Presentation by John Wasswa Mulumba, Plant Genetic Resources Centre NARO, Entebbe
Delivered at the B4FA Media Dialogue Workshop, Kampala, Uganda - November 2012
www.b4fa.org
B4FA 2012 Uganda: Seedbanks and world food security in Uganda - John Wasswa Mulumba
1. Seed banks and world food
security
John Wasswa Mulumba
Plant Genetic Resources Centre
NARO
2. How to meet present and future food
demands?
• Population est. to increase to > 9 b. by 2050
• World’s agricultural production must increase
by at least 70%
• Limited availability of new land for agriculture
• 70% of the increase in cereal production alone
will need to come from increased yields
• Largely achievable by exploring genetic
variability in seed (germplasm)
3. What are the three categories of
plants important for food and
agriculture?
5. Farmer varieties
•Developed by
farmers
•Variable and diverse
•Wide genetic base
•Low input
•Adapted to microenvironments
•Special to small-scale
farmers
•Source of breeding
material for breeders
•Continue evolving onfarm
6. Wild relatives of
crops
•In the wilderness
•Source of genes
for crop
improvement
•Continue adapting
to change
•Link to ancestral
homes of crops
7. Wild food plants
•Over 10,000 spp
edible
•Only a handful
developed to
commercial scale
•Five crops provide
over 80 % of calories
•Could be future crops
•Domestication
process
9. Challenges to modern varieties
• Development process discards a lot of genes
• Uniformity increases vulnerability to new
enemies
• Wide scale cultivation corresponds to wide
scale potential for damage
10. Challenges to farmer varieties
• Less productive
• Face continuous displacement by modern
varieties
12. • Challenges to wild food
plants
Ecosystem destruction
Climate change
Lack of R&D efforts
13. Opportunities
•
•
•
•
Increasing biological constraints
Increasing population
Increasing demands for food diversification
Increasing poor nutrition (urban poor and
‘rich’) due to poor eating habits
• Increasing/changing market opportunities
• Call for diverse base of crop diversity to fall
back to
14. Role of a Genebank
• To ensure the safety and security of crop
diversity for present and future generations.
15. Functions of Genebanks
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Exploration & status assesment
Collection of germplasm
Conservation
Safety duplication
Describe the germplasm (characterization)
Test germplasm (preliminary evaluation)
Generate knowledge about germplasm
Document all info
Avail germplasm and info to users
24. Relationship between richness and Weighted Damage Index (WDI = 0-100) –
Common bean in Uganda (Mulumba et al., 2012)
Higher variety richness/evenness – less variance in damage: a risk minimizing
ALS
Anthracnose
argument for crop variety diversity in the production system
Richness
Richness
In times of higher disease incidence
(Anthracnose) higher relationship of varietal
diversity with reduced damage
Simpson (evenness)
Black sigatoka
Simpson (evenness)
Weevils
25. ALS severity scores for the ten least and 10 most infected
varieties (Field)
27. Seed flow in Nyamirima village, Kabwohe site
J.
Tobi
Handagana
HH4 Jane
Kiiza
HH15
Brenda R.
Kyambeishikyi
Kadiya K.
HH3 Miliam
Muheirwe
HH1 -Juliet
Katunda
HH14 Kerodonia
R.
Mrs. Baker
Katungia
Kisoso
Silvia
M
HH2 E.
HH6 Sarah
Bebwa
HH13
Mary M.
Muhumuza
HH5
Sanyu
Elinah
HH11
Enid B.
Beyanga
Byarugaba
HH12Jane
siriri
HH8 Jowelia
Mulezi
Jovia N
HH7 Peruth
Rutundu
HH10 Dina
Mugarasi
HH9 Lydia
Bantu
Donozio K
John Night
Nathan
B
Zebia M.
Jane M
31. • Community Genebank
characteristics
•Based in a
community
•Managed by
community
•Directly serves
community
•Based on simple seed
preservation
approaches
•Monitors variety
dynamics in a
community
•Small range of crops
•Short-term seed
32. • National Genebank
Characteristics
•National mandate
•Wide range of crops
•Applies high
management
standards
•Seed viability up to
50 years
•Has both active and
base collection
•Distributes seed to
all users