October 24, 2002
Six thousand
germplasm imports from Armenia, Georgia, Turkmenistan,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan have taken root
in Australia this year and are set to alter the country’s $7
billion grains industry.
In the greatest
single importation of international plant germplasm to
Australian shores, researchers are revisiting the cradles of
modern agriculture to check if ‘genetic relics,’ left idle in
the arid middle east, could help modern grain varieties overcome
agronomic and disease constraints.
"Traditional land
races, and their wild relatives, which could provide resistance
to many modern diseases and ecological pressures, are dwindling,
so we need to capture them before the opportunity is lost,"
Centre for Legumes in
Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) Deputy Director, Clive
Francis said.
Land races are not
wild relatives of contemporary varieties, but are lines which
developed from farmer selection over hundreds of years of
traditional agriculture.
In a bid to capture
these shrinking reserves of potential disease resistance,
quality and agronomic adaptation, researchers have followed the
footsteps of the famous Nikolai Vavilov, who led several
expeditions from 1916 to compile the world’s oldest genetic
resources bank in St Petersburg Russia. The collection includes
more than 140,000 cereal accessions.
"Apart from 2000
lines of chickpeas, lentils, field peas and faba beans, the
collaboration has landed more than 2500 wheat germplasm and
their wild relatives in Australia, with most collected from the
two major origins of domesticated wheat," Professor Francis
said.
The pulse germplasm
have already displayed good ascochyta, fusarium and viral
resistance in an Australian
Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and
The Grains Research &
Development Corporation (GRDC) funded disease nursery at the
International Centre for
Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).
This is encouraging
for Australian pulse growers, as potential new varieties based
on this germplasm deliver into the high end of the market to
return between $300 and $550 per tonne.
Preliminary
screening, at ICARDA, of cereal material originating from
central Asia and the Caucus has shown good resistance to stem,
leaf and yellow rust.
This highly
successful example of international collaboration was managed by
Dr Ken Street, who is supported by CLIMA and the GRDC to work at
ICARDA and co-ordinate germplasm collection, evaluation and
exchange.
The collections, in
often very difficult and demanding conditions, were aided by
skilled Vavilov Institute and local scientists, supported by a
concurrent ACIAR project specific to those regions.
"The goodwill,
developed between the Vavilov Institute, CLIMA, ICARDA and gene
banks in Australia and other participating countries will
benefit the whole grains industry, in Australia and
collaborating countries. This is evidenced by the 6,000
accessions of pulses and wheat land races and wild relatives
which have arrived, with more to follow," Professor Francis
noted.
"The novel pulse
germplasm will help local researchers overcome constraints to
lupin, chickpea, field pea, lentil and faba bean production in
Australia and help reach CLIMA’s goal of lifting local plantings
of those crops by half a million hectares in WA alone."
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