The Rural Voice, 1988-09, Page 114NEWS
T. T. founded and has run the Inter-
national Rice Research Institute in
Manila for 27 years. "My job is to save
seeds firsts, and ask questions later." A
farmer, for example, recently offered T.
T. some rice seed that he said was me-
dicinal. It was accepted gladly although
its true value was unknown. "The bank
is like a refugee camp. I accept anything
and then try to sort them out."
"Farmers are going back to the tradi-
tional varieties for taste, disease resis-
tance, or religious reasons. They want a
black rice for their festivals, and I'm the
only one that has it," says T. T.
"Genetic erosion is like soil erosion.
A little bit is destroyed at a time, then the
whole thing collapses. A seed is not like
a book — if it dies you can't go to the
library and make a xerox. It's dead.
That's why the collections in five coun-
tries have died."
The safety of the seed collection in
Ottawa's gene bank was also discussed.
In an interview, Trevor Williams, direc-
tor of the International Board of Plant
Genetic Resources (IBPGR), the body
that oversees the world's 60 gene banks,
was asked about his assessment of Ot-
tawa's gene bank.
When the board, based in Rome,
evaluated the Ottawa gene bank in 1986,
it was very critical. Since then, the seed
collections have been moved into a new
building and new storage units are being
built. Ottawa was not unique in falling
short of IBPGR standards, Williams
said, and the IBPGR will be reassessing
the gene bank soon.
We can't image what our needs will
be in the next century, or even in the next
decade. Farmers may have to cope with
new weather conditions brought on by
the greenhouse effect, and drought -re-
sistant or cold -tolerant corn may have to
be developed. A new disease, like corn
blight, could appear as if out of the blue,
and scientists will need to search for a
cure. Potato Colorado Beetle is now
resistant to most pesticides and geneti-
cists may have only a few seasons to
come up with a new resistant variety of
potato. Consumer tastes will probably
change, as they did with demands for
leaner meat, and breeders will have to
turn their breeding programs around to
meet this demand.
Genetic diversity is vital in antici-
pating solutions to these problems.0
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SEPTEMBER 1988 37