Plant genetic resources related to rice breeding in Egypt

Many areas in Egypt have been under cultivation for centuries and the old landraces of many crops constitute a most valuable Germplasm resource that can exploit to increase crop productivity. In particular valuable landraces or primitive cultivars of wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, faba beans, lentils, chickpeas, sesame, sunflower, trifolium, medicago, natural pasture shrubs in rain fed areas, certain vegetables and medicinal plants are still grown by farmers in remote outlying areas in the country. These landraces and primitive cultivars, which are especially adapted to harsh environments because of their unique genetic back up, can be utilized to upgrade the improved cultivars. Resistance to and tolerances for many biotic and ecologic stresses are some of the important traits that can be incorporated into currently grown cultivars. The continuation of these old landraces, are precious and irreplaceable Germplasm, is increasingly threatened by the introduction of new high-producing varieties as a part of recently accelerated agricultural development. Furthermore, changing land use patterns and land reclamation schemes in Egypt also threaten the future existence of these old landraces. This clearly indicates the need to collect, preserve and utilize unique genetic diversity inherent in old landraces. Therefore, the establishment of gene bank facilities is necessary to undertake the following activities: 1) Collecting missions to acquire Germplasm of landraces of most important crop plants, followed by seed cleaning, drying, packing and storage. 2) Multiplying and evaluating the collected Germplasm. 3) Thoroughly documenting all passport and evaluation data for each entry developing a computer database. 4) Preserving the Germplasm in environmentally controlled rooms for base and working collections. 5) Exchanging Germplasm with other plant genetic resources centers. Breeding and seed production is one of the main components of the Rice Research and Development Program. Since it is responsible for developing new high yielding varieties/hybrids and maintaining genetic purity for the recommended rice varieties for general production.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Badawi Tantawi, A.
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	CIRAD
Subjects:	F30 - Génétique et amélioration des plantes, Oryza sativa, ressource génétique végétale, banque de gènes, banque de données, variété, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5438, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_37419, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_11116, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24833, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8157, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2503,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/510137/
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