Institute of Biodiversity Conservation

Background

The Department is responsible for the exploration, collection, characterization, evaluation and conservation of germplasm of field crops and their wild and weedy relatives.Ethiopia is known to be a center of origin and diversity for many cultivated crop plants. It is a primary gene center for field crops such as niger seed (Gyzotia abyssinica), tef (Eragrostis tef) and Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata) and a secondary gene center for crops such as durum wheat, barley, sorghum, finger millet, linseed, sesame, safflower, faba bean, field pea, chickpea, lentil, cowpea, fenugreek and grasspea.

Collection and conservation

Since the establishment of the Institute (former Plant Genetic Resources Center of Ethiopia) in 1976 systematic crop germplasm exploration and collection operations have been undertaken in the different administrative regions of the country, covering a wide range of agro-ecological conditions by setting priorities based on the economic importance, degree of genetic erosion, degree of genetic diversity, etc. of the crop species. About 90% (about 53,900 accessions) of the total germplasm holdings in the Genebank (60,648 accessions) consists of germplasm of field crops. Two strategies of conservation, ex situ and in situ, are followed in the field crop genetic resources conservation in the country, where ex situ is the long term storage of the accessions in the genebank and in situ is a community-based conservation of farmers’ varieties in different agro-ecological regions.

Characterization and evaluation

Characterization and preliminary evaluation on basic morpho-agronomic characteristics have been undertaken on about 70% of the crop germplasm accessions since the establishment of the Institute. Additional evaluation on characters such as tolerance to drought and soil salinity, reaction to certain important diseases, and nutritional value have been undertaken on some crop germplasm accessions. Various studies such as storage behavior and cytogenetic studies have been undertaken on indigenous field crop species. Diversity studies have also been made on various field crop species based on agro-morphological traits and molecular techniques.

Utilization

During the last decade there has been an increasing interest by the national crop improvement programs in utilizing the local germplasm. An average of 2,000 germplasm accessions of various crop species are distributed to research, academic and development institutions annually. Since the establishment of the Institute about 59,000 accessions of about 25 crop species have been distributed. The local germplasm has been utilized in the national crop improvement programs particularly in specific areas of breeding including those related to resistance and adaptation. Improved varieties of various crop species containing local genes, particularly of those species originating in the country and with high genetic diversity such as ‘tef’, ‘noog’, sorghum, durum wheat, barley, etc., have been recommended and released for various agro-ecological zones of the country.

The world has also benefited from the rich crop genetic diversity found in Ethiopian farmers’ varieties. Among numerous examples are the yellow dwarf virus resistance gene found in Ethiopian barley, on which California’s US$160 million annual barley crop depends. Similarly, the Ethiopian sorghum germplasm has also been found useful in cold tolerance, high lysine content, good grain quality, drought and disease resistance. The Ethiopian durum wheat germplasm has also been highly utilized for its high protein, high lysine and other basic amino acid content.

Community based in-situ conservation initiative

A Dynamic Farmer Based Approach to the Conservation of Ethiopia’s Plant Genetic Resources Project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was initiated in 1994 addressing a neglected aspect of plant diversity that of indigenous crop varieties maintained by farmers in dynamic agro-ecosystems. This community-based in situ conservation project is designated to link farming communities and their varieties with the existing formal genetic resources conservation efforts of the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation by means of establishing community gene banks. Read more on CGBs

Conservation and Research Program

Recently the Department has developed a Field Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Program under which sub-programs have been designed. The total field crop germplasm holdings in the genebank consist of 28 species, which could be categorized as cereals, pulses, oil crops and non-edible industrial crops. Although conservation procedures and activities are the same for all these crop species, to give emphasis to these different categories of species the program has the following sub-programs.

• Cereal Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Sub-program.
• Oil Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Sub-program.
• Pulse Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Sub-program.
• Non-edible Industrial Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Sub-program