APONL50

INTERNATIONAL PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES INSTITUTE
ISSN 1561-2473
NEWSLETTER
FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA
No. 50 May-August 2006
About the Newsletter

The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is one of the 15 Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) with its Headquarters at Rome, Italy. IPGRIs mission is to encourage, support and undertake activities to improve the management of genetic resources worldwide so as to help eradicate poverty, increase food security and protect the environment. IPGRI focuses on the conservation and use of genetic resources important to developing countries and has an explicit commitment to specific crops. IPGRI works in partnership with other organizations, undertakes research and training, and provides scientific and technical advice and information. IPGRI operates in five geographical areas: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Americas, Europe, Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), and Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO). APO Regional Office is based in Serdang, Malaysia with sub-regional offices for East Asia and South Asia located in Beijing, China and New Delhi, India, respectively. There is also an outposted staff in Nepal. The APO Newsletter is produced thrice a year and is mainly aimed at promoting the overall concern on plant genetic resources, with emphasis on their conservation and use. [Contd. on page 2]
Editorial
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: Standard Material Transfer Agreement Developed and Adopted
IT-PGRFA Governing Body meeting held
The first meeting of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (International Treaty) held in the second week of June 2006, produced outstanding results that are worth celebrating by the global community. While the International Treaty actually came into force in May 2004, perhaps its most interesting creation the multilateral system for access and benefit sharing (MLS) could not start working until member states agreed on the legal terms to govern movement of materials within that system. It was indeed remarkable that by the end of the Governing Body meeting, all countries that had ratified the Treaty numbering over 100 at the time of the meeting agreed to a single, fixed, unified text for the standard material transfer agreement (SMTA) that will be used for all transfers within the MLS. Now, all the terms and conditions for granting access, including benefit sharing conditions, have been mutually agreed to by all Parties. As a result, for the materials included within the MLS, there is no need to negotiate terms, or to suffer due to long delays as a result of legal uncertainties. Hundreds of thousands of samples of PGRFA will be sent around the world each year using the identical SMTA.
Standard Material Transfer Agreement adopted

Some of the most interesting aspects of the SMTA are highlighted here. The Treaty states that when monetary benefits are derived through the commercialization of new PGRFA developed using materials received through the MLS, and access to those products is restricted so that it is not available for research by others, the commercializing entity shall pay an equitable share of the benefits to the international financial mechanism established by the Treaty. Decisions therefore had to be made about the definitions of product, about the rate of payments, and methods of enforcement. During the Governing Body meeting, the definition of product was the subject of considerable debate. Some parties initially supported a definition that would turn on a minimum percentage (25% was the figure most often raised) of incorporation, by pedigree, of material accessed from the MLS in the final PGRFA/product. Any degree less than that would not constitute a product and
Contents
Editorial .................................... Headquarters ........................... Regional ................................... National .................................... 1 3 5 9
COGENT Update .................... 12 Meetings/Training Programmes 16 Interesting Books, Periodicals and Websites ........................... 17 Scientific Contributions ............ 22 Useful Names & Addresses ... 24
The information, opinions and designations in the Newsletter are not necessarily those of IPGRI The IPGRI Homepage on the World Wide Web of Internet: http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org
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IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA

by the International Chamber of Commerce, if the parties fail to agree on another system of arbitration. They also agreed on General Principles of Law as the applicable law, including the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2004, the objectives and the relevant provisions of the Treaty, and when necessary for interpretation, the decisions of the Governing Body. The negotiators agreed to give the parties to individual SMTAs the option of choosing between signature as the method of expressing acceptance, or the shrink-wrap or click-wrap methods. Shrink-wrap refers to when the SMTA is included in the packaging of the Material, and the Recipients acceptance of the Material constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement. Click-wrap refers to when the Recipient accepts the terms and conditions of the SMTA by clicking on the appropriate icon on a suppliers website where the electronic version of the SMTA is posted. The ability to eventually rely upon click wrap will become increasingly important as the world community builds up a truly global information system including data on all accessible collections, and the capacity to request any of that material through a single facilitating portal. When such a system is in place, being able to agree to the terms and conditions of the SMTA via internet will become both more important, and seem increasingly common place. The SMTA states that providers must periodically inform the Governing Body about any MTAs entered into. Being able to trace material through this mechanism is important vis--vis the enforcement of benefit sharing. It will also provide the basis for being able to understand better where material goes, from recipient to recipient, thereby contributing to a still more advanced collective understanding of the patterns of flows and uses of PGRFA around the world.
the benefit sharing provision would not be triggered. Another option discussed was that the definition of product should turn on being able to trace back specific, useful, traits in the final products to materials access through the MLS. In the end, all parties agreed to a simple, straightforward formula: that product would be understood as a new PGRFA that incorporates material or any of its genetic parts or components that are ready for commercialization. The form and level of payment was also, quite naturally, the subject of extended negotiations. Again, in the end, the Governing Body adopted a straightforward formula that minimizes the risk of misunderstanding and contention between suppliers and recipients of PGRFA under the MLS and is consistent with commercial practice. In short, the formula adopted is that if a recipient, commercializes a Product, then it shall pay 1.1 per cent of the gross income less thirty per cent (30%). One particularly innovative concept that the Governing Body agreed should be recognized and reflected in the SMTA is that of the third party beneficiary interests in funds that will be accumulated under the financial benefit sharing provisions. Recognition of these interests is innovative and important from the point of view of the practical enforceability of the SMTA. Since mandatory financial benefit-sharing under the Treaty flows to the Multilateral System rather than the individual providers, those individual providers have little, if any, interest in enforcing the SMTA. Under the SMTA, an entity designated by the Governing Body to represent the third party beneficiary interests in those benefits would have the power to initiate dispute resolutions procedures, including binding arbitration, in the event that the Provider or Recipient default on their obligations under the SMTA. FAO will be invited to act as the Third Party Beneficiary. The third party beneficiary will also have the right to ask for appropriate information from the parties regarding their obligations under the SMTA, in the context mainly of dispute settlement. After considerable discussion, the negotiators agreed to binding arbitration
including: adopting of the Funding Strategy; adopting the Agreement between the Governing Body and the Centres of the CGIAR holding in-trust collections; adopting of the Relationship Agreement between the Governing Body and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, including the recognition of the Trust as an essential element of the Funding Strategy in relation to the ex situ conservation and availability of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and signing of that Agreement; adoption of the Rules of Procedure; adopting the Financial Rules (subject to further discussion on whether or not there should be an indicative scale of contributions, an issue which was put off until the next session); adopting the budget for the Treaty; adopting of procedures for the appointment of the Secretary; and establishing a Compliance Committee. With all of these important decisions finally addressed by the Governing Body and with the SMTA in particular being adopted - the International Treaty is ready for implementation. Now , there is a need to ensure by all concerned that it is implemented in ways that are in keeping with the multilateral spirit of the Treaty. [Dr Emile Frison, Director General, IPGRI, Maccarese (Fiumicino), Rome, Italy].
About the Newsletter

[Contd. from page 1] It provides information on plant genetic resources activities carried out by national programmes and other centres in the region. Information is also periodically abstracted from recent literature (books, periodicals, etc.), and brief research contributions published. With over 2500 addressees on its mailing list, the APO newsletter is widely distributed to focus on IPGRI's mandate to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
Funding strategy and operational mechanism

Besides the SMTA, the Governing Body took some other important decisions
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Headquarters
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute
VavilovFrankel Fellowships 2007

IPGRI established the Fellowship Fund in 1989, to commemorate the unique contributions to plant science of Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov and Sir Otto Frankel. To date, 27 scientists from 19 developing countries have received awards to carry out innovative research related to the conservation and use of plant genetic resources, outside of their home countries for a period of three months to one year. Two Fellowship opportunities will be available for 2007 to carry out research on topics such as new conservation technologies and strategies, socioeconomic and human aspects of conservation and use including community based conservation, the role of traditional knowledge in management and conservation of PGR and contribution of plant genetic resources to improved nutrition, the role of intra and inter-specific diversity in production systems, germplasm management, forest genetic resources, policy development, genetic erosion assessment and mitigation, pre-breeding and base broadening, development of trait based collections and conservation and utilization of specific crops, particularly those that are neglected and under-utilized. Work solely on plant breeding or molecular characterization will not be selected. Applicants must show in the proposal how the knowledge and expertise gained will be applied after the Fellowship in the framework of a national or regional programme or in a developing country. The maximum award per Fellow will be US$20 000 which is intended to cover travel, stipend, bench fees, equipment, conference participation, publications and so on. One of the Fellowships will be supported by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., United States. The second Fellowship is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Australia. Proposals for the second Fellowship should address any of the above topics, should be carried out at an Australian research institute and meet at least one of the following four additional criteria: Target a species that is a priority for both Australia and the home country Target an alternative, neglected or underutilized species with either environmental or economic potential for Australia Work on any of the following specific crops: wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, cereal rye, triticale, maize, canary seed, millets/panicum, canola, linseed, safflower, soybeans, sunflowers, chickpeas, cowpeas, fababeans, field peas, lentils, lupins, mung beans, navy beans, peanuts, pigeon peas and vetch Use biotechnology in support of efficient use of plant genetic resources Applications are invited from nationals of developing countries, aged 35 or under, holding a masters degree (or equivalent) and/or doctorate in a relevant subject area. Application forms and guidelines for preparation of research proposals in English, French and Spanish may be obtained from: VavilovFrankel Fellowships, IPGRI, Via dei Tre Denari 472/a, 00057 Maccarese, Rome, Italy; Fax:(39)0661979661; Email e.rossetti@cgiar.org; http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/training/vavilov.htm Applications must be in English, French or Spanish and should include a covering letter, completed application form, full curriculum vitae, research proposal (which should follow the guidelines provided), a letter of acceptance from the proposed host institute indicating agreement with the content of the research proposal and other agreements as specified in the Guidelines for preparation of research proposal and a letter of support from an institute in a developing country (preferably the home institute) which should specify why the research is important to the institute, how the research will be applied to the benefit of the institute and/or country and should also identify the support that will be provided to the applicant upon return. Applications should be sent by mail, fax or email to the above address. Applications must be received at IPGRI by 6 November 2006. The successful applicants will be informed by 31 March 2007 and are required to take up their Fellowships before 31 December 2007. Awards can be held concurrently with other sources of support.
IPGRI is a Future Harvest Centre supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Este anuncio est disponible en espaol. Cette annonce est disponible en franais
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will improve Benins ability to carry out this kind of work in future. The Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship programme aims to enable outstanding young scientists from developing countries to carry out research that is relevant and innovative outside their own countries, thereby contributing to the scientists professional development and to the countrys ability to effectively use and conserve its crop diversity. Since 2004, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) of Australia and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., United States, a DuPont Company, have been supporting the fellowships (for more information about the background of the fellowship programme, see previous article). The GRDC Fellowship has not been taken up this year. [For further information, contact: Cassandra Moore, IPGRI, Maccarese (Fiumicino), Rome, Italy].
Baobab to benefit from IPGRI Fellowship

Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo, a 32 year old forester from Benin, is the winner of this years Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship, IPGRIs annual award for young scientists. Assogbadjo will use modern molecular tools and traditional anthropological methods to develop optimal strategies for making best use of the baobab (Adansonia digitata) in West Africa. Baobab is a familiar tree of dry areas of Africa, where its swollen trunk and fingered crown punctuate the savannahs. The communities use almost all parts of the tree, and individual trees are often owned by particular women. The tree provides food for people and their livestock, shelter, clothing, fibre, medicine and various other resources for hunting, fishing and entertainment. Export markets are also beginning to open up. These factors combine to put pressure on existing baobab populations. Assogbadjo will use molecular methods to measure the genetic diversity of baobabs from different populations and use that information to ensure that sampling strategies maximize the biodiversity conserved on-farm, in the wild and in genebanks. He will also work with local people and NGOs to evaluate available diversity in baobab for its use to meet local needs, especially as human food. This in turn may lead to a programme of domestication and identification of improved varieties suitable for specific areas. The local people are quite aware of tree to tree variation to a surprising level of detail, Assogbadjo says. They know about the fruiting pattern, quality and yield and even disease resistance. Their knowledge will be invaluable in attempts to select more productive lines. The Fellowship will be carried out in Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ghana and Senegal. Assogbadjo will also travel to Belgium to work with Professor Patrick van Damme at the University of Ghent. The molecular training he receives there
expressed between tolerant and susceptible accessions of chickpea in response to abiotic stresses
The research work on the above mentioned topic was awarded to Dr N.L. Mantri under the Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship 2005 and Dr Carmen de Vicente, Senior Scientist, IPGRI Office for the Americas and Dr Bhag Mal, Coordinator, IPGRI South Asia Office were the supervisors. Cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) has a narrow genetic base making it difficult for breeders to produce new elite cultivars with durable resistance to major biotic and abiotic stresses. The aim of the present study was to undertake a cDNA microarray approach, constructed from the existing chickpea and Lathyrus expressed sequence tags (EST) libraries of putative stress-responsive gene sequences, to determine those ESTs that are linked via transcriptional response to biological reaction (and hence potential survival) against the major abiotic stresses; drought, cold and salinity. For this, chickpea accessions known to be tolerant and susceptible to
Report on the research conducted under VavilovFrankel Fellowship in Australia on analysis of ESTs differentially
Ms Isabel Lpez Noriega joins IPGRI as Legal Specialist

Ms Isabel Lpez Noriega, L.L.B. (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) holds a Masters degree in Environmental Studies (Universidad de Cdiz), and a Ph.D. on International Environmental Law. She has worked as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair for the Environment at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) where she carried out activities relating to research, teaching and consultancy activities. She was an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Development Law at Montreal, Canad, and collaborated with the Biodiplomacy Initiative of the Institute of Advanced Studies (United Nations University). She has published several legal papers on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing and Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer and has attended some international conferences related to these topics such as the Expert Workshop on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) at Cuernavacas, Mexico in 2004. Before joining IPGRI, she was engaged in conducting research on technology transfer under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. Hearty welcome to Ms Isabel Lpez Noriega from IPGRI-APO.

total of 501 ESTs were more than 2-fold expressed by either of the stresses in all the genotypes assessed. The ESTs that were differentially expressed between the tolerant and susceptible accessions for each stress included various functional and regulatory proteins, and transcription factors. A set of important ESTs has been identified and their expression is being confirmed using quantitative RT-PCR. These ESTs are also being mapped onto the chickpea genomic linkage map. A detailed report will be published separately.
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each abiotic stress were challenged and the leaf, root and/or flower tissues were collected. The ESTs that were differentially expressed among tolerant and susceptible accessions were identified via up or down-regulation in response to the particular stress. The stress-induced regulation of these ESTs was validated by using another set of tolerant and susceptible accessions for each stress. This was done with an idea of identifying consensus ESTs/genes that are differentially expressed between tolerant and susceptible accessions. A
[Dr N.L. Mantri, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria. 3083. Australia; R. Ford, BioMarka, Faculty of Land and Food Resources, the University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010. Australia; Dr C. de Vicente, IPGRI Office for the Americas, A.A. 6713 Cali, Colombia; Dr Bhag Mal, IPGRI Office for South Asia, National Agricultural Science Centre, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110012, India; and Dr E.C.K. Pang, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria. 3083. Australia].
Regional
Update on IPGRI-APO Activities
New Initiatives in APO
During the past 4 months, the following new activities have been initiated: (i) Continuing support to the Pacific Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN) Phase 2 A focus on sustainable livelihoods funded by New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAid). only banana, mango, pineapple and Citrus (pummelo and calamandin) are considered as the major economic fruit crops and therefore, research and development efforts are geared towards these. Enhanced activities are now in progress on banana and coconut and a few other major species in collaboration with IPGRI but a number of other species, including the minor fruits with great potential, have not been given due attention while many of these fruit species are now being seriously threatened with genetic erosion due to both natural calamities and human activities. However, very limited studies have been done to determine the distribution and to effectively utilize the genetic resources available. In addition, information on the extent of genetic diversity is minimal and the meagre information available has not been systematically documented. Additionally, very few of the conserved accessions have been well characterized and evaluated to be effectively used in any programme that deals with utilization of these valuable resources. In the year 1 study, IPGRIs emphasis was to systematically document existing collections, provide improved guidelines for their management and to characterize and evaluate the germplasm so that useful traits as well as valuable accessions are identified. The studies have greatly helped in documenting, conserving and utilizing these valuable genetic resources. These will be further addressed in the ongoing year 2-study.
Workshop on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture organized in Pacific Region
This workshop was sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) with assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat Australia Pty. Ltd. from 22-26 May 2006 at Nadi, Fiji in which IPGRI staff participated as resource person. The key issues that were discussed included: the degree of dependence on plant genetic resources (PGR) for agricultural research and development; the extent of usage of PGR research, and where countries get them from and how current arrangements for access to these resources have worked, and how participants view the sharing of the benefits from these resources. The expected output included provision of information needed to convince the policy makers in respective countries to accede and ratify the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IT-PGRFA). The presentations included IT, legal issues, plant variety rights, access and benefit
(ii) Conservation and Use of Tropical Fruit Species Diversity in The Philippines Year 2 funded by Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), the Philippines.
IPGRI collaborates with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and the Philippines Agricultural and Resources Research Foundation Inc. on Conservation and Use of Tropical Fruit Species Diversity in the Philippines
The Philippines grows more than 300 species of fruits and nuts. However, many of these species occur in the wild and have not been cultivated. To date,
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IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA IPGRI assists the Rural Development Administration (RDA), Republic of Korea to organize the first APEC Workshop on Effective Genebank Management
The first Asia-Pacific Economic Commission (APEC) workshop on Effective Genebank Management for an Integrated System on Sustainable Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources was held at Suwon, Korea from 26-29 June 2006. The workshop was hosted by the Rural Development Administration (RDA). A total of 30 participants attended the workshop, including representatives from 13 member economies. This meeting was sponsored by the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Groups Subgroup on Conservation and Utilization of Plant and Animal Genetic Resources of the Asia-Pacific Economic Commission (APEC). IPGRI provided the technical backstopping to the meeting by providing assistance in developing the programme for the meeting, identifying the key participants and with several IPGRI staff, participating as resource persons. The well organized workshop achieved all its objectives: i) exchange information and share knowledge and practices regarding genebank management among APEC member economies; ii) identify the needs for developing skills and training for effective genebank management; iii) help in resolving particular genebank management problems and constraints, specifically for improved use of conserved material; iv) enhance skills to analyze more efficient and cost effective management of genebank, and v) help participants to make informed decisions on appropriate germplasm management strategies. The participants included representatives from 13 APEC countries and resource persons from Korea, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and IPGRI. Unfortunately, there was no one from South American APEC member countries. The
sharing, and individual country perspectives. IPGRI staff made a presentation on The role of IPGRI, the interface of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the IT-PGRFA, and the benefits for both providers and recipients of material from multilateral system, which was well appreciated for clarifying the benefits of the system to the participants. [For more details, contact: Luigi Guarino, SPC, Suva, Fiji (luigig@spc.int)].
Workshop on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture organized in Pacific Region
This meeting was sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) with assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat Australia Pty. Ltd. from 22-26 May 2006 at Nadi, Fiji. IPGRI staff participated as a resource person. The key issues that were discussed included: prevalence of local indigenous and endemic breeds, if any; absence of network and time to consider what must be done; first steps towards conserving the animal genetic resources (AnGR) at risk in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs); need for inventorization, characterization and conservation; sustainable use and development of AnGR. IPGRI staff made a presentation on IPGRI and AnGR, and focused on, what could be done based on PGR experiences and to see which of the studies and principles could be adopted. Suggestions with regard to characterization using standardized descriptors; use of diversity fairs to know indigenous/endemic diversity and value addition through niche marketing of rare breeds (with breeding/regenerating programmes in place) were readily accepted. [For more details contact: Cokanasiga, SPC, Suva, (kenc@spc.int)]. Ken Fiji
programme included two keynote addresses: (i) agrobiodiversity and plant genetic resources: How to minimize genetic erosion by Dr Karl Hammer, and (ii) contribution of PGR on the development of seed industry and crop improvement by Dr Hyo Guen Park. There were sessions on: role of international organizations and agreements in effective genebank management; current international issues on PGR conservation and utilization; new developments in PGR conservation strategies and use; country status reports on plant genetic resources conservation and utilization, highlighting good practices for genebank management and gaps in resources; needed and suggested areas of collaboration, and discussion and recommendations. IPGRI staff contributed 5 papers in this workshop on Genebank Management in the areas of PGR collaboration in APEC member countries, Genebank Management and Standards, Prebreeding and Genetic Enhancement, Molecular Tools for Characterization of PGR and the Standard Material Transfer Agreement of the IT-PGRFA. The deliberations resulted in the following draft recommendations to be submitted to APEC for endorsement: (i) PGRFA are a critical sub-set of genetic resources that require specific recognition of the vital role that they have in the global system as envisioned by the IT-PGRFA
(ii) Genebanks as custodians of PGRFA are best positioned to take the conservation and utilization of PGRFA into the global system as envisioned by IT-PGRFA as the planning mechanism for continued sustainable development of PGRFA (iii) Different APEC member countries genebanks have different capacities that can be linked and harnessed to mutually strengthen and support effective and efficient genebank management, including technology transfer
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(iv) APEC member countries genebank management community could provide a forum to undertake the development of a rationalized and integrated conservation system which may serve as a global model (v) Identification of commonalities and gaps relating to effective genebank management amongst APEC member countries, leading to cooperation and collaboration on either bilateral or multilateral basis to increase the efficiency and utilization of PGRFA (vi) Workshop forums are vital for the future planning mechanisms to ensure continuity of efforts for conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA. The second workshop is planned to be held with focus on development and usage of modern tools for effective and efficient genebank management. Participants of training workshop held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5-16 June 2006 participated in this intensive training programme. The topics covered included forest biodiversity, genetic diversity, evolutionary genetics in forest tree populations, spatial pattern of genetic diversity and its sampling, in situ and ex situ conservation, as well as case studies on regional issues. Two field visits were organized for the participants. During the first field visit, participants visited the Biotechnology Division of FRIM, and were taken on a guided tour of the divisions seed technology, micropropagation and genetic research facilities, the FRIM museum and a short jungle walk. The second field visit was to the FRIMs experimental station located in Bidor, about two hours by road north of Kuala Lumpur. This experimental station was built on ex-tin mine, and the main focus of the station is to conduct research on the restoration of the barren sandy land by planting suitable fast growing exotics such as Acacia mangium , and also some indigenous species such as Hopea odorata. [Mr Michele Bozzano (IPGRI-Europe) Maccarese (Fiumicino), Rome, Italy, Mr L.T. Hong (IPGRI-APO) and Mr Markku Larjavaara (IPGRI-APO), Serdang, Malaysia, H.C. Sim (APAFRI) in collaboration with other Future Harvest Centres of CGIAR].
CGIAR media dialogue organized on IYDD at New Delhi

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in collaboration with other Future Harvest Centres of CGIAR organized a media dialogue on the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD) and unveiled the Oasis initiative at New Delhi on 23 June 2006. The meeting was attended by 40 national and international journalists from 35 news agencies based in New Delhi. Dr William Dar, Director General ICRISAT chaired the inter-centre panel for the media dialogue. The panelists were from the CGIAR Centre offices in India and IPGRI was represented by Dr Bhag Mal, Coordinator, IPGRI Office for South Asia. The media dialogue highlighted the impact of the Alliance of Future-Harvest Centres of the CGIAR in improving dryland agriculture, and thereby combating desertification. The CGIAR scientists and partners have developed a range of agricultural and institutional innovations that address the multifaceted challenges posed by drought and desertification. These science-based efforts are yielding results in the form of innovations that enable more prudent use of natural resources, and foster pro-poor policies
IPGRI/APFORGEN/BFW/APAFRI/ FRIM organized training workshop on forest genetic resources

A two-week training workshop aimed at providing a common background on forest genetic resources to graduate students and young scientists was held in Kuala Lumpur from 5-16 June 2006. This was jointly organized by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, Austria (BFW), in collaboration with Asia-Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme (APFORGEN), Asia-Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI), and Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). The workshop, besides other topics, also addressed the urgent needs and challenges in managing forest ecosystems, especially in the AsiaPacific region. A total of 28 young scientists from nine countries: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam,
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that help people cope with desertification. The achievements have been worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa. Some of the examples highlighted at the media dialogue related to the main direction of CGIAR research for improving productivity in the drylands: Developing cutting-edge technologies to map and measure land degradation Developing drought-resistant varieties of crops, through conventional breeding and the use of agri-biotechnology Developing and implementing improved integrated genetic and natural resources management systems to conserve and better manage agricultural and natural ecosystems Improving livestock productivity, and incorporating them into the integrated genetic and natural resource management systems, developing and advocating policies to integrate livestock into productive dryland systems Improving diversity and introducing high-value crops to protect farmers against crop failure Devising ways to get communities and governments together to manage lands better Developing and advocating policy options for more sustainable dryland management [Abstracted from ICRISAT happenings No. 1212, 30 June, 2006].
APCoABs regional workshop on biosafety regulations for transgenic crops held at ICRISAT, Pattancheru organized a three day (31 July - 2 August 2006) regional workshop on Biosafety regulations for transgenic crops and the need for harmonizing them in the AsiaPacific region, in collaboration with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India. The objective of the workshop was to familiarize the national stakeholders with developments in agricultural biotechnology and biosafety regulations in the Asia-Pacific countries and to jointly identify areas of regulations harmonization to facilitate exchange and trade in transgenic crops. The workshop was attended by 30 participants and observers including crop biotechnology experts and representatives of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) National Focal Points on Biosafety from 12 countries; Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The programme comprised keynote lectures on crop biotechnology and biosafety, presentation of country reports on biosafety regulations, and group discussion on harmonization of biosafety regulations in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr William D. Dar, Director General, ICRISAT inaugurated the workshop and Dr Raj Paroda, Executive Secretary, APAARI, chaired the Plenary Session. The workshop recognized that modern biotechnology is a powerful tool for agricultural improvements, and can help in alleviating hunger and malnutrition. Developing appropriate measures for safe application of the technology in compliance with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety would facilitate sharing of its benefits among the stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region. The workshop expressed a general consensus that the countries should move towards identifying issues that need harmonization at the regional level while recognizing that every country would have their own regulations and stand on the subject. A strong need was felt for capacity building in areas such as, risk assessment and management, sampling and genetically modified organism (GMO) detection, communication of science based information and developing mechanisms for information sharing. Both national and regional initiatives, the latter through collaborative projects, and bilateral and multilateral agreements would be required to operationalise the recommended actions. It was also stressed that APCoAB should play a leading role in networking and dissemination of information on agricultural biotechnology and biosafety in the Asia-Pacific region. [Dr J.L. Karihaloo, Coordinator, APCoAB c/o ICRISAT Office, NASC Campus, New Delhi 110012].
APCoAB holds workshop on Biosafety regulations for transgenic crops and the need for harmonizing them in the Asia-Pacific region
The Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), a programme operating under the AsiaPacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI),
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National
BHUTAN BAFRA training programme on plant health
The Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA) held its annual training programme at Thimpu on plant health aspects for its officials and concerned departments of the Ministry of Agriculture. The workshop reviewed the activities and shared the field experiences of the plant inspectors to improve the management of plant health. The Chief Guest at the opening ceremony, Mr Dasho Sangay Thinley, Secretary Department of Agriculture pointed out that BAFRA has been vested upon with duties pertaining to regulation on the flow of plant, food and animal parts and products within the country and to and fro exchange with other countries. Thus, the plant inspectors have a major role to play in certifying plants, issuing phytosanitary certificates to exporters and issuing movement permits. Ms Kula Bhandara, Senior Officer of Quarantine Division of BAFRA asserted that the 3day workshop will help plant inspectors in further updating their scientific/ technical knowledge on different plant health aspects. [RNR Newsletter Vol. XX, Issue No. 111, 2006]. Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) delivered the welcome address and emphasized that Chinese Government will continue to strengthen its collaboration with UPOV for intellectual property rights protection and management for new plant varieties. As per information of the MOA, since the regulation of protecting new plant varieties implemented in 1999, the monitoring and testing system of new plant variety protection has been established. Six lists of crop varieties for protection covering 62 species have been released. The testing guidelines of 80 new varieties of maize and rice, and the technical standards for DNA testing on maize and rice have been developed. China in its goal to manage the ecosystem and help implement the international conventions related to biodiversity. The EU-China Biodiversity Programme will provide support to China in designing biodiversity policies and strategies, and in implementing these. The arid and semi-arid areas account for more than half of Chinas total area, mainly in the western and northern regions. Biodiversity conservation in these areas is facing grave challenges posed by the harsh natural conditions coupled with the impact of irrational economic development activities, thus giving rise to the endangerment of quite a number of species. The Programme will cover the components of policy making, monitoring and raising awareness about the importance of biodiversity at the government level. It will mainly support the field projects in western and southern China considering the richness of biodiversity and prevalence of poverty in this region.
Implementation workshop for Sino-German project on sustainable management of agricultural biological diversity held at Sanya
After four years of preparation, SinoGerman project on sustainable management of agricultural biological diversity (ABD) will be implemented in Hunan and Hainan, China from July 2006. The project aims to collect and conserve agricultural biodiversity, understand the factors threatening it, strengthen community based management, raise public awareness on its sustainable protection, monitor the ABD in project region, and increase the farmers income through use of advanced technologies. In addition, the training course on community participatory ABD sustainable management will be organized.
Protecting biodiversity in plants and animals in Tibet

China plans to establish a series of ecosystem protection zones and forest reserves in Tibet to curb the environmental degradation and protect biodiversity in this region. The central government will support a programme to protect the environment in Tibet during 2006-2020. The programme will focus on the recovery of degraded grasslands, desertification control and the settlement of herdsmen. The government aims to recover 14.96 million ha of grassland from pastures and restore 4.2 million ha of grassland in Tibet, which will protect 77 per cent of the regions mediumdegraded grasslands. In addition, 8.34 million ha of original forest will be included within nature reserves and 4.368 million ha of woodland recovered and planted and 78 per cent of the
CHINA 35th session of UPOV technical working party for agricultural crops held at Beijing
The 35th session of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) technical working party for agricultural crops was held at Beijing on 3 July 2006. This meeting discussed and revised distinctness, uniformity, stability (DUS) testing guidelines for six crops including maize, tea, pea and small millets. Mr Wei Chaoan, Vice Minister,
European Union (EU)China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP) curbs desertification

The European Union (EU)-China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), with a total budget of about 52 million (US$ 66.4 million), is designed to assist
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Patancheru from 19-20 July 2006. Dr William Dar, Director General ICRISAT inaugurated the workshop and welcomed the participants representing the consortium partners and senior government officials. Dr Dar spoke of the enduring support of the donors and the institutions in the watersheds of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. He complemented the project facilitators who have demonstrated an innovative delivery mechanism. Dr S.P. Wani elaborated on the theme of the workshop objectives to review the progress and synthesize the findings of the work done in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan; and to identify the emerging issues and discuss up-scaling strategies for sustainable use of natural resources to combat land degradation and improve livelihoods in the target eco-region. He emphasized that for the first time the novel approach of a science-led development model was adopted. He further elaborated on the consortium approach needed to build partnerships that was being adopted for sustainable development in specific watershed areas of the country. Besides equity and gender issues, the physical, financial, social and human capital needs were also broadly addressed. The concluding session was chaired by Professor M.S. Swaminathan who congratulated the ICRISAT- led Consortium for the excellent progress in the project and asked the group to work on preparing a road map for scaling-out the benefits at the ecoregional level during the next phase of the project. The fourth Project Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting of the Tata-ICRISATICAR Project was also held on 20 July 2006 under the Chairmanship of Professor Swaminathan. He indicated that while preparing for the next phase, the concept of Livelihood Security Councils with oversight and technical backstopping from the ICRISAT-led consortium needs to be included. Dr William Dar, Co-Chair of the PAC, in his welcome address, highlighted the need to mainstream the farmers in the development initiatives. He wanted the
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regions forest will be placed under protection. The programme will protect as many as 125 species of important wild animals and 39 of wild plants in the region.
INDIA TERI/ICAR organize an international conference on Agriculture for Food, Nutritional Security and Rural Growth at New Delhi
To commemorate Dr B.P. Pal Centenary celebrations, the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India organized a three-day international conference on Agriculture for Food, Nutritional Security and Rural Growth, from 25-27 May 2006. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was one of the sponsors, and the last day programme including the concluding session was held at the National Agricultural Science Centre, wherein Honble Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh delivered the valedictory address. The conference in seven sessions, deliberated on the developments in Indian Agriculture and developing a road map for future agricultural research. Session 1 debated on green revolution to gene revolution, stressing the need for new technology inputs; Session II highlighted public private partnership; Session III dealt with agriculture for economic empowerment of rural India; Session IV on new technologies; Session V and VI on technology acquisition: some case studies and specific issues; Session VII dealt with designing future crops; and Session VIII on final panel discussion focusing on charting out the road ahead.
participants to use watershed management as an entry point for improving the livelihoods and explore bigger opportunities for scaling-out the project impact. A detailed progress report as well as a report on action taken was presented by Dr S.P. Wani. He thanked the Chair and Co-chair as well as PAC members for their guidance and support, and the Tata Trust for extending financial support. [ ICRISAT happenings No. 1214, 14 July 2006 ].
Activities at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources

Germplasm collecting in Andaman and Nicobar Islands
A total of 85 accessions of different crops including wild species were collected from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The diversity represented Amaranthus tricolor, pumpkin, cowpea, bitter gourd, Momordica charantia var. muricata , field bean, cucumber, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, ash gourd, snake gourd, okra, Capsicum annuum, C. chinense , tamarind, purging nut, Corchorus capsularis, sword bean, winged bean, red gram , velvet bean, Mucuna monosperma, Vigna umbellata, Corchorus spp., Sesbania grandiflora and wild species germplasm of Canavalia cathartica, Cucumis callosus, Vigna pilosa , Solanum anguvii , S. viarum, Clitoria ternatea, Momordica cochinchinensis, and Trichosanthes tricuspidata. Unique promising collections made were of Momordica cochinchinensis (JS-06-75) which is sparsely distributed in Andaman Islands. It is a wild vegetable with large fruits (up to 700 g/fruit); Canavalia cathartica (JS06-47) - wild sword bean; wild rice bean (JS-06-22) - a new record for Andaman Islands; Capsicum chinense (JS-06-78) - highly pungent; Capsicum annuum (JS06-36) non-pungent green chilli; Corchorus capsularis (JS-06-73) used as leafy vegetable; Mucuna monosperma (JS-06-65) with large fruit and seed (fruit 7.2 x 4.5 and seed 3.3 x 2.8 cm);
Tata- ICRISAT-ICAR project review

A Tata-ICRISAT-ICAR project review and planning workshop on Combating land degradation and increasing productivity in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was held at ICRISAT
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Cucumis callosus (JS-06-66) - pest and disease resistant wild species.
Germplasm characterization and evaluation

IC-436231- A purple chilli landrace identified as a promising morphological marker: During the characterization and evaluation of chilli germplasm, a naturally occurring purple landrace accession IC-436231 was found to be promising as a morphological marker. This accession has purple pigmentation in whole/stripes on stem, node, leaf, pedicel, corolla, filament, style, calyx and fruit. The accession is characterized by its erect flowers and fruits. This accession assumes importance in the wake of plant variety protection wherein unique and distinctiveness has to be brought in to the morphological traits of varieties for differentiation between varieties already released and proposed for release. Chinese spinach accessions evaluated at NBPGR Thrissur: In Chinese spinach ( Amaranthus
(a)
(b) Diverse chinese spinach accessions (a) IC 536728, (b) IC 536732
tricolor), IC 536728 and IC 536732 were found unique for morphological traits. The former with red thick stem, large green leaves and late bolting is dual purpose and can be used as leaf and stem amaranth while the latter with purple black leaves, a halo margin and robust growth holds promise as both leafy amaranth and as an ornamental.
[Dr S.K.Sharma, Director, NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110012, India].
Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (VPKAS) organizes brainstorming meeting on Energy Management in Agriculture
The meeting was held at VPKAS, Almora, Uttaranchal on 29 May 2006 under the chairmanship of Dr Mangala Rai, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, ICAR. Dr Rai emphasized the need for proper management of renewable sources of energy, and on the need for biodiesel and that Government of India has indicated national policy on biofuels, which will accelerate the production and development of bioethnol, etc. all over the country. For the alternate production of energy, jatropha plantation has been carried out on a large scale and ICAR has released a new variety Chatrapati which has 49.2 per cent oil content and a yield potential of 1500 kg ha-1. He also stressed on appropriate technologies for its cultivation, collecting and storage of seeds, expanding extraction of oil and efficient utilization of byproducts such as oil cake, etc. [VPKAS Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2006]. [Contd. on page 13]
New Director at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources

Dr Shyam Kumar Sharma, joined as Director, NBPGR on 15 June 2006. Prior to this, he was Dean, College of Basic Sciences, Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur and Programme Director, Advanced Centre of Hill Bioresources and Biotechnology (ACHBB). His keen interest in research and teaching resulted in strengthening infrastructure facilities at the Centre. He was awarded Commonwealth Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1982-83), Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship (1992-93), European Economic Community Fellowship (1994-95) and INSA-Royal Society International Collaborative Award (2002) in various Institutes and Universities in UK. He has also coordinated the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) sponsored Post-graduate programme in Agricultural Biotechnology and setting up of a Bioinformation Centre (Distributed Information Sub Centre DISC). He provided effective leadership in coordinating research, extension and Post-Graduate teaching at the University. Under his research guidance, five Ph.D. and six M.Sc. students have got their degrees. He has commissioned several projects funded by various national and international organizations. His major research contributions are in the field of plant biotechnology, crop genetics and breeding, and he has more than 120 publications to his credit. Greetings and best wishes to Dr Shyam Kumar Sharma from IPGRI-APO.
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COGENT Update
COGENT participates in the sub-regional seminar Enhancing capacities of NGOs and farmer groups to link farmers to markets held in Bali, Indonesia
Mr Menno Keizer (Agricultural Economist), IPGRI-APO attended the sub-regional seminar Enhancing capacities of NGOs and farmer groups to link farmers to markets organized by the Belgium NGO VECO in collaboration with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 9 12 May 2006 in Bali, Indonesia. This 4-day workshop brought practitioners from various backgrounds together (e.g. NGOs, Financing institutions, Farmer groups, Research Institutions) to discuss the enhancement of capacities to link farmers to markets. Mr Keizer was invited as resource speaker to deliver a presentation on marketing strategies used in COGENTs poverty reduction projects. The presentation focused on market research and marketing strategies based upon experiences from the poverty reduction project. The papers presented can be obtained from COGENTs secretariat. One of the main discussion points of the workshop was the need for a paradigm shift: NGOs and the private sector should work closer together in partnership instead of isolation. To increase access of farmers to markets the role of the private sector should not be neglected. Business is part of sustainable development. There is a need to recognize and acknowledge the role traders play in linking farm products to markets and the risks which are involved in this. It is not bad that they make profits as long as they are not excessively high and that profits are shared among the chain actors in an appropriate manner.
Dr Maria Luz George joins as COGENT Coordinator

Dr Luz George is an agriculture professional with 15 years of experience (more than 12 years in the CGIAR) in research and capacity building. She has been with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) as a Senior Scientist based in the Philippines at IRRI, and also served as the CIMMYT Country Liaison Officer for the Philippines, representing CIMMYT in the host country and managing the CIMMYT office. Since 1998, she has been engaged in extensive networking and outreach as Coordinator of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET), overseeing the administration of a training, research, and information network involving CIMMYT and nine national research institutes/universities in six Asian countries. Luz has specific expertise in the application of biotechnology tools in crop improvement in developing countries. Her experience in the use of molecular techniques spanned research in a variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plant-microbe interactions (symbiotic and pathogenic), rice and maize. She was previously a Consultant in International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in charge of technology development in the Asian Rice Biotechnology Network to adapt the use of molecular markers for large scale characterization of rice and rice pathogens. Luz obtained her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Hawaii and Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines. Hearty welcome to Dr Maria Luz George from IPGRI-APO. Preparation and Public Awareness was held at Bogor, Indonesia from 12 -14 June 2006 in which country project leaders from China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were trained. This training course was part of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) - funded project of IPGRI entitled Programme for Overcoming Poverty in Coconut-Growing Communities: Coconut Genetic Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods and was a joint offering by IPGRI and CIP. The training course aimed to equip
Technical Writing Training Course

A training course on Technical Writing, Seminar Presentation, Proposal Participants of training course on technical writing organized at Bogor, Indonesia, 12-14 June 2006
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Development (IFAD) - funded project of IPGRI entitled Programme for Overcoming Poverty in Coconut-Growing Communities: Coconut Genetic Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods of Implementing the Overcoming Poverty in Coconut Growing Communities (OPCGC) Project, Bogor, Indonesia. The training course familiarized project leaders and socioeconomists on the use of various tools to analyze the results of the socioeconomic baseline survey of the OPCGC project; developed the skills of participants in developing marketing strategies in the context of the OPCGC project; shared experiences among training participants in the fields of socioeconomic baseline data collection and analysis, market research and product identification; trained participants in analyzing the results of the food security and nutrition survey; and familiarized and equipped participants with various tools and methodologies to conduct participatory resource documentation and planning to more biodiversity in Nepal edited by Drs Bhuwon Sthapit, Pratap Shrestha and Madhusudan Upadhyay on 18 July 2006, on the occasion of the National Symposium on In situ Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity On-farm: Good Practices and Lessons Learned. The publication is a compilation of 20 good practices developed and practiced by the in situ project team during the eight years
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the participants with knowledge and skills on how to effectively write a scientific paper, present a seminar, write public awareness articles and develop project proposals; and apply knowledge learned in refining draft scientific papers, public awareness materials and project proposals they would like to finalize and submit upon return to duty station.
effectively implement the interventions and activities of the OPCGC project.
2nd Annual Meeting of OPCGC project

The 2nd annual meeting of the project on Overcoming Poverty in Coconut Growing Communities (OPCGC) was held in Bogor, Indonesia from 19-21 June 2006. The meeting was hosted by the Indonesian Centre for Estate Crops Research and Development (ICECRD) and attended by the project leaders from China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The meeting reviewed the progress of the project, developed work plans for the remaining period and considered ways of enhancing the effectiveness of project implementation. [Dr Maria Luz George, Senior Scientist and COGENT Coordinator, IPGRI-APO, Serdang, Malaysia]. of implementation of the project on Strengthening the Scientific Basis of Insitu Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity by International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) in Nepal. The project was funded by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the Netherland and Swedish Development Corporation (SDC) Switzerland. The release of the flyers will further promote in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity in Nepal, encouraging and inspiring many people working with agrobiodiversity, and dissemination of this information on Good Practices as case studies, will generate global interest to undertake similar studies vis-vis their need involving diverse partners.
Training Course on Socioeconomics and Participatory Approaches

A Training Course on Socioeconomics and Participatory Approaches to Reduce Poverty in Coconut Growing Communities was held in Bogor, Indonesia from 15-17 June 2006 in which country project leaders and socioeconomists from China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were trained. This training course is part of the International Fund for Agricultural [Contd. from page 11]
NEPAL Release of Good Practices Flyers in Nepal

Mr K.C. Ganesh, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), Government of Nepal, released the Good Practices Flyers and CDs on onfarm management of agricultural
Good practices to Brazil from Nepal

Release of Good Practices Flyers on on-farm management of agricultural biodiversity in Nepal The Nucleus for Agrobiodiversity Studies (NEABio) of the Federal University of
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in Nepal from 17-24 July 2006. This workshop was part of the larger initiative on Institutionalizing Gender Responsive Research and Development in Agriculture and NRM through Womens Network. Workshop participants included members from Meghalaya and Sikkim in northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan and Lao PDR. The major topics covered by this workshop included: capacity building of the partners in gender analysis, gender mainstreaming and organizational analysis, and on building the support for their action plans and activities within their own organizations.
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Santa Catarina (Florianopolis), Brazil has published a book entitled Estrategias particlpativas de manejo da agrobiodiversidade (De Boef, W.S., M. Thijssen, J. Bernardi Ogliari & B. Sthapit, eds., Florianopolis-SC, NEABio, 396 p.) targeted to the civil societies and farmers organizations of Brazil. Some of selected good practices developed through the project on Strengthening the scientific basis of in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity in Nepal and Vietnam have been used to the tailormade training programme held in Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, through the involvement of Bhuwon Sthapits contributions to the book based on the experiences of IPGRI in Nepal. Good practices like diversity fairs, community seed banks, diversity kits and diversity blocks have been adopted in at least six municipalities of Brazil which is the result of a tailor-made training programme entitled Participatory and integrated approaches to the management and use of agrobiodiversity in Santa Catarina, Brazil. They all contribute to a diversity of approaches leading to the Brazilian version of community agrobiodiversity management. Trainees piloted the selected good practices made available to them during the training with their communities and shared their experiences at the workshop held from 25-31 July 2006. Feed back from the workshop will be used to revise the book for final publication. This work is funded by the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation (NUFFIC) in Higher Education and Wageningen International in collaboration with UFSC, and IPGRI.
Agriculture (DA), its bureaus: Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), and its research centres in Davao, Negros Occidental, Los Baos, Lipa City, and Palawan; the Fibre Industry Development Authority (FIDA) Region 5; and state universities and colleges (SUCs) that include Cavite State University (CavSU), University of Southern Mindanao (USM), Aklan State University, and Central Luzon State University. The above programme was followed by training on PGR documentation and information management at the BPI, Los Baos, National Crop Research and Development Centre from 5-9 June 2006. The training aimed to enhance knowledge on germplasm documentation, data analysis, and information management. The resource persons from UPLB in the field of electronic documentation systems; data generation; spatial data analysis; and diversity analysis using the ShannonWeaver Index, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis. Participants were from the DA, its bureaus (BPI and BAR), and its research centres in Leyte, Negros Occidental, Davao, Albay, and Los Baos; FIDA Region 5; SUCs such as CavSU, USM, and Western Philippines University; Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau; National Abaca Research Centre; Northern Philippine Rootcrops Research and Training Centre; and Philippine Root Crops Research and Training Centre. [Eileen C. Cardona, S&T Media Service; with reports and photos from Noel A. Catibog;
PHILIPPINES PCARRD, DA-BAR organize two PGR training courses

Plant genetic resources (PGR), the initial building blocks of new and improved varieties and sources of novel genes, were the subject of two training courses recently sponsored by PCARRD and the Department of Agriculture (DA) - Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR). The course on PGR conservation and management was held from 29 May - 2 June 2006 at the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) of the Institute of Plant Breeding at the University of the Philippines, Los Baos (UPLB). Resource persons from UPLB provided lectures and specialist training on the different aspects of conserving and maintaining plant germplasm. Skills and knowledge gained from this five-day training are expected to boost the PGR conservation and management programmes of the concerned agencies. Participants were from Department of
Workshop for gender responsive research and development

The third workshop on Gender Responsive Research and Development was organized by the Systemwide Programme on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis for Technology Development and Institutional Innovation (PRGA Programme) in collaboration with the Women Organization for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (NRM) (WOCAN) network
Participants of PGR conservation and management training course held at IPB, Los Baos, the Philippines, 29 May - 2 June 2006
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IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA Main achievements
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Participants of training course on PGR documentation and information management, BPI, Los Baos, the Philippines, 5-9 June 2006
Source: PCARRD website (www.pcarrd. dost.gov.ph)].
REPUBLIC OF KOREA Endangered species spotted

The National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) of the Republic of Korea has reported that 44 animal species believed to be either extinct or extremely endangered in Korea still exist at some locations, in some rural areas across the country. According to the survey, 14 endangered animals, including otters, spoonbills, falcons and ospreys, were spotted in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. Four critically endangered species, such as flying squirrels, hobbies and wildcats, which were formerly thought to have disappeared, were found in Hoengseong and Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) successfully bred 44 endangered animals and plants, including storks, cranes and yellow iris at 10 protected sites across the country. It multiplied the endangered animal species and plants, and restored habitats for another 11 rare plants since April 2000 when it began a five-year project aimed at increasing the countrys biodiversity.
VIETNAM Plant Resources Centre, Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Mission and responsibilities
Founded in 2005, Plant Resources
Centre (PRC) (up-graded Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Vietnam Agricultural Science InstituteVASI),operates as an autonomous institution under Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) with the mission to conserve and use plant genetic resources towards food security and sustainable agriculture of the country. The Centre responsibilities, as defined by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, are to: (i) develop research and development programmes, projects and plans for the conservation of national plant resources, and to conduct the programmes projects and plans, approved by relevant authorities, (ii) conduct researches (including also target-oriented fundamental ones) and technology transfer towards the followings: (a) maintenance and development of the National Plant Genebank; (b) development of strategies and approaches for the conservation, exploitation and use of plant genetic resources; (c) conservation of plant genetic resources through their use; development and sustenance of in situ conservation sites; and (d) study of agricultural biodiversity, and evolution and dynamics of plant genetic diversity, (iii) coordinate the National PGR Network, (iv) realize international cooperation in research, technology transfer, scientific exchange, information sharing and training in areas relating to plant genetic resources conservation and sustainable use.
Ex situ conservation: In the National Genebank maintained by the Centre, there are around 13 000 germplasm accessions of ca. 120 plant species maintained as seed, field and in vitro collections, including: (i) over 11 000 accessions of 83 orthodox seed crop species (6423 of rice and other graminaceous plants, 1937 legumes, 2187 vegetables, and 725 others) conserved in the seed cold storage short and medium-term conditions; (ii) 1700 accessions of 32 vegetatively propagated crops maintained in the field collections; around 100 accessions of root and tuber crops conserved in vitro. Most of these accessions are of local origin.
Exploitation and use of PGR: A total of 3494 accessions were made available to users for different purposes, and this significantly contributed to crop and varietal development in the country. The mung bean variety NTB-01, for example, was developed by the South Central Cost Agricultural Research Centre from the mung bean germplasm provided by the National Crop Genebank.
The Centre also recovered, selected and tested some lines/varieties for their large scale production, such as taro varieties KMC-1, KMN-1 and KS-5, specially glutinous rice variety Nep Quyt, aromatic rice variety LT-3, early maturing aromatic rice variety NT-96, Curcuma flower variety Uat Kim Tia, etc. In particular, the taro variety KS-4 and the Alpinia flower variety Duoi Chon Do were recognized as national varieties.
Coordination of the National PGR Network: The National PGR Network was established and gradually strengthened, and now comprises of 20 member institutions located throughout the country. These 20 institutions have already collected and conserved over 30 000 accessions of ca. 200 plant species both as national base collection and as complementary collections.
[For more details, contact: Professor Luu Ngoc Trinh, Director, Plant Resources Centre, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hanoi. e-mail: trinh2003@hn.vnn.vn].
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Meetings/Training Programmes
Future Meetings
INDIA: Expert Consultation on Agricultural Innovations: Linking Farmers to Market. National Agricultural Science Centre (NASC). Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012, 6-8 November, 2006. The meeting will be jointly organized by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). It will deliberate upon all possible options for linking farmers to market (LFM). Realizing that it is necessary now to have a paradigm shift in agriculture from current less remunerative practices to those of innovative farming and better income generation. This would require scientific planning, adoption of new technologies and agricultural diversification. In this context, LFM approach appears as the best resort. Session I will deal with policy innovation to LFM; Session II on past practices of agricultural innovations; Session III on donors perspective, followed by group discussion in Session IV, and Session V on the role of emerging technologies in LFM. MALAYSIA: National Seminar and Workshop on Forest Biotechnology. Biotechnology Policy, R&D and Funding Issues Towards Resource Conservation and Generation of Wealth From Tropical Rainforest. Forest Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 47 December 2006. Forest biotechnology is a growing field of study and has many potential benefits for mankind. Biotechnology tools such as DNA marker techniques, tissue culture techniques and cryopreservation protocols can be applied for forest genetic resources management, conservation and utilization. In addition to the traditional uses of wood products, the enormous biodiversity from the tropical rainforest provides full opportunity for novel products discovery, as numerous species are still unknown for their potential. Hence, the forest biotechnology development can also create substantial value in new and upcoming sectors such as pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals for human healthcare. This upcoming National Seminar and Workshop on Forest Biotechnology organized by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia will address the biotechnology policy, R&D and funding issues towards resource conservation and generation of new wealth from tropical forests. It is anticipated that the seminar would provide opportunities to give directions and also establish cooperation and networks among relevant agencies and companies on forest biotechnology, while the workshop will enable hands-on experience for participants in the recent biotechnology techniques for plant conservation and commercialization. For more information, contact: Ms Getha P. Krishnasamy, Tel: +60-3-6279 7628, Fax: +60-3-6273 1427, email: getha@frim.gov.my INDIA: Regional Training on In Vitro and Cryopreservation Techniques for Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources, NBPGR, New Delhi, India, 4-18 December 2006. This training course will be organized by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in collaboration with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) at NBPGR, New Delhi from 4-18 December 2006. The training aims at enhancing skills of participants from developing countries in employing in vitro and cryopreservation techniques for conservation of plant genetic resources. The training is expected to strengthen the respective national programmes on conservation of germplasm of vegetatively propagated species and non-orthodox seed species using in vitro and cryopreservation approaches. The training will impart theoretical knowledge and hands on experience on aspects relating to: i) methods of in vitro propagation and conservation under slow growth, ii) cryopreservation of in vitro cultures and non-orthodox seeds, iii) genetic stability assessment of conserved germplasm, and iv) management of large collections under in vitro and cryogenebanks. For further details, contact: Dr S.K. Sharma, Director, NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110012, India; Fax; (091-011) 25842495; e-mail: director@nbpgr.ernet.in; Dr Percy Sajise, Regional Director, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO), P.O. Box 236, UPM Post Office, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Tel: (603) 89423891; Fax: (603) 89487655, Email: p.sajise@cgiar.org; Dr Bhag Mal, Coordinator, IPGRI Office for South Asia, National Agricultural Science Centre (NASC), Pusa Campus, New Delhi110012; Fax: (091-011) 25849899; e-mail: b.mal@cgiar.org / ipgridelhi@cgiar.org THAILAND: The 10th APEID International Conference: Learning Together for Tomorrow: Education for Sustainable Development, Bangkok, 6-8 December 2006. The Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID) will convene the 10th APEID International Conference Learning Together for Tomorrow: Education for Sustainable Development in Bangkok, Thailand, from 6 to 8 December 2006. This conference is to promote the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), 20052014. UNESCO is the lead agency for DESD in the Asia-Pacific Region. The 2006 APEID International Conference
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emphasis on collecting, conservation, evaluation and utilization of indigenous vegetables and legumes has endorsed the additive role that they can play for food and nutritional security particularly for the non-privileged populations. Concerted efforts, therefore, need to be made at the national and international levels to create awareness on the importance of these crops in food security, food diversification and improvement of nutrition and health. The conference aims at promoting: (i) interinstitutional collaboration, (ii) assess R&D trends in the conservation and management, (iii) documentation of scientific information, and (iv) developing strategies to promote the use of indigenous vegetables and legumes worldwide. The conference will have sessions where invited speakers, oral and poster presentations will focus on the following themes: (i) germplasm conservation and biodiversity (ii) genetics, breeding and biotechnology, (iii) indigenous perennial plants, (iv) farming systems, crop production technologies, (v) sociocultural and economic issues (vi) plant protection strategies (vi) seed technology, (vii) postharvest management, (viii) utilization, processing and marketing (ix) nutrition, health and medicinal uses, (x) technology transfer and participation (xi) global marketing and business enterprise development and (xii) research strategies and policy issues. For more information, contact: Dr M.L.
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aims to bring together members from the APEID network as well as education for sustainable development (ESD) educational practitioners to share research findings, innovative practices, experiences and lessons learned in the area of ESD. The key objectives of this conference are to: strengthen coordination and collaboration among APEID network members, raise awareness and understanding of ESD, and serve as a catalyst for the creation of ESD action plans. It is hoped that the conference will serve as a change mechanism for the new era of APEID and ESD. http://www.unescobkk.org/ index.php?id=3811 INDIA: First International Conference on Indigenous Vegetables and Legumes: Prospects for Fighting Poverty, Hunger and Malnutrition. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, India, 12-15 December 2006. The International Conference will be organized by the World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC) at the International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru from 12-15 December 2006. The Conference is being cosponsored by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), the Global Horticultural Institute (GHI), the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and ICRISAT. Indigenous vegetables and legumes play a significant role in human nutrition and health. The recent
Chadha, Secretary, International Organizing Committee, AVRDC-Regional Centre for South Asia, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India. Tel: 91-40-31703755; Fax: 91-40-31703074; e-mail: mlchadha@cgiar.org. INDIA: Third International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, University of Madras, Chennai, India, 4-7 January 2007. The third conference is being hosted by the University of Madras, Chennai, India. The conference will work in a multidisciplinary way across the various fields and perspectives through which we can address the fundamental and related questions of sustainability. Main speakers will include some of the leading thinkers in these areas, and there will be paper presentations, colloquium and workshop. Participants are also welcome to submit a presentation proposal either for a 30 minute paper, 60 minute workshop, a jointly presented 90 minute colloquium session. or a virtual session. Parallel sessions are loosely grouped into streams reflecting different perspectives or disciplines. Each stream also has its own talking circle, a forum for focused discussion of issues. Presenters may choose to submit written papers before or after the conference for possible publication in the International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.
Interesting Books, Periodicals and Websites

APCoAB. 2006. Bt Cotton in India. A Status Report. Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. 37 p. This status report has been brought out by the Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), a programme of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). Established in 2003, APCoAB has been documenting achievements in agricultural biotechnology that have led to improvements in crop productivity. This publication focuses on the research carried out in India on Bt cotton over the last four years. Bt cotton hybrids, presently covering an area of approximately 1.3 million hectares, have been commercialized. The details of the events for the past several years, by the public and private sector have been well synthesized. Chadha, K.L. and M.S. Swaminathan (Eds.) 2006. Environment and Agriculture. Malhotra Publishing House, New Delhi. 900 p. [ISBN: 8185048-43-6]. The book under five sections comprehensively covers all aspects of environment vis-a-vis agriculture related concerns. Section 1 on national resources management and environment deals with climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, desertification, water
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varieties and their area of cultivation will be extremely useful to the farmers, scientists and other concerned with diversifying minor millet cultivation in hilly agro-ecosystems. Hong, L.T. and V. Ramanatha Rao, editors, 2005. Genetic Diversity, Distribution and Conservation of Rattans in Some Asian Countries. International Plant Genetic Resources, Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania, Serdang, Malaysia. The publication comprises four studies on rattan carried out in India, Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore. The study from two districts of Karnataka, India elaborated on the population and species diversity of rattans including studies on germination and viability of the rattan seeds of some species. The study from the Bardiya district of Nepal dealt with Calamus tenuis. The management and harvesting of this rattan faced the problem of overharvesting owing to increasing market demand and absence of a coordinating body for R&D of rattan in the country. The report on genetic evaluation of seed sources of three Calamus species from Malaysia has shown that the low genetic diversity of cultivated populations of C. manan warrants effors to source for seeds from wild populations for selection and genetic improvement and sustainability of plantations. The study on genetic markers for gender determination in C. javensis from Singapore has shown this technique could be used for such purpose. However, definitive indentifcation of gender needs more than one such marker and such markers should be put through blind test for gender prediction before they could be applied more universally. The availability of such markers would greatly assist the desired ratio of male and female rattan plants for the conservation and commercial plantation development of rattans. ICIMOD. 2006. Achievements, Challenges and Lessons Learned. International Centre for Integrated
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logging, water land management, irrigation dams and ground water quality; Section 2 on agriculture inputs management and environment covers fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide use, biopesticides, biological control of pests; integrated management remote sensing; Section 3 on farming systems and environment besides other topics deals with crop production, botanical gardens, agroforestry, wasteland development; Section 4 on biomass utilization and environment covers industry wastes and byproducts in crops such as cotton, jute, sugarcane, soybean, fruits and vegetables, cassava, plantation crops, animal/fisheries; and Section 5 on social concerns and environment covers interesting topics such as on modelling agriculture and environmental interactions, biotechnology, and biosafety and environmental education. Overall, the 47 chapters of this book cover almost the entire spectrum of agriculture and environment related aspects. It will serve as a wealth of information for subject matter specialists, policy makers, environmentalists and conservationists in improving the quality of the environment and diversifying agriculture vis--vis better land use. Gupta, A., V. Mahajan, K.P. Singh and J.C. Bhatt. 2006. Production Technology of Minor Millets for NorthEastern Region. Technical Bulletin No. 24 [1/2006], Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (ICAR), Almora 263 601, Uttaranchal. 27 p. Minor millets have been instrumental in imparting food and nutritional security to the people living in tribal and hilly areas. This bulletin provides information on improved production technology of millets, namely, finger millet, barnyard millet, foxtail millet, and proso millet cultivated as grain as well as field crops in the hills. Minor millets are rich source of minerals, vitamins and fibres. They have been traditionally used by the hill farmers as these crops are hardy and give reasonable yield even under low fertility conditions. The information on production technology and improved
Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal 74 p. [ISBN: 10-92-9115-002-9; ISBN-13:978-92-9115-002]. The publication synthesizes major achievements of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development since its establishment in 1983. It traces its history and early years of growth, development, organization and programmes, strengthening and consolidation, and developing regional partnership. ICIMODs achievements relate to its establishment as a multidisciplinary documentation centre, focal point for training, applied research and fostering networks and partnerships. Its major achievements, comparative advantages, strengths and shortcomings and the lessons learned have been given. Finally, its future course of action/ outlook has been elaborately dealt with. ICIMOD. 2006. Securing Sustainable Livelihoods in the Hindu KushHimalayas: Directions for Future Research, Development and Cooperation. Proceedings of the ICIMOD 21st Anniversary Symposium, 5-6 December 2004. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal, 188 p. [ISBN-10: 92-9115-007-X; ISBN-13: 97892-9115-067-6]. The publication deals with symposium proceedings, including the deliberations of the entire programme, on the centres achievements over two decades-keynote address on securing sustainable livelihoods in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: directions for future research, development and cooperation; followed by presentations made in different sessions; Session I on securing the present environment; Session II on securing sustainable use of mountain resources; Session III on securing livelihoods, Session IV on strengthening cooperation and knowledge sharing and the concluding session on synthesizing the recommendations. The report will serve as a valuable reference for mountain people, researchers, policy makers and development practitioners in mountain areas. IPGRI, INIA 2006. Descriptors for Shea
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NRCWA. 2005. Proceedings of the National Seminar on Gender Mainstreaming in Agricultural Research, Extension and Training Priorities and Problems, 25-27 October 2005. National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneshwar 751003, Orissa, India. 230 p. The concept of gender equity and its importance for a balanced and harmonious rural development have got wide attention of the policy makers and planners. This publication based on presentations and deliberations of the national seminar, in 36 papers, covers important themes of gender mainstreaming in agricultural research and extension, and training. One of the lead papers by Dr Hema Pandey on Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture provides well synthesized background information. Sthapit, B., P. Shrestha and M. Upadhyay, editors, 2006. On-farm Management of Agricultural Biodiversity in Nepal. Good Practices. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. Nepal is one among the selected nine countries to be involved in the International Plant Genetic Resources Institutes Global Project on Strengthening the Scientific Basis of In situ Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity On-farm. This project was jointly implemented by Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and The Local Initiative for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD) in three sites of Nepal and the target crops included rice, barley, buckwheat, finger millet, sponge gourd, cucumber, taro and pigeonpea. A supplementary research activity funded by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was conducted subsequently at two different agroecological regions of Nepal- Kachorwa in Bara district and Begnas in Kaski district with new target crops such as leaf mustard, citrus and oranges. The purpose of the project was to strengthen the scientific basis, institutional linkages and policies that can support farmers in
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Tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy, Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Technologia Agararia Alimentaria, Madrid, Spain. 54 p. [ISBN 13: 978-929043-687-4; 10:92-9043-687-5]. Descriptors for Shea tree/Shea-butter tree (Vitellaria paradoxa ) is the first publication devoted to the sub-Saharan local tree species. IPGRI encourages the collecting of data for all five types of descriptors, whereby data from the first four categories- Passport, Management, Environment and Site, and Characterization-should be available for any accession. The number of descriptors for each of the categories will depend on the tree species and their importance to the trees description. Descriptors listed under Evaluation allow for a more extensive description of the accession, but generally require replicated trials over a period of time. This descriptor list provides an international format and thereby produces a universally understood language for plant genetic resources data. This descriptor list is intended to be comprehensive for the descriptors that it contains. Highly discriminating descriptors are marked as highlighted text to facilitate selection of descriptors listed in Annex I and Annex II provides the collecting form for Shea tree. Mathur, P.N., A. Alercia and C. Jain, Compilers. 2005. Lathyrus Germplasm Collections Directory. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. 58 p. [ISBN 13: 978-92-9043-6782; ISBN 10: 92-9043-678-6]. This Directory of Lathyrus germplasm has been published using the standard IPGRI format for directories of germplasm collections which contains a standard set of headings for each entry. Information has been given on Lathyrus collections held in Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Jordon, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Spain and USA. The information compiled will be useful to promote conservation and utilization of this underutilized legume crop as well the use of Lathyrus genepool.
conservation and use of crop diversity so that plant resources are sustainably and equitably managed in agro ecosystems. This publication deals with the results achieved following good practices for 18 different topics, namely, (i) on-farm conservation of local crop diversity, (ii) measuring on-farm crop diversity, (iii) participatory four-cell analysis (FCA) for local crop diversity, (iv) social seed network for ensuring maintenance of local crop diversity, (v) multiple approval to community sensitization, (vi) diversity fair, promoting exchange of knowledge and germplasm, (vii) diversity block: assessing and demonstrating local crop diversity; (viii) diversity tests: deploying new diversity to farmers, (ix) community biodiversity register: consolidating community role in management of agricultural biodiversity, (x) community seed bank: reliable and effective option for agricultural biodiversity conservation, (xi) community biodiversity management: empowering community to manage agricultural biodiversity, (xii) participatory plant breeding (PPB): a strategy of enhancing and maintaining local crop diversity, (xiii) participatory landrace enhancement: an economic incentive to support on-farm management, (xiv) value addition of local crop diversity, (xv) travelling seminar: influencing policy, (xvi) rural poetary journey: an effective approach to sensitize farming community, (xvii) rural radio programmes: an effective test for teaching unreachable on biodiversity conservation issues, and (xviii) multistakeholder partnership approach to onfarm agro-biodiversity management. TAAS. 2005. Brainstorming Session on Farmer- Led Innovations for Increased Productivity, Value Addition and Income Generation: Highlights and Recommendations. Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, Pusa Campus, New Delhi. 18 p. The Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), New Delhi, realizing that the innovations made by farmers have not received the recognition which they deserve,
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with the taxonomy, distribution, production areas, ecology, plantproperties and uses, genetic resources and genetic improvement, agronomy, harvesting, marketing and trade. Strategy for further research and development is given, with emphasis towards better utilization of this species.
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organized a one-day brainstorming session to highlight the farmer-led innovations for increased productivity, value addition and income generation. The meeting was attended by over 40 participants comprising scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs, legal experts, extension workers and policy makers. The deliberations dealt with case studies, experiences narrating indigenous knowledge and on value addition experiences related to water harvesting, organic farming, dairy farming, social forestry, diversified agriculture, innovations in seed production medicinal and aromatic plants, and on value addition to agricultural products. The plenary session resulted in several recommendations; need to document innovations and traditional knowledge, and disseminate such information, involvement of diverse partners, promoting scientist-farmers dialogue/ links, involvement of research institutes, transfer, sharing of technology, need for capacity building, training, developing rural farming sector, possibility of creation of a Farmers Innovation Promotion Board by the Ministry of Agriculture. Tchoundjeu, Z. and A.R. Atangana. 2006. Ndjanssang ( Ricinodendron heudelotii). Southampton Centre for Underutilized Crops, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. 74 p. [ISBN: 0854328424]. There are a number of woody tropical, subtropical fruit trees growing as components of land use, agro-forestry systems. Among these, the priority species Ricinodendron heudelotii of the family Euphorbiaceae is better known. It is a fast growing tree which produces edible seeds traditionally used in many countries of Africa. Though undomesticated, it is protected and grown by rural people, often around homestead and cultivated fields. For ndjanssang (local name of species), demand for seed kernel well outstrips supply, and thus, species needs more attention for market, trade for generating benefits to local communities and for rural development. The monograph deals
Periodicals
Anonymous 2005. Annual Report of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resorces 2005-2006, NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India. 148 p. [ISSN No. 0971-2572]. This report highlights activities of the NBPGR, the national nodal organization for all activities related to plant genetic resources in India. It presents the achievements carried out at its Hqs at Delhi and its regional stations located in different regions of the country; in the areas of plant exploration, characterization and evaluation, plant quarantine, ex situ conservation of germplasm in national genebank through storage of seed, tissue culture and cryopreservation, regeneration/ maintenance of germplasm data documentation and DNA Finger printing of released varieties. Information is also given on the National Agricultural Technology Project (Plant Biodiversity) recently completed. The Bureau has brought out very good publications and these have been listed. APAARI Newsletter (Vol. 15, No.1) 2006. Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions. Bangkok, Thailand, 12 p. [ISSN 08586063]. The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) brings out a six monthly newsletter (two issues a year), highlighting the recent activities in national, regional and international context. The June 2006 issue deals with important activities such as: (i) APAARI and IPGRI facilitated meeting of the seven Asian Representatives nominated by the Chairs of the FAO Regional Groups for the drafting of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) in
April 2006 meeting at Bangkok. Thailand; (ii) APAARI and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) jointly conducted planning workshop on 6-7 June 2006 of the ad hoc working group for the preparation of Asia-Pacific participation in a Global Partnership Programme (GPP) on Linking Farmers to Markets (LFM), for enhanced livelihoods of rural household and farming communities; (iii) Steering Committee meeting vis--vis activities of Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), a programme under APAARI, and (iv) on Asia-Pacific Agricultural Research and Information System (APARIS). Biomed. 2006 (Vol. 1, No. 1). Society for Advancement of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants to the Mankind (SAMARPAN), Bangalore, India. 94 p. [ISSN: 0973-3965]. It is a new quarterly journal on medicinal and aromatic plants. The 18 papers included cover diverse fields and are arranged under four broad themes/ categories, namely, the invited review article; crop husbandry; pharmaceutical studies, and issues in focus. The review article is on plants used against diabetes mellitus-global scenario dealing with 85 species from 43 families. Crop husbandry section deals with genetics, breeding, agronomy, cultivation practices; pharma section on isolation, characterization, screening, biochemistry; and in focus section, one article deals with geographical indicators; legal tool for protection of traditional varieties, and the other on traditional wisdom that needs research and attention on Gliricidia maculata. CAC News 2006. (No. 2 & 3). Programme for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC), the CGIAR Programme Facilitation Unit, ICARDA Regional Office for CAC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 20 p. The newsletter deals with activities on the CGIAR Collaborative Research Programme for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC). information on
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organized in - Central Asia on potato production, in India, workshop on prioritizing potato and sweet potato research and development needs for north eastern states of India, and in Afghanistan on potato clean seed production system and training in this field. CTCRI: A Glimpse. 2006. Central Tuber Crops Research Institute. Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala, India. 26 p. This booklet briefly deals with the mandatory tuber crops on which research and development has been focused by the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute with the aim to enhance productivity and improve the utilization potential of these crops, namely: cassava, aroids, yams and Elephant foot yam and other minor root crops. ICIMOD. 2005. Annual Report 2005. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal. 92 p. [ISSN: 1019-1356]. The publication deals with the attainments/outcomes of ICIMODs diverse programmes promoting : productive and sustainable communitybased management of vulnerable mountain natural resources; increased regional and local conservation of mountain biological and cultural heritage; improved and diversified incomes for vulnerable rural and marginalized mountain people, increased physical vulnerability within watersheds and regional river basins; greater voice and influence, dignity, security and social equity for all mountain people. The country reports of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan have been dealt with. Special theme on mountain forum includes Mountain forum connecting mountain people across the globe. IPGRI, FAO. 2006. (No. 145). Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. 70 p. [ISSN: 10203362].
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meetings organized, report on different projects, and the research highlighting new wheat variety released in Armenia, evaluation of wheat germplasm enhancement, trials conducted in rice, nutrition study by CIP on potato, natural resource conservation and management, collaboration with International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (IRBA), crop selection in salt effected areas of Central Asia and on fish and livestock production project. Report on the General Assembly meeting of Central Asia and Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI), on second Central Asian Conference, survey of plant breeding and related biotechnology capacity, report on regional rice network and other conferences, meetings, particularly the Regional Workshop on PGR Documentation organized under the project on Inventory and Development of Information on PGR CAC funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), held from 29 May - 2 June 2006 in Tbiligsi, Georgia. CGIAR 2006. Japan and the CGIARStrengthening the Partnership. CGIAR Secretariat 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433, USA. 23 p. The publication highlights collaboration between the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). The main objective of this report is to review the historical and present relationship between Japan and the CGIAR and set forth key issues covering the future partnership. Strengthening of this partnership requires a clear cooperative strategy. Effective Japanese-CGIAR collaboration will help improve worldwide food production in a sustainable manner. CIP-SWCA Newsletter 2006. (Vol. 9, No. 2). International Potato Centre (CIP), South West and Central Asia Regional Office, NASC, IARI Campus, New Delhi 110012. 12 p. This issue provides information on the high yielding varieties of sweet potato for Bangladesh, late blight management in potato in Bhutan, training courses
The Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter is published jointly by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the Plant Production and Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It deals with diverse aspects of PGR study. This issue, besides other articles such as on evaluation of bambara groundnut, and of common bean; includes from the APO region, articles on Policy issues and gaps for in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity in Nepal, on Assessment of the genetic diversity of Indian coconut accessions and their relationship to other cultivars using microsatellite markers and on Characterization of two landraces of maize from Tripura. Genetic study of morphological traits on-form is an interesting article on modern and ancient cultivars, customs and traditions in Israel.
Important Websites
http://papgren.biogspot.com/ The website deals with the activities of the Pacific Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), focusing on PGR. The network is coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) http://www.apaari.org The website provides information on activities of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI); a regional forum dealing with strengthening of agricultural research and development for National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), building strong collaboration, partnership involving diverse stakeholders including international organizations and NGos. http://www.icimod.org The website deals with activities of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). based at Kathmandu, Nepal with focus on sustainable mountain development.
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Scientific Contributions
Report on Nuclear DNA content of seven Carthamus species
Nuclear DNA content (2C) of cultivated safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L. (2n=24) and its six wild species, namely, C. glaucus subsp. anatolicus (2n=20), C. palaestinus (2 n =24), C. oxyacantha (2 n =24), C. lanatus subsp. lanatus (2 n =44), C. lanatus subsp. creticus (2 n =44) and C. lanatus subsp. turkestanicus (2 n =64), representing various diploid chromosome numbers of the genus, were assessed by flow cytometry (Table 1). 2C-value varied remarkably among Carthamus species, ranging from 1.708 pg (C. palaestinus) to 7.708 pg (C. lanatus subsp. lanatus). DNA content of C. oxyacantha (7.077 pg) was significantly much higher than those of C. tinctorius (2.191 pg) and C. palaestinus (1.708 pg) having same diploid chromosome number. Nuclear DNA content of C. lanatus subsp. lanatus (7.708 pg) and C. lanatus subsp. creticus (7.033 pg) had harmony with their diploid chromosome number. Nuclear DNA content was 6.307 pg in C. glaucus subsp. anatolicus having 10 pairs of chromosomes and 5.799 pg on DNA content reported in the present investigation may help in improving knowledge on the evolution of this relatively, poorly studied genus.
Coconut germplasm prospection in Gujarat, India

The Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod has the worlds largest germplasm collection in coconut with 354 accessions including 222 indigenous collections and 132 exotic collections from 27 countries of South and Southeast Asia, Caribbean Islands, Indian Ocean Islands, Pacific Ocean Islands and African countries. In addition, the Institute hosts the International Coconut Gene Bank for South Asia (ICG-SA). To strengthen the national genebank, germplasm was collected from Gujarat state of India during January 2006. Porbandar,
Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts were explored. The survey revealed that (i) in Kuchhdi located 30 km North of Porbandar, coconuts are grown in small and scattered pockets, (ii) in Madhavapur, South of Porbandar, large gardens of coconuts with many old palms are observed, suggesting long history of coconut cultivation, and in this area coconuts are mainly harvested for tender nut purpose, (iii) Mongrol, Chorvadand and Veraval areas are important coconut growing tracts in Amreli district of Gujarat, Mongrol being the biggest tender coconut market in Gujarat, and (iv) Mahuva in Bhavnagar district is a well known area of coconut cultivation; where coconuts
Diversity in fruit size and shape in coconut
Table 1. Nuclear DNA content of seven Carthamus species Accession No. CART 65/76-4 CART 51/75 CART 63/79-6 CART 45/95 IP 36 EC 521142 A1 SFS 9943 SFS 2032 Seed origin/ country Unknown Unknown Unknown Israel India Israel India India India
Carthamus species C. lanatus L. subsp. lanatus

C. lanatus L. subsp. creticus (L.) Holmb C. lanatus L. subsp. turkestanicus (Pop.) Hanelt
Chromosome 2C DNA number (2n) content (pg) 44 44 64 20 24 24 24 24 24 7.708 7.033 5.799 6.307 7.077 1.708 2.191 2.278 2.014
CV (%) 5.2 5.0 5.2 5.1 5.6 4.7 4.1 4.1 4.3
C. glaucus M. Bieb. subsp. anatolicus (Bioss.) Hanelt C. oxyacantha M. Bieb. C. palaestinus Eig. C. tinctorius L. C. tinctorius L. C. tinctorius L.
[Dr K. Anjani and Dr M. Pallavi, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad-500 030, India].
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are harvested every two months (ten month old nuts) and used mainly for religious purpose. Oil extraction is not practised in Gujarat, except for a very small fraction of production. In the central market in Mahuva, 10 000-15 000 coconuts are traded daily, as against olden days, when it used to be fifty thousand nuts daily. The summary findings also revealed that in the last two decades, coconut production has come down drastically due to depletion in fresh water table and intrusion of saline water. During the present survey, six coconut accessions were collected, including one spikeless type. These new collections will be conserved in the field genebank at CPCRI for further characterization and evaluation. [Drs P.M. Kumaran, K. Samsudeen, K.S. Ananda, V. Niral and B.A. Jerard, Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, P.O. Kudlu, Kasaragod - 671 124, India]. Variability for panicle colour, size and shape in aromatic rice remaining were non-aromatic. The aromatic collections were grown at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Varanasi in 2003 and purified by single plant selection. These germplasm lines were evaluated in trials for two consecutive years during 2004-05 for their morphological, agronomic and grain quality characteristics. The diversity included local promising types such as Kalanamak, Juhi Bengal, Kanakjeera, Dhania, Hariram, Basmati local and Katarni. Considerable variation was observed for plant height (78.5170.4 cm), days to 50 % flower (84-137), days to maturity (123-177), main panicle length (19.6-35.5 cm), seeds per panicle (40.6-235), panicle bearing tillers (4.523), 1000-grain weight (12.5-29.0 g), and yield per plant (6.0-30.2 g ). Variability for grain characters - kernel length (4.095.65 mm), kernel breadth (1.54-2.68), L/B ratio (1.12- 3.30), KLAC (5.27-8.90), elongation ratio (1.27-1.94), and alkali digestion value (3.0- 5.0) also showed a considerable range. plant height (132.0-170.4 cm), days to 50% flower (129-137), days to maturity (154-177), main panicle length (21.2-28.9 cm), seeds per panicle (88.6-212.4), panicle bearing tillers (5.9-14.9), 1000grain weight (14.8-19.2 g), and yield per plant (14.3-30.0 g).A wide range of variability for grain quality characters, viz., kernel length (4.36-5.65 mm), kernel breadth (1.54-2.01 mm), L/B ratio (2.273.42), KLAC (6.87-8.90), elongation ratio (1.31-1.94), alkali digestion value (4.05.0) aroma (slight to strong), amylose content (21.9-27.3%) and intermediate gelatinization temperature (GT) was recorded. Ten elite types were selected and yield tested in three replications with two check varieties. Two accessions HUR-AFGKN2004 and HUR-AFG-D48004 gave significantly higher yield than the check varieties. Both these lines are presently being tested in the All India Coordinated Varietal Trial. The survey undertaken and diversity collected and studied indicate that promising diversity in rice is still thriving in farmers fields in remote areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh and sincere efforts are needed to collect and conserve this invaluable germplasm for posterity and for its current use. [Drs H.K. Jaiswal, Amrita Dey, R.P. Singh and Avinash Srivastava, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi].
Collecting indigenous short grain aromatic rice from eastern Uttar Pradesh
A large number of indigenous aromatic short grain rice cultivars are grown in localized pockets in several states of the country. However, the most exclusive native regions for the wealth of genetic diversity that is met in short grain aromatic types is in states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam. To date, limited organized efforts have been made for improving the short aromatic grain types or to check the rapid erosion of germplasm base by formulating sound conservation programme.
Germplasm collecting and evaluation

One hundred and ten accessions of various types representing short grain aromatic and non-aromatic rice diversity were collected from the districts of Siddarthnagar, Basti, Gonda, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj during the wet season of 2002. Of these, fifty seven collections were found to be aromatic while the
Variability in Kalanamak: A promising local scented rice

Kalanamak, also known as the scented pearl, is characterized by its dark brown to black coloured husk of varying intensity and 25 accessions of this were studied in 2004-05. A considerable variation was observed for majority of the traits studied. Variation was observed for
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IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA IPGRI NEWSLETTER FOR ASIA, THE PACIFIC AND OCEANIA
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Useful Names & Addresses

APAARI Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 39 Phra Atit Road Bangkok 10200 Thailand BAFRA Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority, Thimpu Bhutan ICGR Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences 12 Zhongguancun Nandajie Beijing 100081 China Dr Kwesi Atta-Krah Deputy Director General International Plant Genetic Resources Institute Via dei Tre Denari 472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino) Rome Italy Dr Emile Frison Director General International Plant Genetic Resources Institute Via dei Tre Denari 472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino) Rome Italy Dr Cary Fowler Executive Director Global Crop Diversity Trust c/o FAO, Rome Italy Dr Maria Luz George Senior Scientist, COGENT Coordinator IPGRI Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO) PO Box 236, UPM Post Office 43400 Serdang Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Mr Luigi Guarino Plant Genetic Resources Adviser Secretariat of the Pacific Community Private Mail Bag, Suva Fiji Professor H.P.M. Gunasena Executive Director Sri Lanka Council for Agricultural Research Policy (CARP) 114, Colombo-07 Sri Lanka Dr Paul Harding Assistant Director General International Plant Genetic Resources Institute Via dei Tre Denari 472/a 00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino) Rome Italy Dr Mangala Rai Director General Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) & Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) Govt. of India Krishi Bhavan New Delhi 110001 India Dr Percy E. Sajise Regional Director IPGRI Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania (APO) PO Box 236, UPM Post Office 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Dr S.K. Sharma Director National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) Pusa Campus New Delhi 110012 India Professor M.S. Swaminathan Chairman M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) 1, Taramani Institutional Area Chennai 600113 India Professor Luu Ngoc Trinh Director Plant Genetic Resources Centre National Academy of Agricultual Sciences, Hanoi Vietnam
The Newsletter is produced by

Dr Bhag Mal, Coordinator and Dr R.K. Arora, Hon. Research Fellow, IPGRI Office for South Asia, with support from: Dr Percy E. Sajise, Regional Director, Dr V. Ramanatha Rao, Senior Scientist (Genetic Diversity/Conservation), Dr Maria Luz George, COGENT Coordinator, Dr Paul Quek, Documentation/Information Specialist at the IPGRI Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania; Dr Zhang Zongwen, Coordinator, Dr Bai Keyu, Assistant Coordinator, IPGRI Office for East Asia, and Dr P.N. Mathur, Associate Coordinator, IPGRI Office for South Asia. The addresses of these offices are: IPGRI Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania PO Box 236, UPM Post Office 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Tel: (603) 89423891; Fax: (603) 89487655 Email: ipgri-apo@cgiar.org IPGRI Office for South Asia CG Centres Block, National Agriculture Science Centre (NASC), DPS Marg, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110012, India Tel: (91-11) 25847537, 25847546, 25847547 Fax: (91-11) 25849899 Email: ipgri-delhi@cgiar.org IPGRI Office for East Asia c/o CAAS, 12 Zhongguancun Nandajie Beijing 100081, China Telex : 222720 CAAS CN, Tel : (86-10) 62163744 Fax: (86-10) 68975192 Email: ipgri-caas@cgiar.org

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INTERNATIONAL PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES INSTITUTE

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Useful Names & Addresses

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