1 IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA No. 28

Editorial

Collaboration on Plant GeneticResources in the PacificThere are two strong arguments forincreased collaboration among thePacific countries for conserving andusing plant genetic resources: i) Nocountry possesses sufficient PGRwithin its borders to meet all its presentand future needs, and ii) Species ofplants do not restrict to country borders;centres of diversity of plants are oftenspread across the entire region.

Thus, collaborative efforts both toconserve and to sustainably use andbenefit from plant genetic resources areessential.

Even though regional PGR networkshave been set up in other parts of Asia,for example RECSEA-PGR in SouthEast Asia, EA-PGR in East Asia andSAN-PGR in South Asia, no regionalnetwork has yet been established tostrengthen the conservation andutilization of genetic resources in thePacific. As a result of a meeting held inLae, Papua New Guinea, March 30-311999, organized by the AustralianCentre for International AgriculturalResearch (ACIAR) and the NationalAgricultural Research Institute (NARI),a recommendation was made toprepare a proposal for establishingregional collaboration on PGR in theregion.

The meeting highlighted several strongreasons as to why regionalcollaboration in the Pacific is justified.

l Agriculture in Melanesian Pacificcountries is very old. This part of the

The information, opinions and designations in the Newsletter are not necessarily those of IPGRIThe IPGRI Homepage on the World Wide Web of Internet: http://www.cgiar.org/ipgri

ContentsEditorial ................................... 1

Regional ................................. 2

Headquarters .......................... 4

National ................................... 5

COGENT Update .................... 12

Meetings/Trainings ................. 14

Interesting Books andPublications ..................... 17

Scientific Contributions .......... 21

Useful Names & Addresses 24

Pacific has been a Centre ofdomestication of many asexuallypropagated and perennial crops aswell as a Centre of Diversity of morerecently introduced crops. From theMelanesian Centre, limited diversityof many of these crops, often in theform of clones, were carriedeastward to Polynesia andMicronesia. In the different islandsacross the Pacific, unique diversityhas subsequently evolved.

l The traditional crops of the Pacific,including taro, coconut, kava,bananas, yams, sugarcane,breadfruit, fruits and nuts, leafyvegetables and medicinal plants,have formed the basis of foodsecurity and traditional cultureamong the people of the Pacific.The diversity of these crops is nowbeing eroded due to changes inlife style, recent introductions ofcrops from other regions, andgenetic vulnerabil ity in thetraditional crops. Recently, a blightepidemic destroyed 90 per cent ofSamoa's taro which, up to then,had been the major food andexport crop of that country. Thus,exchange and improvement of thecrop diversity across the Pacificcould enhance and sustainproduction and resistance in thesetraditional crops.

l Conserving the diversity of thePacific's crops is difficult, risky andexpensive because most crops are

About the Newsletter

The International Plant GeneticResources Institute (IPGRI) formerlyIBPGR, is one of the 16 Centres of theConsultative Group on InternationalAgricultural Research (CGIAR) with itsHeadquarters at Rome. IPGRI’s missionis to encourage, support and engage inactivities to strengthen the conservationand use of plant genetic resourcesworld-wide with special emphasis onthe needs of developing countries. IPGRIworks in partnership with otherorganizations, undertakes research andtraining, and provides scientific andtechnical advice and information. IPGRIoperates in five geographical areas:Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), theAmericas, Europe, Central and West Asiaand North Africa (CWANA), and Asia,the Pacific and Oceania (APO). APORegional Office is based in Serdang,Malaysia with offices for East Asia andSouth Asia located in Beijing, China andNew Delhi, India, respectively.

The APO Newsletter is produced thricea year and is mainly aimed at promotingoverall concern on plant geneticresources, with emphasis on theirconservation and use. [See box on p.3]

INTERNATIONAL PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES INSTITUTE ISSN 1561-2473

No. 28 January-April 1999

FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA

No. 28 IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA 2

vegetatively propagated or possessrecalcitrant seeds. Conservation ofthis diversity has been mainly in fieldgenebanks in Papua New Guineaand the Solomon Islands. It isimportant that mechanisms forsharing both conservation costs aswell as benefits from exchange andimprovements from these crops aredeveloped and shared across thePacific.

l Pacific Countries are isolated, andpoorly equipped to mountconservation and improvementprogrammes on their own. Inaddition, Pacific Countries have notyet considered policies for accessand benefit sharing of their PGR. Asa result, there has been concernfollowing the patenting by groupsoutside the Pacific of some of theunique traits found in traditionalcrops, such as kava. Commonpolicies among the PacificCountries could strengthen theirability to benefit from their own PGR.

l The recommendation for a proposalfor regional collaboration in thePacific culminated in a series ofearlier consultation meetings. Thesewere convened in connection withthe preparatory and implementationactivities under the Global Plan ofAction and IPGRI for PGR with FAOin 1995, 1996 and 1998. AnIntellectual Property Rights WorkingGroup Meeting held in Fiji in May1997, also produced specificrecommendations for regionalcollaboration.

The most recent meeting in PNGaddressed a number of important issuesthat need to be considered in developingcollaborative arrangements including :

l A variety of conservation methodsmay need to be considered toadequately conserve and use cropdiversity in the Pacific. In addition tofield genebanks, breeders'

collections, seeds, cryopreservation,tissue culture collections, in situ andon-farm conservation should beconsidered as complementaryconservation methods. Differentmethods will be found to be mostsuitable depending on use, locationand breeding system of thegenepool or crop in question.

l Methods for assessing costs ofconservation can be used to makeconservation more cost effective, andto compare costs of differentconservation methods.

l A tissue culture collection of thediversity of many of the Pacific'scrops has been assembled at theSecretariat of the Pacific Community(SPC) in Fiji. Agreement is nowneeded on the status of thiscollection, and conditions underwhich collections are exchanged.

l Several programmes and networksare operating in the Pacific ondifferent crops which include coconut(COGENT), taro (TaroGen andTANSAO), forest species (SPRIG)and yam (SPYN). Such networkscould benefit by inclusion within theumbrella of regional cooperation onPGR. It was suggested that kava andbreadfruit are priority traditional cropsfor inclusion in such networks in thefuture.

l Rich knowledge of crop diversityamong people in local communitieswas reported; for example, for yamsand taro in Vanuatu and for coconutsin Fiji. Evidence that farmers continueto appreciate and maintain cropdiversity, helps strengthen effectivein situ or on-farm conservationactivities which can complement exsitu conservation methods and mayprovide less expensive alternatives,where improvement andconservation can be combined.Increased understanding as to howin situ conservation activities can be

undertaken in Pacific Countries isneeded.

l Documenting existing collectionsheld in the Pacific Countries, anddescribing their unique traits wasconsidered a high priority. Suchdocumentation can assist not onlyto use and benefit from thisgermplasm effectively, but also toprevent inappropriate forms of IPRtaking out these accessions.

The meeting concluded that amechanism for regional collaborationmust be developed, and three delegatesfrom the region were charged with thetask of preparing a proposal.

IPGRI's Role

IPGRI has supported a number ofactivities in the Pacific, which can leadto enhanced collaboration on PGR.These include: support for COGENTnetworking and activities; supporting anational PGR workshop in PNG in 1997;supporting and participation in theWorking Group Meeting on IntellectualProperty Rights held in Fiji in 1997;assisting to compile the Pacific CountryReports related to the Global Plan ofAction; funding the consultancy reportwhich resulted in the TaroGen project,providing technical advice ondocumentation and collecting of taro inthis project, and finally, participating inthe SPRIG project meetings. IPGRI hasalso prepared proposals for fundingfor enhancing documentation andstrengthening conservation and use ofPGR in the Pacific which are presentlyunder consideration. Much of the aboveactivities have been carried out incollaboration with the Secretariat of thePacific Community, which has provedto be an effective focal point for muchof IPGRI's support in the Pacific. In thefuture, IPGRI stands ready to stronglysupport further efforts on regionalcollaboration in the Pacific.

[Ken Riley, IPGRI-APO, Serdang,Malaysia].

RegionalIPGRI Assists Networking

on Taro in Southeast

Asia and Oceania

The Second TANSAO (Taro Network forSoutheast Asia and Oceania) AnnualMeeting was organised by CIRAD andDepartment of Agriculture on 9-10 March1999 at Phichit Horticultural Research

Centre, Phichit, Thailand. TANSAO wasofficially launched on 1 January 1998and it is funded through a grant receivedfrom the European Union DGXII-INCOProgramme. Dr. Vincent Lebot of CIRAD

3 IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA No. 28

is the Coordinator of this project. IPGRIhas helped in the development of theproject proposal during 1996-97 and isproviding some scientific and technicalback up to the project. On the invitationof TANSAO, IPGRI participated in thePhichit Meeting, where the progress ofthe first year of the project waspresented and discussed. The resultsincluded analysis of existing data ontaro germplasm present in Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand,Papua New Guinea and Vietnam (theparticipating SEA&O countries). Theneeds for supplementary surveys andgap-filling germplasm collecting wereidentified and collecting has largelybeen completed. A total of 2021collections (including the existingcollections) have been assembled bythe five countries, from which a "coresample" of elite material from eachcountry will be identified and conservedin vitro and exchanged among theparticipating countries. Morpho-agronomic characterization was doneusing a list of standardised descriptorsagreed by consensus by the partners(a condensed version of IPGRIdescriptors). The information is beingdatabased, using EXCEL. A regionaldatabase, including the standardiseddescriptors is nearing completion. TwoIndonesian scientists from LembagaIlmu Pengetahun Indonesia (LIPI),Bogor were trained in the Centre deCooperation Internationale en RechercheAgronomique pour le Developpement(CIRAD) Labs in France on isozymesand molecular markers. Each countryhas sent samples to Bogor and isozymeanalysis for 6 enzyme systems is inprogress. Results so far indicate (basedon zymotypes) that the diversity is thehighest in PNG (67) followed by Indonesia(50), Thailand (40), Vietnam (17), thePhilippines (10) and Malaysia (8).Preliminary screening of taro germplasmusing AFLPs was conducted byWageningen University (WAU),Netherlands. Further development of theAFLP technique for DNA fingerprintingof accessions using 45 selected, wildand cultivated genotypes is in progress.Phytophthora colocasiae isolates werecollected in each participating countryand sent to CIRAD for isozymefingerprinting. [V. Ramanatha Rao,IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia].

IJO Activities on VarietalImprovement of Jute andKenafThe International Jute Organization (IJO)Project on 'Varietal Improvement of Juteand Kenaf which was undertaken intwo phases over a period of 31 months,ended on 30 June 1998. The objectiveof this project was to develop newimproved varieties and breedingmaterials by using the availablegermplasm collected under IJO'searlier 'Germplasm' project through theefforts of nodal institutes in the followingjute producing countries: Bangladesh,China, Indonesia, Nepal, and Thailand.

The project helped the participatingcountries in research and developmentof Jute and Allied Fibre (JAF) crops,enrichment of improved breedingmaterials and research facilities, andstrengthening of manpower, throughthe financial support, physicalmaterials, and technical assistanceprovided by IJO. A number of newvarieties and improved breeding

materials have been developed, eitherthrough direct selection or hybridizationusing germplasm assembled at IJO.In a few countries, some new varietieshave been released to replace the oldervarieties and are now being cultivatedover a large area by JAF farmers.

Several varieties of jute and allied fibreswith high yield and other superior traitshave been developed which have been

APO NewsletterIt provides information on PGR

activities carried out by nationalprogrammes and other centres inthe region. Information is alsoperiodically abstracted from recentliterature (books, periodicals etc.),and brief research contributionspublished. With over 2500addressees on its mailing list, theAPO newsletter is widely distributedto focus on IPGRI's mandate toadvance the conservation and useof plant genetic resources for thebenefit of present and futuregenerations.

Dr. Kenneth W. Riley, Regional Director,IPGRI-APO who is taking voluntaryretirement from IPGRI (effective June 5,1999) was given a warm send off bythe staff at IPGRI South Asia Office,during his recent visit to New Delhi. Dr.R.S. Paroda, Secretary, Department ofAgriculture Research and Education(DARE) and Director General, ICAR wasthe Chief Guest at the farewell functionand the Deputy Director Generals,Assistant Director Generals, Directorsof ICAR Institutes, FAO Representativefor India and Bhutan and therepresentatives from CG Centres andother International Organizationslocated in Delhi participated.

Dr. Kenneth W. Riley served IPGRI forover 6 years as Regional Director forAsia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO)and had been responsible fordirecting and managing variousprogrammes and activities at theregional offices at Serdang, Delhi andBeijing. He contributed verysignificantly by way of effectivelyimplementing PGR work and takingnew initiatives. He provided effective

Farewell to Dr. Kenneth W. Riley

leadership to APO Group whichcurrently comprises more than 28professional and support staff. Thishas resulted in him being awardedrecently with the "Medal for Cause ofAgriculture and Rural Development"by the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment of Vietnam. For hisinvaluable contributions to IPGRI, hewould be honoured at the celebrationof IPGRI's 25th Anniversary at KualaLumpur on 15 May 1999.

Ken has worked in many countriesbefore joining IPGRI. His researchactivities have been largely orientedtowards strengthening nationalprogrammes in Tanzania (Wheat),Ethiopia (Sorghum and Oilseeds),India (Crops and Animal ProductionSystem) and Nepal (Hill Crops). Sincehe will be managing his family farmin Canada and will be involved inproducing fresh fuits, vegetables andmaple syrup, he will be closely linkedwith PGR diversity and sustainability.

All IPGRI-APO Staff join in wishinghim and his family a very happy,prosperous and joyful life.