Publication Name

Crop wild relatives (CWR) – species or other taxa more

or less closely related to crops, which include most of the

progenitors of our domesticated types – have made a very

significant contribution to modern agricultural production

through the characteristics that they have contributed to

plant cultivars.

Over the last 100 years, crop wild relatives have become

increasingly important as sources of useful genes. For ex-

ample, they have contributed resistance to pest and disease

(e.g,. resistance to late blight in potato and grassy stunt vi-

rus in rice, which came from a single accession of Oryza ni-

vara found in Orissa, India) and to abiotic stress. They have

also increased nutritional values such as protein and vita-

min content. The economic returns from investment in CWR

can be striking; for example, genetic material from a tomato

wild relative has allowed plant breeders to boost the level

of solids in commercial varieties by 2.4%, which is worth

US$250 million annually to processors in California alone

(FAO, 1998).

The natural populations of many crop wild relatives are in-

creasingly at risk, mainly from habitat loss, degradation and

fragmentation. Moreover, the increasing industrialization of

agriculture is reducing populations of crop wild relatives in

and around farms. They are often missed by conservation

programmes, falling between the efforts of agricultural and

environmental conservation actions. A major global effort,

coordinated by Bioversity International and supported by

UNEP GEF, to find ways of securing the improved conserva-

tion of crop wild relatives is in progress in 5 countries (Ar-

menia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan) in

collaboration with a number of international agencies (FAO,

UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and Botanic Gardens Conservation In-

ternational – BGCI)

Enhancing sustainability through the use of

crop wild relatives