Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

An initiative for the study and use of genetic diversity of domesticated plants and their wild relatives

Domestication has been influenced by formal plant breeding since the onset of intensive agriculture and the Green Revolution. Despite providing food security for some regions, intensive agriculture has had substantial detrimental consequences for the environment and does not fulfill smallholder’s needs under most developing countries conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternative plant production techniques, effective for each environmental, socio-cultural, and economic conditions. This is particularly relevant for countries that are megadiverse and major centers of plant domestication and diversification. In this white paper, a Mexico-centered initiative is proposed, with two main objectives: (1) to study, understand, conserve, and sustainably use the genetic diversity of domesticated plants and their wild relatives, as well as the ongoing evolutionary processes that generate and maintain it; and (2) to strengthen food and forestry production in a socially fair and environmentally friendly way. 
ThemeTechnical Resources
SubjectCrop diversity
PublisherFrontiers in Plant Science
Publication year2018
RegionsLatin America and the Caribbean
LanguagesEnglish
Resource typePublications
Resource linkhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5826304/pdf/fpls-09-00209.pdf
KeywordsCrop wild relatives, neglected and underutilized species; Agricultural biodiversity; Plant breeding
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