Crop wild relatives - a key asset for sustainable agriculture
Since the beginnings of agriculture, crop wild relatives have been used to improve the yields and nutritional quality of crops. Many are now at risk of extinction. Find out more in this new infographic by Bioversity International.
Since the beginnings of agriculture, crop wild relatives - wild plant species that are genetically related to cultivated crops - have been used to improve the yields and nutritional quality of crops. Many are now at risk of extinction due to climate change, habitat loss, environmental degradation, changing markets and farming practices. Find out more about what crop wild relatives are and why they are important in this new infographic by Bioversity International.
New research insight on crop wild relatives will be soon showcased in Cambridge, UK, from 16-20 June at the international conference on Enhanced genepool utilization - Capturing wild relative and landrace diversity for crop improvement, co-organized by Bioversity International.
The conference marks the ending of a 3-year EU-funded project, ‘PGR Secure’, which focused on researching fast and economic methods to identify and make available genetic material to be used by plant breeders, and on developing strategies for the conservation of European crop wild relative and landrace diversity.
The registration to the conference closes on 23rd May, 2014. To find out more and register, visit the conference website.
PGR Secure Project Partners
The University of Birmingham
Wageningen UR Plant Breeding and Centre for Genetic Resources
Bioversity International
The University of Perugia
Julius Kuhn‐Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants
NordGen
MTT Agrifood Research
The University of King Juan Carlos
ServiceXS BV
The University of Nottingham
European Association for Research on Plant Breeding
Image: Detail of the Crop Wild Relatives infographic by Bioversity International