Genetic Resources Consortium

The Genetic Resource Consortium was started in 2013 under the coordination of the Indonesian Agency of Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture and in collaboration with Agricultural Technology Assessment Institute (AIAT). The Consortium promoted a program to develop an inventory of local varieties/landraces in the entire country comprising of 34 provinces. Around 34,000 of local varieties/landraces were inventoried, recorded, and some of them were collected and conserved in the ex-situ conservation facilities., Varieties that may have economic value or the potential to be developed/improved are registered for PVP (around 350 varieties) and some of them are released as local superior varieties. This achievement was made possible with the involvement of local farmers as the main actors in the participatory varietal selection (PVS), and as the main beneficiaries of the varieties produced. In the PVS approach, the farmer has more decision in selecting the specific traits of the varieties to be developed. Because of their accumulated traditional knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation, farmers accelerated the selection of varieties that are highly adaptive to the local agro-ecological conditions. The great collaboration and strong networking among the central government, local government, researchers, and the farmer/community were the key to the success of the program.