Ex situ conservation is the technique of conservation of all levels of biological diversity outside their natural habitats through different techniques like zoo, captive breeding, aquarium, botanical garden, and gene bank
Description of the project
By 2050, climate change is likely to reduce maize production globally by 3–10 percent and wheat production in developing countries by 29–34 percent. Even without climate change, the real costs of wheat and maize will increase by 60 percent between 2000 and 2050; climate change could make the figure substantially greater. Food security, despite the above, may be possible if agricultural systems are transformed through improved seed, fertilizer, land use, and governance.
Description of the project:
Grainothèque, set up in the Western part of Ivory Coast, works on preserving and exploring the genetic diversity and reproduction of local feeding plants through organic seed banks as well as improving access to information. Tools and technical notes explaining production techniques, pollination, botanical classification, isolation, harvesting, seed stocking and feeding properties are made available to women. An android application provides technical help to producers in case of plant diseases.
Climate impact:
Breeding for improved performance under environmental stresses involves activities which accumulate favourable alleles (different forms of a gene) which contribute to stress tolerance. Biotechnological contributions to crop adaptation to climate change do not only, or even mainly, concern the placement into the crop of one or more genes from an organism with which the crop could not normally breed (i.e. genetically modified crops).
IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (Research Institute for Development) - is a research organization based in France that is working with its partners in the South to address international development issues. Improving health, understanding social changes, and protecting the environment are the main pillars of its work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). IRD work includes interdisciplinary scientific research, capacity building and nurturing innovation in more than fifty countries worldwide.