Noah's Ark for bananas
The Independent highlights the importance of the world’s largest collection of banana germplasm, held in trust in Belgium and managed by Bioversity International.
The Independent highlights the world’s largest collection of banana germplasm, held in trust in Belgium. The collection, managed by Bioversity International, contains around 1,400 samples (accessions) of edible and wild species of banana. This makes it the world’s largest collection of banana (Musa) germplasm. The collection is held in trust under the auspices of the United Nations at Leuven University, Belgium.
According to Rony Swennen, the world has forgotten the sheer diversity of fruit: "There are around 1,400 varieties stored but in the developed world we eat only one. If we could bring that diversity to our plates, we could increase access to markets for developing countries and get away from the monoculture of Cavendish," he said.
The work of the International Transit Centre is supported by the Government of Belgium, the CGIAR Research Program on Managing and Sustaining Crop Collections, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Read the original article on The Independent.