ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 5451
Session = 13.2.3


FARMERS' SELECTION, ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION AND MAINTENANCE OF CROP GENETIC DIVERSITY


A.Teshome, Rome, Italy


Crop landraces in Vavilovian centers of genetic diversity are important resources for global agriculture. They grow where climates, soils and topography are variable and often marginal. Using time-tested experiential knowledge and keen observations, farmers husband crop diversity to meet varied economic and cultural needs. Conservation in situ of this biodiversity requires knowledge of plant biology, environmental and human factors that maintain it. For sorghum landraces in Ethiopia, intraspecific variation closely accords with folk taxonomy. Both natural factors and farmers' selection criteria shape sorghum diversity at farm level. Farmers' knowledge of storability predicted laboratory estimates of resistance to the rice weevil. Thus farmers' knowledge is critical to conserving and using crop genetic diversity. Farmers and scientists can work together in conservation research.


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