Sept 2012
Plant Genetic Resources
ICRISAT Genebank
The ICRISAT Genebank was established in 1979
Objective
™™ To serve as a world repository for the genetic
resources of ICRISAT mandate crops.
Responsibilities
™™ Germplasm
assembly
™™ Conservation
™™ Maintenance
™™ Characterization and
evaluation
™™ Documentation
™™ Distribution
Inside view of ICRISAT Genebank.
Operational flowchart of
ICRISAT Genebank
Our Crops – Origin, Domestication and Movement
Introduction
™™ Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) contribute
enormously towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals of
ff food security,
ff poverty alleviation,
ff environmental protection, and
ff sustainable development.
™™ Genetic variation, once considered unlimited, is
now finite and vulnerable and fast eroding due to
ff modern varieties replacing traditional
cultivars, industrialization, urbanization,
floods, fire hazards, mining, over grazing and
climate change.
™™ PGR must therefore be conserved to combat
new pests and diseases, and to produce high
yielding cultivars with a broad genetic base and
better-adapted to the changing climate.
Global germplasm
collections
™™ 7.4 million accessions conserved globally in
~ 1750 genebanks.
™™ 11% (741,319 accessions of 3346
species) in 11 CGIAR genebanks
™™ 2% of 166 species in ICRISAT genebank.
Cereals 45%
Food legumes 15%
Forages 9%
Vegetables
7%
Nuts, Fruits,
Berries 6%
Roots and
tubers 3%
Oil crops 3%
Fiber crops 2%
Sugar
crops 2% Others 9%
™™ Sorghum
[Sorghum bicolor
(L.) Moench] is an
important cereal
crop of the world.
™™ Important for
food, feed, fodder,
beverages, etc.
Pearl MilletSorghum Chickpea Pigeonpea Groundnut Small millets
™™ Pearl millet
[Pennisetum
glaucum (L.) R.
Br.] is a staple
food crop in Africa
and parts of Asia,
and fodder in the
Americas
™™ Chickpea
[Cicer
arietinum (L.)],
is an important
food legume.
™™ Rich source of
proteins and has multiple uses
such as food, feed and as a
soil enricher.
™™ Pigeonpea
(Cajanus
cajan (L.)
Millsp.) is
used as
food, feed,
fuel, for
fencing,
roofing, basket making and as
a soil enricher and soil binder.
™™ Groundnut
[Arachis
hypogaea (L.)] is
an important oil
seed crop grown
for high quality
edible oil (36-54%) and easily
digestible protein (12-36%).
™™Small millets: Finger millet
(Eleusine coracana (L.)
Gaertn.), foxtail millet (Setaria
italica (L.) Beauv), barnyard
millet (Echinocloa crusgalli (L.)
Beauv, kodo millet (Paspalum
scrobiculatum L.), little millet
(Panicum sumatrense Roch.
Ex Roem. & Schult) and proso
millet (Panicum miliaceum L.)
™™Small millets are rich in
micronutrients.