The Genetic Resources Team in Syria scoops Mendel Prize

The Genetic Resources Team in Syria scoops Mendel Prize

By Justine Wangui

justinewangui@gmail.com

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has been awarded the prestigious Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize.  This was conducted yesterday, 19^th March 2015 in Berlin.  This follows its exemplary success in keeping its globally important collection of crop genetic resources in Syria secure, despite the challenges linked to civil war.  ICARDA is a global agricultural research center working with countries in the world’s dry areas.

The personalities who showed up for the event are Christian Schmidt, Germany’s Federal Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture, Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry of Economic cooperation and Development, Peter Harry Carstensen, former state premier and President of the Board of Trustees of the Gregor Mendel Foundation, and Paula Bramel, deputy CEO of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, amongst others.

Mahmoud Solh, the Director General of ICARDA clarified that his team takes it as a fundamental duty to work with governments for food security and improve rural livelihoods in conflict and post-conflict zones.  “Over the years, ICARDA had managed to safely-duplicate most of its genebank collections outside Syria. When the conflict there escalated, we sped up the duplication and now have secured 100% of the germplasm collection outside Syria. We also duplicated 80% of our collection in Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway already. I’m also glad to add that ICARDA had earlier rescued and safety-duplicated germplasm collections from Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Dr. h. c. Peter Harry Carstensen, President of the Gregor Mendel Foundation validated that ICARDA’s work is valuable for both plant breeders who are highly dependent on diversity to improve agricultural varieties and following generations who benefit from drought tolerant and disease and pest resistant crops.

ICARDA’s unique genebank of barley, lentil, chickpea, faba bean, several forage and rangeland species, along with durum and bread wheat play a vital role in the sustainability of life on earth due to their nitrogen fixing properties. 
 

Source: http://icarda.org