Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres

The 11 CGIAR genebanks conserve over 660,000 accessions (plant or seed samples) of crops grown mainly by poor people (such as cassava, millet, sorghum and cowpea), staple food crops grown throughout the world (such as rice, wheat and maize), and tree species used in agroforestry systems. This collec...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pardey, Philip G., Koo, Bonwoo, Wright, Brian D.
Formato: Libro
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2002
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155813
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author Pardey, Philip G.
Koo, Bonwoo
Wright, Brian D.
author_browse Koo, Bonwoo
Pardey, Philip G.
Wright, Brian D.
author_facet Pardey, Philip G.
Koo, Bonwoo
Wright, Brian D.
author_sort Pardey, Philip G.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The 11 CGIAR genebanks conserve over 660,000 accessions (plant or seed samples) of crops grown mainly by poor people (such as cassava, millet, sorghum and cowpea), staple food crops grown throughout the world (such as rice, wheat and maize), and tree species used in agroforestry systems. This collection accounts for a sizeable share, perhaps 30 to 40%, of the unique entries in genebank collections worldwide. Conserving germplasm is a very long-term, if not in perpetuity (i.e., from now to eternity), proposition, and so the mismatch between the mainly annual funding support for this conservation effort and its very long-term nature and intent is a serious concern. An endowment or trust fund, the earnings from which would assure a funding stream to conserve this genetic material for all future generations, would judiciously match the duration of the Our best estimate of the annual cost of conserving and distributing the genetic material. presently held in the CGIAR genebanks is US$ 5.7 million per year. A commitment to underwrite these core genebank services for the benefit of all future generations could be met by setting aside a fund of US$ 149 million (invested at a real rate of interest of 4% per annum). Of this US$61 million (40 % of the total) would underwrite the CGIAR’s current conservation activities in perpetuity and US$88 million (60 %) would maintain the distribution activities that provide germplasm to breeders, scientists, farmers and others worldwide....This funding is sufficient to support only core conservation and distribution activities currently undertaken by the CGIAR Centres. A key constraint to the effective use of genebank accessions for crop improvement and other purposes is the lack of information about the agronomic and genetic characteristics of the accessions. Although we have addressed the economics of this issue from a theoretical standpoint in another study, precise estimates of the costs are not available at this time. Nevertheless, a prudent strategy would be to complement the conservation fund costed here with comparable additional resources for characterizing the CGIAR collection to increase its value to plant breeding. [from Author's Abstract]
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spelling CGSpace1558132025-01-10T06:35:52Z Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres Pardey, Philip G. Koo, Bonwoo Wright, Brian D. genetic resources gene banks conservation international policies research economic aspects plant breeding crop performance costs resource management seeds seed testing The 11 CGIAR genebanks conserve over 660,000 accessions (plant or seed samples) of crops grown mainly by poor people (such as cassava, millet, sorghum and cowpea), staple food crops grown throughout the world (such as rice, wheat and maize), and tree species used in agroforestry systems. This collection accounts for a sizeable share, perhaps 30 to 40%, of the unique entries in genebank collections worldwide. Conserving germplasm is a very long-term, if not in perpetuity (i.e., from now to eternity), proposition, and so the mismatch between the mainly annual funding support for this conservation effort and its very long-term nature and intent is a serious concern. An endowment or trust fund, the earnings from which would assure a funding stream to conserve this genetic material for all future generations, would judiciously match the duration of the Our best estimate of the annual cost of conserving and distributing the genetic material. presently held in the CGIAR genebanks is US$ 5.7 million per year. A commitment to underwrite these core genebank services for the benefit of all future generations could be met by setting aside a fund of US$ 149 million (invested at a real rate of interest of 4% per annum). Of this US$61 million (40 % of the total) would underwrite the CGIAR’s current conservation activities in perpetuity and US$88 million (60 %) would maintain the distribution activities that provide germplasm to breeders, scientists, farmers and others worldwide....This funding is sufficient to support only core conservation and distribution activities currently undertaken by the CGIAR Centres. A key constraint to the effective use of genebank accessions for crop improvement and other purposes is the lack of information about the agronomic and genetic characteristics of the accessions. Although we have addressed the economics of this issue from a theoretical standpoint in another study, precise estimates of the costs are not available at this time. Nevertheless, a prudent strategy would be to complement the conservation fund costed here with comparable additional resources for characterizing the CGIAR collection to increase its value to plant breeding. [from Author's Abstract] 2002 2024-10-24T12:42:37Z 2024-10-24T12:42:37Z Book https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155813 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute University of California Pardey, Philip; Koo, Bonwoo; Wright, Brian D. 2002. Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155813
spellingShingle genetic resources
gene banks
conservation
international policies
research
economic aspects
plant breeding
crop performance
costs
resource management
seeds
seed testing
Pardey, Philip G.
Koo, Bonwoo
Wright, Brian D.
Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title_full Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title_fullStr Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title_full_unstemmed Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title_short Endowing future harvests: the long-term costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres
title_sort endowing future harvests the long term costs of conserving genetic resources at the cgiar centres
topic genetic resources
gene banks
conservation
international policies
research
economic aspects
plant breeding
crop performance
costs
resource management
seeds
seed testing
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155813
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