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The Crop Trust works to

ensure the conservation

and availability of crop

diversity for food security

worldwide.

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CROP

IS A PREREQUISITE FOR FOOD SECURITY

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Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition,

and promote sustainable agriculture

2.5: By 2020 maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and

domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and

diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional and international levels, and ensure

access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic

resources and associated traditional knowledge as internationally agreed

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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A cost-effective, rational,

and global system for the

conservation of crop diversity.

The Objective

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• Global Interdependency

• Global public goods nature of genetic resources

• Global nature of users

• Increased security of conservation

• Enhanced utilization of collections

Why a Global System?

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International Collections Under the Plant Treaty

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Deep inside a mountain

on a remote island halfway

between mainland Norway

and the North Pole…

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The income produced from the

Crop Trust’s Endowment Fund

goes to conserve crop diversity at

international collections.

The Crop Diversity Endowment Fund

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24 Crop conservation strategies have been completed

1. Access the vulnerability of a crop and its genetic resources

2. Review the status of the conservation and use of the world’s collections of genetic resources

3. Significant gaps and needs identified

4. Description of global system to ensure future conservation and use

5. Prioritize global actions needed to conserve, make available, and utilize crop collections for the long

term through a global system

Crop Conservation Strategies

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A Global Ex Situ Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic Resources

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1. Desk study for background

and vulnerability assessment

2. Survey of Major Coffee

Collections

3. User’s survey

4. Site Visits

5. Costing Study for CATIE

How has the strategy been developed?

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Coffee Genetic Resources

1. 52 institutions hold at least 10 accessions of coffee

2. Survey sent to 32 genebanks, so far 14 have responded (though more are expected)

3. Site visits to Madagascar, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, CATIE, Columbia, Brazil, and

Panama

4. Costing study for CATIE

5. Limited User Survey

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Survey: Materials conserved

Species Percentage

C. arabica 57,16%

C. canephora 3,13%

C. liberica 0,47%

C. eugenioides 0,41%

Other Coffea sp. 38,84%

TOTAL 100%

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Survey: Methods of conservation

Species Conservation MethodProportion of materials

<6% 6-25%26 -50%

51 -75%

>75%

Coffea arabica

Field Genebank 1 13

Cryopreserved 2 1

Kept as seed 3 1

Tissue culture 1

Store as DNA 1

Coffea canephora

Field Genebank 12

Cryopreserved 1

Kept as seed 1

Coffea eugenoides Field Genebank 4

Coffea liberica Field Genebank 7

Other coffeaField Genebank 1 8

Cryopreserved 1

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Survey: Age of trees

Age Proportions of accessions

(years) 1-25% 26-50% 51-75% >75%

1 - 10 years 6 2 0 3

11 - 30 years 1 1 6 2

31 - 60 years 4 2 0 1

> 61 years 2 0 0 0

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Survey: Operations

Operations Routinely Rarely Never

Weeding 14 0 0

Pruning and training 14 0 0

Fertilizing / Composting 13 0 1

Pest and Disease

control9 3 2

Harvesting berries 12 0 2

Propagating plants 10 4 0

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Survey: Characterization

Traits Africa (5) Americas (6) Asia / Pacific (2)

Morphological characterization 4 6 2

Evaluation

Yield 3 6 2

Bean size 3 5 2

Cup quality 3 5 2

Drought tolerance 2 3 0

Coffee leaf rust resistance 4 6 2

Coffee berry disease resistance 3 1 1

Resistance to root node nematode 2 4 0

Resistance to coffee berry borer 1 3 0

Resistance to other diseases 2 4 0

Resistance to other insect pests 1 3 0

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Survey: Information Management

Information No. Genebanks

The accession level information includes data about:

Characterization 9

Passport 7

Taxonomy 8

Genotypes 5

Images 4

Evaluation 7

Is data in a searchable database?

Passport 5

Characterization 4

The information / database is:

Public 1 (not searchable online)

Internal 9

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The total annual distribution inside the country represents only 8%

of the total number of accessions held in the genebanks surveyed.

Outside the country this figure is even lower accounting only to 1%

of the accessions held in the genebanks.

10 out of 14 genebanks distribute accessions inside and outside the country subject

to the terms and conditions of international regulations like the Nagoya protocol, the

International Treaty and institutional Material Transfer Agreements.

Survey: Distributions

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All in all the proportion of accession safety duplicated across

collections varies from 1 to 60%, though all within the same

country.

Survey: Safety duplication

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Countries visited were Madagascar, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire,

Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil. The objectives were:

Site Visits

• To better understand the history of the collection and it’s current composition

• To become more familiar with the management of the field collections and the various operations in its maintenance, rejuvenation, and distribution

• To become familiar with the past use of the accessions and their future focus in terms of use within their own institute and by external users

• To identify key gaps in their collections, including composition, exchange, and operations

• To identify future opportunities for their collections and their genebank

• To identify the various threats they were facing for the conservation and use of the accessions

• To identify the highest priority needs for coffee genetic resource conservation globally and/or within their collection

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• Acquisition

• Propagation/Regeneration

• Propagation - In Vitro

• Field Maintenance

• Characterization – Morphological

• Health testing

• Distribution

• Safety duplication

• Information and data

management

• General Management

USD 235,000 / year

Estimates of routine conservation costs - CATIE

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What did we find?

Most of the world’s coffee collections are not securely conserved or

widely used.

1. Nationally focused

2. Tools for national breeding programs

3. Lacking information systems

4. Very limited access and exchange of material

5. Little to no safety duplication or back up of collections

6. Insecure annual funding and land tenure

7. Fluctuating management in relation to weeding, pruning, rejuvenations, fertilization, and replanting

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• Key ‘origin’ collections of unique

material

• User collections of a set of

international accessions

• Links between collectionsAgreed framework for exchange

Global accession level information systems

Safety duplication

Mechanism for responding to urgent needs

• Complimentary strategies (in situ)

Diagram of a more efficient global system for

coffee conservationWhat would a better system look like?

Key origin collections

of global significanceLinks between

connections

Other genebank

collections

Breeder

collections

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Status of few key collections still being surveyed

Help would be appreciated for surveys from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Cameroon

Key needs for strategy development

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Ensure long-term support for routine conservation of the key

‘origin’ collection and the Global Conservation and Use

Platform

Utilize an international fund, such as the Crop Trust’s

Endowment Fund

High Priority Action #1: Securing Long-term Conservation

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Increase exchange and use of all collections

High Priority Action #2: ABS

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Establish global conservation and use platform

Global information sharing through Gensys

High Priority Action #3: Linking Collections

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Engage genebanks more actively into in situ or protected area

conservation.

High Priority Action #4: Complimentary Conservation

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Explore the local and global role for cryopreservation or other

complimentary conservation approaches

High Priority Action #5: Safety Duplication

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• Could you endorse this strategy?• As representatives of the coffee research community, do you

agree with future global system goals?Would you designate a focal point for next steps to be part of task force with WCR and Crop Trust to address issues such as:

• Which collections should be supported for the long term?

• How should the platform operate?

• Are there priority actions missing?

• Roadmap and budget required for implementaiton

For Discussions

Thank You