IITA steps up efforts to save native African cassava varieties

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in partnership with the Institut de Recherche Agronomique de Guinee (IRAG), stepped up efforts to save native African cassava varieties from genetic erosion with the collection of 73 local cassava varieties from Guinea Conakry. The varieties are now conserved under ex situ conditions at the IITA-Genetic Resources Center in Ibadan, Nigeria. They will form part of a safety collection to safeguard the continent's plant genetic resources.

“The conservation of local cassava varieties provides hope for future cassava breeding programs and helps guarantee food security in Africa,” says Dr. Dominique Dumet, Head of the GRC and Coordinator of the collecting mission.

The collecting mission was co-funded by IITA, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and IRAG-Guinea Conakry.

Many local varieties of cassava, a major staple in Africa and a buffer against food crisis, are threatened by genetic erosion — a process whereby an already limited gene pool of an endangered species of plant or animal diminishes even more when individuals from the surviving population die off without getting a chance to breed within their endangered low population.

“In Guinea Conakry, for instance, about seven local cassava varieties are fast disappearing. This is risky especially for cassava that is a clonal crop,” according to Mr. Paul Ilona, IITA Senior International Trials Manager.

Both local and improved cassava varieties alike create a robust gene pool, offering choices for breeders in future breeding programs. However, the loss of genes due to the extinction of some local varieties might limit future cassava improvement programs. Besides, the endangered varieties might even hold key traits that could offer possible solutions to hunger and poverty in the future.

Ilona says the loss of native cassava varieties might limit the number of genes available for breeders to work with.

“As breeders, anytime we lose (crop) genes, it hurts. That is why the conservation of native cassava varieties at the GRC is important to us,” he says.

Apart from cassava, the IITA-GRC holds over 25 000 accessions of major African food crops, including cowpea, yam, soybean, bambara nut, maize, and plantain and banana.

The accessions are held in trust on behalf of humanity under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. IITA shares these accessions without restriction for use in research for food and agriculture.

The collecting mission in Guinea Conakry makes it the fourth country, after Angola, Togo and Benin Republic, to allow IITA to collect and share their germplasm with other countries, since the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture went into force in June 2004.

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For more information, please contact:
Dominique Dumet, [email protected]
Head, IITA-GRC
Jeffrey T. Oliver, [email protected] Corporate Communications Officer (International)

Godwin Atser, [email protected] Corporate Communications Officer (West Africa)

Communication Office
IITA - Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria
IITA - Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria
URL: http://www.iita.org
About IITA
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people's lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization since 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR.