SPECIAL FEATURE
PHOTO: CGIAR/N. Palmer
Shifts in the growing seasons make it difficult for farmers to decide when to plant and what to plant.
THE ICARDA GENE BANK Agro-biodiversity supports the livelihoods of millions of people living in rural communities around the world. It is critical to protect genetic resources for global food security and stability amid the challenges presented by climate change, diminishing natural resources and a rapidly growing population. ICARDA’s gene bank system works alongside global networks to collect, conserve and develop vital genetic resources to protect agro-biodiversity in dry regions. ICARDA manages a gene bank network containing some 157,000 samples of landraces and wild relative species of major dryland cereals, food legumes, forage and rangeland species.
Aly Abousabaa, ICARDA, Director General
traits into the agricultural practices of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. Aly Abousabaa, ICARDA Director General, explains how research can help increase productivity and resilience: “The focus of our research programs is on helping countries to develop technologies that will help them to produce sufficient quantities of food that is nutritious and affordable. In many parts of the world we expect to see rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and, more critically, shifts in the growing seasons, which make it difficult for farmers to decide when to plant and what to plant.” With the shifting in seasons, Mr. Abousabaa says farmers are going to see new forms of pests and diseases
that did not exist in the past. Therefore, the technologies that were available and most suited to help will gradually become dated. This is why research matters. ICARDA is trying to deploy research capacity in Asia, bringing in the international dimension, sharing solutions and providing genetic diversity in its gene banks. Through national programs the institution joins research programs to help countries develop the crops for the future. In Asia, where the OPEC Fund financed research, most of the work has focused on lentil, grasspea, barley and chickpea. Abousabaa says: “We view resilience from different angles. One part of it is to make sure that the crops will not fail, or in case of severe weather events that the
drop in productivity is within reasonable limits so that farmers can still have a decent crop. We try to bring in the varieties that are known to perform well under high temperatures and extended drought conditions, or those that are able to still produce sufficient quantities even under rising temperatures and are resilient to pests and disease. The other dimension is the resilience of the livelihood of the people living in dry areas. We help them produce more food using the land that they have. In India, we used technologies of breeding and material from the gene bank and generated a new lentil variety that matures and gives a full crop within 60 days instead of 90. It’s a transformational impact.”
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