Valuing genebanks
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Valuing genebanks Melinda Smale 1
&
Nelissa Jamora 2
Received: 3 February 2020 / Accepted: 22 April 2020 # International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 2.5 explicitly calls for the maintenance of genetic diversity of seeds through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional, and international levels as an essential undertaking to end global hunger (SDG Goal 2). This special issue results from a renewed call to demonstrate the value-in-use of conserving and supplying plant genetic resources conserved in genebanks to researchers, plant breeders, and farmers. We present these studies as a collective contribution to a relatively small body of literature that highlights not only the importance of crop plant diversity managed by genebanks but also the diversity of genebank functions and uses. In this overview, we begin by restating foundation concepts that economists have applied to study the value of crop genetic resources conserved as genebank accessions. We then provide a synthesis of previous research on genebank values from the late 1990s until the present. We summarize the main messages of the studies included in this special issue of Food Security and explain how they contribute to a better understanding of the role, function, and value of genebanks, particularly as we address food security challenges in a changing agricultural context. Finally, we draw implications for further applied research and policy. Keywords Genebank . Genetic resources . Genetic diversity . Valuation . Food security
1 Aims of this special issue of Food Security on genebanks Evidence regarding the economic returns of plant genetic resource use in breeding and crop improvement is very strong: the social value of new and improved crop varieties has been documented continuously for many decades. By contrast, applied research about the value of conserving the diversity of plant genetic resources outside their place of origin (ex situ, in genebanks) is scant. Why? One explanation is that genebanks have long-term objectives and are physically remote from eventual development outcomes (Crop Trust 2015). In fact, the essential operations of genebanks and their social utility are poorly understood. Further, even when we are able to assess the impact of
* Melinda Smale [email protected] Nelissa Jamora [email protected] 1
Michigan State University, East Lansing, VA, USA
2
Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust), Bonn, Germany
improved varieties grown by farming households on food security, it is not easy to disentangle the specific contribution of the genetic resources supplied by the genebanks in the ancestry of the varieties. Our analysis of the literature suggests that the economic value of genebanks is likely to be understated when derived only from the yield impacts of varieties on farms. Diverse crop varieties, and the germplasm they embody, contribute many other benefits to farmers and society as
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