ISHS Acta Horticulturae 169: International Workshop on Improvement of Sweet and Sour Cherry Varieties and Rootstocks
EUROPEAN GENEBANK ACTIVITIES - WORK IN PROGRESS WITH CHERRIES |
| Author: | H. Schmidt |
| Abstract:
It has well been recognized that meanwhile not only the genetic diversity of seed propagated crops is under threat of erosion or destruction. This is true too for some of the fruit crops. Apart from national activities in the field of preserving old cultivars international organisations have established working groups of specialists to coordinate the activities in many places. Because I am involved in two of these groups I have been asked by the members of the 'Working Group on Prunus' to report on work in progress with cherries. In 1980 an Expert Group on Fruit with representatives of eight countries of the EEC was initiated as a sub-committee which reported to the main Programme Committee for Plant Resistance and the Use of Gene Banks. The objective was: (i) to further the genetic improvement of resistance to pests and diseases in crop plants and (ii) to encourage the use of gene banks for this purpose. For each of the major fruit crops, a coordinator has been nominated, charged with the responsibility for producing an inventory of cultivars, species or clones, maintained at various locations, together with basic information concerning their origin and virus status at each site. The intention was that these inventories will be published as an official EEC document. The other duty of the coordinators was to compile an agreed list of descriptors for their particular crop. While it was recognised that other descriptor lists (eg. UPOV, IBPGR) were in some cases already in existence the Group considered it essential to work in the closest collaboration with outside bodies and, in particular, with the IBPGR. Agreed lists of descriptors for apples and pears were published jointly with that organisation (Jenkins, 1982). Work of the Expert Group on Fruit was not continued officially beyond 1983 although the apple and pear inventories will be printed as EEC documents with first volumes available soon. In May 1983 a Working Group on Prunus was convened by UNDP/IBPGR European Cooperative Programme for Conservation and Exchange of Crop Genetic Resources. The Group, consisting of representatives of the countries France, Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Turkey and Yugoslavia, met at the Nordic Gene Bank, Lund, Sweden. Before I report on the topics of this meeting I should like to give a few informations on the international organisations involved. IBPGR - the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources - is an autonomous international, scientific organisation under the aegis of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This group established IBPGR in 1974. Its secretariat is provided by FAO. The basic function of IBPGR is to promote an international net work of genebank centres to further the collection, conservation, evaluation, documentation, and utilization of plant germplasm and thereby contribute | |
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