1. Targeted search for crop germplasm with
climate change adaptive traits to sustain
agriculture in dryland systems
Selvadurai Daya Dayanandan and Abdallah Bari
Introduction and expectations of the workshop

2. Special Thanks to
Dr. Abdallah Bari for spearheading to organize this workshop and
meeting several times in Montreal
Local organizing committee members
Dr. Adi Damania for the program, abstract book, recordings and
proceedings & follow-up reports
All sponsoring organizations with big thanks to IAV Hassan for hosting
the workshop
All participants

3. One of the globally challenging key issues of the 21st century:
• How do we sustain agricultural productivity and
maintain food security and livelihoods under changing
climatic conditions in drylands?
• Drylands:
– Cover over 40% of the global land area and home to over 2.5
billion people
– Faced with many challenges including
• high poverty and unemployment
• rapid urbanization
• severe water shortage
• land degradation
• climate change impacts

4. Reduction in annual precipitation leading to increase in dryland area

5. • ICARDA:
– Working with dryland communities for almost 4 decades
– Recognized the need and urgency of a comprehensive
research program to help rural communities living in, and
dependent on, dryland agricultural systems to improve food
seurity and livelihoods
– Partnered with over 60 institutions to develop and lead the
Dryland systems program to identify and develop resilient,
diversified and more productive combinations of crops,
livestock, rangeland, aquatic and agroforestry systems to
• increase productivity,
• reduce hunger and malnutrition
• improve the quality of life among the rural poor.

6. A global research partnership to
improve agricultural productivity
and income in the world’s dry areas
with an overall goal to improve the
livelihoods of the rural poor in
drylands

7. The three pillars of an integrated approach to
address challenges facing dry areas
(Mahmoud Solh, DG, ICARDA 2012).
International Workshop on
Applied Mathematics and Omics
Technologies for Discovering
Biodiversity and Genetic Resources
for Climate Change Mitigation and
Adaptation to Sustain Agriculture in
Drylands
Biodiversity and Integrative Gene
Management program - ICARDA
Climate change, Agriculture and
Food Security program - CIAT

8. • Genetic improvements of crops to meet challenges
of climate change will largely depend on the
identification and effective utilization of naturally
occurring variants of genes related to traits adaptive
to the changing climate.
• Opportunity: suitable natural variants of these
genes or alleles may be present in crop accessions
stored in more than 1700 national and international
genebanks
• Challenge: finding these alleles in a collection of
over 7 million crop accessions

9. • An integrative, multidisciplinary approach involving
analyses of crop accessions using emerging
technologies are needed for rapid and cost effective
identification of genes associated with climate
change adaptive traits
• Based on Focused Identification of Germplasm
Strategy (FIGS) pioneered by Bari et al.,
• The approach involves:
– Mathematical modeling
– Phenomics
– Genomics

10. Phenotyping
- Root
Morphology
Physiology
- Shoot
Morphology
Physiology
- Phenology
- Other traits
Genotyping
- Genomics
- Whole genome sequencing
- Exome sequencing
- Candidate gene analyses
- Transcriptomics
Stakeholders
Farmers
Crop breeders
Agricultural research centers
National Agricultural Institutions
Universities
Non Governmental Organizations
Screen germplasm with selected
genetic markers
Trait associated genetic markers Non-georeferenced
germplasm
Subset of germplasm likely to
contain desirable trait(s)
Germplasm with desirable phenotype
Germplasm with desirable trait
specific genetic marker
Modeling
- Climate change models
- Mathematical models to identify
germplasm (FIGS)
Georeferenced
germplasm
Stakeholder needs
Plant Breeders
Improved crop varieties
Framework for targeted searching of traits in crop germplasm

11. Workshop themes
• THEME – 1 Climate change and its impact on agriculture [Moderator: Adi
Damania]
• THEME – 2 Applied mathematics and the modelling approaches for
adaptation of crops to changing climate conditions [Moderator: Abdallah Bari]
• THEME – 3 Plant phenomics for adaptation of crops to changing climate in
dryland systems [Moderator: Fred Stoddard]
• THEME - 4 Plant genomics for adaptation of crops to changing climate in
dryland systems [Moderator: Daya Dayanandan]
• THEME - 5 Region-specific challenges and opportunities for maintaining
genetic resources for sustainable agricultural productivity under changing
climatic conditions in the Dry Lands [Moderator: Zakaria Kehel]

12. • Each theme: Series of presentations followed by a discussion
• The discussion may focus on:
– Opportunities and challenges
– Knowledge gaps
– Research needs
– Training needs
– Outreach
– Target species

13. • Last day of the workshop (June 27th)
• Working groups
• Modelling
• Phenomics
• Genomics
– Formulate recommendations for tools, techniques and
approaches to address issues raised by discussion groups
• Closing session:
– Discussion and compilation of working group reports to make
summary recommendations
– Appreciations and vote of thanks

14. Future prospects
Develop targeted project proposals to seek funding to
continue:
• Research – discover crop varieties for climate change
adaptation and mitigation
• Capacity building [student training and gender equity]
• Public outreach [community and stakeholder involvement]