Presentation delivered at the CIALCA international conference 'Challenges and Opportunities to the agricultural intensification of the humid highland systems of sub-Saharan Africa'. Kigali, Rwanda, October 24-27 2011.
Roux - A global information and knowledge sharing approach to facilitate the use of Musa genetic resources
1. A global information and
knowledge sharing approach to
facilitate the use of Musa
genetic resources
Roux, N., Van den Bergh, I., Ruas, M. and Vezina, A.
Commodities for Livelihoods Programme, Bioversity International
Parc Scientifique Agropolis II, Montpellier Cedex 5, 34397 France
CIALCA Conference , Kigali Rwanda, 24-27 October 2011
2. Importance of Musa spp.
Among the most important basic food crop for 400 Million people
World dessert banana production Plantains (& other cooking bananas)
97 million tones production: 36 million tones
1. India 27 Mt 13%
Export 1.Uganda 9,5 Mt
2. China 9 Cavendish2.Ghana 3,6
3. Philippines 9 Locally
3.Rwanda 3
4. Ecuador 7,6 consumed
87% 4. Nigeria 3
5. Brazil 6,8
5. Colombia 3
(FAOStats 2009)
3. What are the challenges in banana ?
Overcoming Pest, diseases Consumer
breeding and other needs and
constraints production nutrition
problems
4. Use of genetic diversity
• Crucial component of any strategy to make
agricultural production systems more
sustainable:
– Safeguards the crop against pests and diseases
• Makes it more resilient in adverse
environmental conditions
– Can bring different nutritional benefits to poor
populations
– Can offer a broader range of processing and
marketing opportunities
5. Understanding of Musa diversity
A comprehensive understanding of the existing Musa
diversity, and its potential uses, is therefore
crucial, not only to genebank curators, molecular
biologists, breeders, phytopathologists,
agronomists and other Musa researchers,
but also to the rural
households most
dependent on the crop
for their food and income
6. But we are losing genetic diversity
• Assessment of 7 wild Musa species (IUCN listing):
• 6 critically endangered (CR), 1 endangered (EN)
7. We are losing genes
These endangered wild species may carry genes that
confer resistance to Foc TR4, make plants more drought
tolerant or encode for higher vitamin A content.
Dilemma….Productivity vs diversity
8. MusaNet
The Global Musa Genetic Resources Network
What is it about ?
Providing a collaborative framework to support the
implementation of the Global Strategy for the Conservation
and Use of Musa Genetic Resources
10. Consultation Workshop
Montpellier, 28 Feb. to 3rd March 2011
47 Curators, pathologists, breeders, molecular
biologists, taxonomists, policy makers from 15 countries
covering the 5 continents, met in Montpellier to launch
MusaNet.
11. Goal of MusaNet
To build upon existing strengths
in the global, regional and
national collections to optimize
effort to conserve and document
the Musa gene pool and promote
use and safe distribution of
diversity and related as the
foundation for further breeding
or direct use by farmers.
12. Network of Musa GR experts
Characterization
Evaluation
Conservation
Information
14. Actions in diversity: Gap filling
Diversity
Saveguard
International Transit Centre (ITC), FAO in trust,
hosted by KULeuven, managed by Bioversity
International
17. Trans-regions collaboration to
overcome the problem of BBTV
- Partnership with producers to obtain virus-free plant
material at low costs.
- Organisation of producers and training with
involvement of local agricultural schools
- Some producers engaged in the nursery business
24. A global framework
Study at
Thematic group 3 genetic/genomic Thematic group 1
level
Dissemination
of germplasm Collecting and
and information Characterization
MusaNet
Conservation Evaluation:
and safe greenhouse
Movement of /field
ITC Germplasm
Thematic group 4 Farmers’ Thematic group 2
participatory
evaluation
Barnesa
Hinweis der Redaktion
Thank you to the organizer for giving me the opportunity to present a global information…My name is N.R. and there is a mistake in the abstracts book since the co-authos mentioned here (knowledge sharing team) are all working for Bioversity International and we are based in MPL- FRANCE and not from Oxford or canada In 20 minutes, I will try to share with you how the development of a network can facilitate the exchange and conservation of genetic resources
There is a common denominator for all these challenges an this is the use of Genetic diversity As shown in several presentations it is not the ONLY solution but it contributes to make agricultural production systems more sustainable (Avoid monocropping). I will not detail this since it was already presented yesterday by Prof. R. Swennen several presentations about the second point
There is no secret: to use the diversity you first need to characterize it Not only for researchers but also the rural households dependent on the crop for their food and income It is thus our responsibility (of those working with GR) to make this knowledge accessible
But we need to act rapidly since we are losing genetic diversity. Several reports reveal that we are loosing genetic diversity. Here report from MarkkuHakkinen on endangered wild species in Borneo.
With the lost of genetic diversity we are loosing potential unique genes confering traits of interest. So it is a real dilemma: We need to increase productivity but at the same time maintain adequate diversity and assure sustainable production systems.
MusaNet: The Global Musa Genetic Resources Network Implementation of the conservation strategy, now more toward use. We often hear: “Collections are crowed of a lot of varieties but very few are in the market !”
The MusaConservation strategy was first developed in 2005-2006 and is mainly based on diversity. Was initiate with the suppport of the Global Crop Diversity Trust to implement the International Treaty for Food and Agriculture Primary center of diversity in south East Asia East Africa center of diversity for EAHB, West Africa center of diversity for plantains Almost no diversity in Latin America (few mutations as vegetatively propagated crop)
To respond urgently to the Musa challenges , we organized a consultation workshop, early March 2011 Where several banana experts (with different specialisation) from around the world were present We launched the Network MusaNet
The Goal of MusaNet is thus to work at the Global, regional and national level to:1/ conserve2/ Document 3/ The all gene pool4/ Use of genetic diversityBy breeders but also directly by farmers.
MusaNet is a network of experts in GR. We of course should consider all the curators around the world taking efforts in maintaining the diversity in ex situ collections (estimated to around 60 collections world wide) During the consultation workshop it came clear that there 4 areas of priority if we want to effective in using genetic diversity Characterization Evaluation Conservation Information
I will now give you some examples of some key actions to move forward In situ conservation is a key component But for distribution , we need to distribute world wide, the reason for the development of the International Transit Centre, In trust collection under the auspices of FAO, hosted by KULeuven in Belgium Reaching 1500 accessions but only 15% of wild types
Actions in conservation: To make it available, need to assure that they are virus free (virus indexing centres and virus therapy, University of Gembloux in Belgium)Facilitate access by distributing world wide invitro plantletsYesterday we had this very interesting presentation of Julian Smith from Fera about vegetatively propagated seed systems that needs to be wider implemented at the national levelfor safe movement of germplasm
Actions in Information: Needed to be more user friendly, not just for curators Use minimum sets of photos to recognize accessions can only be done through strong collaboration (win-win- win situation as mentioned by Piet van Asten)
Allow to compare plant material and its behaviour in different regions
But most importantly to increase use, are the stress descriptors ( pre-evaluation) We are thinking to implement again the IMTP (INIBAP was famous for) But we need to have interesting material for multilocation trials Good news, 2 weeks ago at the ProMusa symposium in Brazil, the breeding programme is ready to donate 16 improved plant material to ITC
We hope that each collections will be able to share information through the MGIS (22 collections contributing) hope to increase and meet 60 collections Nothing better then face to face communication Some of you in the room will recognize themselves
We have a created a web site mainly to share with the thematic groups and develop projects (Workspace in each TG) Working on the possibility to share information but also plant material. Possibility to order directly online on this web site.
If more interest in general information, possibility to access to Musapedia open to a community (500 participants) Covering several issues as banana plant production systems and plant protections issues
To conclude, I hope that I was able to summarize the global framework on Genetic resources1/ DNA level I did not talked about but is important since this network has been working together since 10 years and the Musa genome sequence should be available in the coming months and this will boost research in Musa 2/ Collecting and characterization covered by TG 1 on diversity3/ Evaluation at green house and field level (Link to ProMusa, IMTP), TG24/ farmers’ participatory approach through link with banana regional networks5/ Thematic Group 3 allowing the communication/information to be reached world wide (MGIS, MusaPedia)6/ Conservation and increase use of genetic diversity maintained at ITC
