Saving Seeds: The Economics of Conserving Crop Genetic Resources Ex Situ in the Future Harvest Centres of CGIAR
by B Koo, International Food Policy Research Institute, (IFPRI), Washington D C, USA; P G Pardey, University of Minnesota, USA; B D Wright, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and others.
Pub Date: October 2004
Hardback
232 pages
Readership
Plant breeding and genetics, conservation, biodiversity and agricultural economics
Key Features
• The authors are internationally recognized experts in their field
• Presents original research findings on a topical subject
• Provides a comprehensive overview of genebanks from an economic perspective
Main Description
The conservation of genetic resources is vital to the maintenance of biodiversity and to the world’s ability to feed its growing population. There are now more than a thousand genebanks worldwide involved in the ex situ (meaning “away from the source”) storage of particular classes of crops. Since the 1970s, the eleven genebanks maintained by the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) have become pivotal to the global conservation effort. However, key policy and management issues – usually with economic dimensions – have largely been overlooked.
This provided the impetus for a series of detailed economic studies, led by IFPRI, in collaboration with five CGIAR centres: CIAT (based in Colombia), CIMMYT (Mexico), ICARDA (Syria), ICRISAT (India) and IRRI (Philippines). This book reports these studies and discusses their wider implications.
Reviews
• "This is a well written and produced book. It provides a very thorough review of the economics of crop genetic resources banking and is likely to be a source of statistics for those writing about this branch of plant conservation."
Simon Linington, Oryx, July 2005
• "This book represents invaluable research of interest to those working in crop conservation and plant breeding and genetics, as well as agricultural economics and policy."
Educational Book Review, Jan-Feb 2005
Main Contents
• Introduction, B Koo, P G Pardey, and B D Wright
• The Economics of Genebank Costing, B Koo, P G Pardey, and B D Wright
• CIMMYT Genebank, P G Pardey, B Koo, M Eric Van Dusen, University of California, Davis, USA, B Skovmand and S Taba, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT), Mexico, and B D Wright
• ICARDA Genebank, B Koo, P G Pardey, J Valkoun, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, and B D Wright
• ICRISAT Genebank, B Koo, P G Pardey, N Kameswara Rao and P J Bramel, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India
• IRRI Genebank, B Koo, P G Pardey, and M T Jackson, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Phillipines
• CIAT Genebank, B Koo, P G Pardey, and D Debouck, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Columbia
• Policy and Management Implications, B Koo, P G Pardey, and B D Wright
