World Agriculture

• Facing its biggest challenge ever, due to population growth and climate change

We need to find game changers

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Rice

• Plus 1ºC could result in a decrease of yield by 10%

• Plus 2ºC is potentially catastrophic• New diseases as a consequence of a

changing weather

We need to make crops climate ready

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Proposed goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture

• 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

Crop diversity is a prerequisite for food security

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Diversity

• 200,000 varieties of rice• 120,000 varieties of wheat• 4,500 varieties of potatoes• 35,000 varieties of finger millet• 3,000 varieties of coconut

All are important because one might have the trait to increase nutritious value, fight disease, adapt to new climates, or produce higher yields

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Loss of diversity

• Spain: had 400 melon varieties in 1970, only 12 today

• China: lost 90% of rice varieties since 1950

• Mexico: lost 80% of corn varieties since 1900

• India: lost 90% of rice varieties since 1900

• USA: lost 90% of fruit and vegetable varieties since 1900

Genetic uniformity creates vulnerability – resilience

require options – options require diversity

The Crop Trust work…

to ensure the conservation and availability

of crop diversity for food security

worldwide

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Crop diversity – a global common good

Crop diversity = breeders’ raw material

The objective…

is a cost-effective, rational, and global system for the conservation of crop diversity

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Picture: Neil Palmer/CIAT

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

801 752 varieties stored in the vault

The ultimate safetyback-up

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11 CGIAR Genebanks

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Rescued Crops Worldwide59,429 seed and 13,615 vegetative accessions

in 226 collections

managed by 84 institutes

in 71 countries

12 000 varieties lost

-we were too late-lost forever

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Crop Wild Relatives

• Tough — with traits not found in domesticated varieties

Broadening the gene pool to search for useful traits

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Untapped opportunities

Vast pool of genetic resources in genebanks represent a treasure trove for crop improvement

Genebanks used – but not effectively

Genebanks - supermarket

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Applying cutting edge technology

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Labeling the cans

We can label all the genebank cans with rich information (disease, drought, nutrition, storage, yield), speed up breeding processes, make plants more resilient/climate ready and contribute substantially to food security

Genebank database caos

• 7 million accessions in 1700 genebanks

• > 2 million unique accessions

• Lots of genebank databases, not all online

• Characterization and evaluation data linked to accessions not easily available

• Let alone genotypic data

• Like finding a needle in a haystack

GeneSys: A step forward

• Single online portal global gateway to genetic resources

• 2.7 million accessions• 300 genebanks: US,

Europe, CGIAR• Passport data• Some morphological

characterization and evaluation data

• Not enough...

The genomics revolution

Large-scale sequencing/genotyping efforts of genebank collections:

• Seeds of Discovery (CIMMYT, Mexico)

• 120,000 wheat; 27,500 maize

• 3,000 rice accessions (BGI, CAAS, IRRI)

• then 100,000 (whole collection)

• Cassava collection (CIAT, Colombia)

• National initiatives

• Lots more no doubt coming...

many stakeholders, many relevant past and ongoing projects

trait datasequence data

passport data

Wheat

Rice

Maize

Beans

Bananas

Potatoes

BarleyCassava

Forages

Stakeholders and partners

CWR

CWRCWR

CWR

CWR

DivSeek

• DivSeek will mine the wealth of genetic resources to enhance food and nutritional security

• Provide a common platform for sharing information and learning from each other

DivSeek value propositions

• link large-scale sequencing and phenotyping data to publicly available germplasm

• simple, standardized formats and associated analysis tools

• data shared according to agreed common standards and in form easily digestible by breeders and other genebank users

• unified, coordinated and cohesive information management platform to provide easy access to genotypic and phenotypic data associated with genebank germplasm.

Recent progress

• Release of white paper and website www.divseek.org

• Importance underlined at the Third Meeting of G20 Agricultural Chief Scientists

The Endowment FundThe Crop Diversity Fund (CDF)

Endowment today

$170 M

2014

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The Crop Diversity Fund (CDF)

Endowment todayPlanned endowment size by 2018

$170 M

$850 M

2014 2018

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$500 M 2015

2018

Burdensharing

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To date, 14 country donors have pledged the bulk of the endowment funding -- among them:

Australia, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

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Thank you

www.croptrust.org

The DivSeek process

• Community-driven process: various consultations over past 2 years, facilitated by Crop Trust

• White Paper: Strategic road-map (see www.divseek.org)

• Expressions of interest are to be circulated

• Development of governance structure

• Establishment of technical working group on standard setting and best practices

• Facilitation Unit hosted by Crop Trust - joint implementation with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture with inputs by CGIAR consortium office and the Global Plant Council