Subject: CGIAR Gene Banks (fwd)
From: [email-masked] (Larry London)
Date: 29 Jun 1994 15:40:41 -0000
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 06:27:18 GMT
From: Leslie A. Everett <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: CGIAR Gene Banks

In the message on CGIAR Gene Banks, by the EcoNet Pesticide Issue Desk, 
partially quoted below, the most critical issue has been overlooked: if the 
plug gets pulled on the cooling systems for lack of funds, all that 
germplasm will be lost.   The germplasm stocks held in the CGIAR centers 
were collected starting at least as far back as the 1940's with the 
Rockefeller programs.  Much of that germplasm no longer exists except in 
cold storage.  It requires periodic controlled growouts to maintain 
viability.  Germplasm stocks held in the countries of origin have 
frequently been lost due to inadequate storage conditions and volatile 
national budgets.  The CGIAR centers are financed primarily by foreign aid 
funds from industrialized countries, as part of the larger mission of the 
centers to increase food production in developing countries.  With the 
current world-wide loss of interest in foreign aid, budgets to the centers 
have been severely cut.  The most important issue now is how to ensure the 
future of the germplasm: the ideal solution would be an endowment 
sufficient to eliminate dependence on volatile foreign aid funds.  
All we have to do is find the donors for such a large endowment!
Les Everett
Univ. Minnesota
(formerly IITA maize breeder) 

On 28 Jun 1994 01:06:56 -0400, 
EcoNet Pesticide Issue Desk  <[email-masked]> wrote:
>The World Bank is attempting to take control of 
>important international germplasm collections, according 
>to a statement released by over 40 environmental and 
>development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 
>attending a meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi 
>this week.  The germplasm collections, comprising almost 
>half a million samples of crop biodiversity, are a vital 
>resource for future plant breeding and for the present 
>and future stability and resilience of farming systems 
>that are not chemically dependent.  The collections were 
>donated by farmers in developing countries and account 
>for 40% of the total worldwide unique collections of 
>agricultural genetic materials.