, collected in Afghanistan, are preserved. Of these, 271 accessions were repatriated to Afghanistan in 2002. ICARDA holds a total of 131,000 accessions in it genebank and freely shares them with partners all over the world. |
In September 2002, the international media reported that looters had destroyed Afghanistan’s largest crop seed collection. The seed was dumped so that looters could take the plastic containers in which it was stored.
The Future Harvest Consortium recovered seed from duplicate collections around the world for repatriation to Afghanistan.
Many varieties in Afghanistan lost in the looting are being re-collected. For example, some 60 varieties of almond have already been collected. Other collection efforts are planned aimed at replacing lost seed, landraces, and wild relatives of important crop species. Upon return to ICARDA headquarters in Syria, collected material is planted to increase the seed quantity and then placed in the Center’s genebank. Most importantly, the material is made readily available to broaden the genetic base for crop breeding efforts in Afghanistan.
