40
2 Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation
• Integrated conservation and development approaches, which usually link the
conservation of landraces and old cultivars with specific values to the
cultivation of these varieties directly. These valuable varieties are introduced or
reintroduced to a certain agro-ecological region or production systems.
Additionally, these valuable varieties are promoted for breeding and adaptation
purposes on farmers' sites ("participatory plant breeding" approaches).
Breeders have increasingly turned to such sources and turned away from
traditional collections, in which variability is stored in a static state (NRC,
1993). Programs with this approach involve often NGOs in "grass roots"
PGRF A activities, e.g., the MASIPAG Program (Farmer-Scientist Partnership
for the Advancement of Science and Agriculture) (Vicente, 1994).
Fig. 2.7. In situ conservation ofPGRFA
Targeted approach
•
Conservation
of PGR of
crop wild
relatives
Integrated
conservation and
development approach
Agricultural
production under
constraints
As can be seen from the examples reported (see Fig. 2.7. ), in situ conservation
for PGRF A is mainly compiled for wild relatives of crops. This indicates that
programs set up for the conservation of old cultivars or specific landraces are an
exception. Including all "grass-root" activities, promoted by various NGOs, there
are more conservation activities relating to old cultivars and landraces than the
Country Reports suggest.