Conserving plants as genetic resources

A strategic action plan to conserve and sustainably use plants as genetic resources for food and agriculture in Namibia was this week launched at the African Drought Conference.
The National Strategic Action Plan for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) 2016 to 2026 is the first of its kind for Africa and explicitly acknowledges the important role of small-scale farmers as custodians of agricultural resources and knowledge.
The plan is visionary in its intent to marry scientific endeavour with traditional knowledge, and offers a robust framework for resourcing and executing its strategic activities that explicitly acknowledges, the important role of small-scale farmers in ensuring that Namibia will cope with the challenges of the future.
Speaking at the launch, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, John Mutorwa said a rich heritage of traditional knowledge was key to discover and develop new crops and new traits of agronomic importance to enhance agricultural production in a country that needs to cope with erratic unpredictable weather conditions.
He said it is gratifying to note that at national level, progress has been made in the enactment of legislation regarding the conservation and use of genetic resources and their associated traditional knowledge, while at the international level, recognition is being afforded to the unique local customs and practices surrounding the use of PGRFA in Namibia.
“PGRFA conservation and use will become increasingly important in the context of climate change, which has the potential to reverse development efforts, particularly in the agricultural sector.”
Mutorwa also said with the introduction of on-site conservation activities, and a growing acknowledgement of the historical and on-going contribution of small-scale farmers, marrying the traditional approaches and scientific endeavour will have the potential to strengthen the capacity and contribution of farmers to deal with household, regional and national food security.
According to Mutorwa, particularly in the northern cropping region of the country, unique cultivars of staple crops have been selected and developed for hundreds of years, while many wild crops and indigenous plants supplement diets and provide alternate income-generating opportunities.
Mutorwa said that the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) within the ministry of agriculture is devoted to collecting, documenting, conserving and promoting the use of local germplasm.
The centre houses more than
4 000 accessions in the national offsite collection and represents major staples of pearl millet, sorghum, and maize, as well as legumes and melons that are important to the food security of local communities in the northern regions of Namibia. He however said that value addition to the conserved material still remains a challenge.
According to Mutorwa, the use of offsite germplasm collections in developing countries is still limited by low capacity in plant breeding and inadequate information on local germplasm available to be considered in crop improvement programmes.
Mutorwa said the ministry has had some significant success in this regard. However, with the development and release of several cultivars of pearl millet, the most noteworthy being the Okashana varieties, developed in-house in the late 1990s, these drought-tolerant varieties have enjoyed wholesale uptake by farmers, which has strengthened household food security.
“But it has also resulted in a steady decline in the broad range of local varieties, readily available to farmers,” the minister said.
According to him, with the plan focusing on the conservation and use of crop resources, there is also scope to undertake similar efforts to ensure that indigenous livestock breeds are conserved and developed. He added that with the anticipated future demand for livestock, adapted to high temperatures, erratic rainfall and deteriorating rangelands, Namibian breeds already preconditioned to such limitations, may be fundamental to vibrant livestock production elsewhere in Africa.

ELLANIE SMIT