Evolving issues in genetic resources conservation

Issues in crop genetic resources conservation (CGR) are of three broad categories: (a) biological, (b) socio-economic, and (c) legal and political. The nature of some of the issues are such that they could be placed in more than one of the three broad categories. Many of the issues are undergoing rapid changes and adjustments. It is evident that the emphasis in recent years have shifted from the first to the latter two categories. For example, collection and ex situ preservation of CGR appears to be a far less important issue now than it was at time of Vavilov, and also in the early 1970s when, under the inspiring leadership of Sir Otto H. Frankel, conscious and concerted efforts to preserve CGR began. However, what was then perceived as the common heritage of humankind by Vavilov, Frankel, Harlan and other leaders of genetic conservation, is now widely accepted as the "national heritage" of individual countries. Consequently, social and political issues, such as the ownership of CGR, equitable compensation system for farm-based conservation, and the extension of intellectual property rights to germplasm resources are receiving much greater attention than important biological issues, such as reliable evaluation and documentation of CGR for performance under low-input conditions, tolerance to increasing physical stresses and practical alternatives to genetic loss in in-situ conservation. The magnitude of genetic diversity and relevance of CGR in ex situ collections to the increasing environmental problems associated with high-input modern agriculture and the global shifts in agro-climatic conditions are rarely addressed. In this paper, we focus on the role of exsitu preservation of CGR in core collections of manageable size.