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FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
ORGANISATION DES NATIONS UNIES POUR
L'ALIMENTATION ET L'AGRICULTURE
ORGANIZACION DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS
PARA LA AGRICULTURA Y LA ALIMENTACION
AGP:CGR/73/2
December 1972
Item 7 of the
Provisional Agenda
FAO TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON CROP GENETIC RESOURCES
(In cooperation with the International Biological
Programme of the International Council of Scientific Unions)
Rome, 12-16 March 1973
RECENT AND PROPOSED EXPLORATION MISSIONS
D. Brezhnev
SUMMARY
The exploration, evaluation and conservation of genetic resources of
agricultural crops and dissemination of seeds and planting material to
breeders are the main tasks of N.I. Vavilov All-Union Research Institute
of Plant Industry.
For this purpose the Institute arranges exploration missions every
year to the centres of origin and diversity of agricultural crops in this
country as well as in the countries of South America, Asia, Africa and in
Australia. In the last five years specialists of the Institute have
surveyed Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, India, Japan, Mongolia,
Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Kenya, Somalia,
Burundi, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda, Bolivia and
Ecuador. Several dozens of missions surveyed different regions of the
USSR (the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Far East).
As a result of this activity nearly 50,000 samples of cereals, grain
legumes, industrial crops, oil and fodder crops, vegetables, fruit and
small fruit crops, and potatoes have been introduced to the collection.
All seed samples and cuttings are recorded and maintained in the Institute's
collection.
Moreover the Institute exchanged a lot of material with the scientific
institutions of 80 foreign countries. For the last five years this activity
helped to introduce over 10,000 samples to the collection.
All explored material is carefully evaluated by geneticists, physiologists,
botanists, biochemists, cytologists, phytopathologists, entomologists and
other scientists.
Breeding institutions of the country widely utilize the germplasm
collection. Every year the Institute disseminates dozens of thousands of
samples, which serve as raw materials for new varieties.
WM/D4268
