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Let’s Meet Up for Tea
A global consortium on tea genetic resources will benefit tea-growing countries around the world, according to Professor Liang Chen, curator of the world’s largest collection of tea diversity and co-author of the Crop Trust’s Glob...
20 Jan 2021
20 Jan 2021
US Crop Wild Relatives Desperately Need Conserving
From sunflowers to blueberries, cranberries and blackberries to pecans and squash, the United States is home to a variety of widely eaten crops and their wild relatives. Unfortunately, many of these wild cousins of familiar crops...
18 Dec 2020
18 Dec 2020
All Hail the Rise of the Climate-Smart Potato
Plus, 5 facts about the humble root vegetable’s extraordinary potential
Sandra Cordon | Global Landscapes Forum
The potential of the potato has only just begun to be realized.
Some 368 million metric tons of potatoes were...
19 Aug 2020
19 Aug 2020
Potatoes for a Changing Climate
Climate change is reducing potato yields in some important production areas due to more drought, heat, and diseases like late blight and bacterial wilt.
Our partners from the International Potato Center (CIP) are working with the...
23 Mar 2020
The Last Crop Before the Desert
“I’ve never seen barley looking this great before!” El Kbir Safraoui couldn’t hold back his excitement about the crop growing in his fields. And he had seen a lot of barley in his lifetime of farming in central Morocco.
Safraoui...
3 Mar 2020
Wild About Bananas
Hunting for Drought Tolerance in Papua New Guinea
Bananas were first domesticated in Southeast Asia, sometime between 5,000 and 8,000 BCE. They have since spread widely around the world. India alone consumes a quarter of the...
12 Nov 2019
Selection by Stone
Abdellah Bounagua clutched the stone tightly in his weathered hands. With it, he could cast one vote. The durum wheat farmer from Marchouch in northern Morocco wanted to make sure he voted wisely.
He ran his hands through the...
27 Aug 2019
In Vietnam: Farmers Evaluate Wild Rice-derived Lines
We recently visited our Crop Wild Relatives partners at the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute, Can Tho University, in Vietnam. Professor Huynh Quang Tin is leading a participatory plant breeding (PPB) initiative where 13...
31 Jul 2019
31 Jul 2019
How Fiery Desert Chilis Can Protect Us from Climate Change
A landscape of thorny agaves, cacti, mesquite trees, and rock is not the first place one might imagine searching for the future of food. How could such a hot, dry place contain some of the keys to nourishing the world?
Colin...
22 Jul 2019
22 Jul 2019
Wild Plants from Four Continents Deliver Climate Change Lifeline for Crops
Nearly 5,000 seed samples of crop wild relatives saved in challenging, six-year effort to secure the future of food.
Bonn, Germany and Washington, DC (3 DECEMBER 2019)—As the world grapples with the challenge of sustainably...
12 Mar 2019
Alfalfa Pre-Breeding: Spotlight on Alan Humphries
LM Salazar | Communications Manager
You might not be familiar with alfalfa, but this member of the pea family is one of the world’s most important crops for feeding livestock. As part of our Crop Wild Relatives project, our...
5 Sep 2018
5 Sep 2018