 |
When new germplasm is acquired it is carefully
checked by our seed health lab to ensure that the incoming material carries no
diseases. It is then planted in the field to multiply seed and to gather
information about the genotype such as taxonomic classification, identifying
traits and those traits currently of interest to the plant breeders. The
agro-morphological information recorded (descriptors) for each crop type have
been internationally agreed upon. |
For example a full characterization of chickpea
involves recording measurements for over 30 agro-morphological traits. A large
proportion of the ICARDA collection has been characterized and work is in
progress to characterize the full collection. The table below shows the
status of the characterization work so far.
Agro-morphological characterization
status of the ICARDAs ex situ collection as of January 2003
|
Crop gene pool |
No. accessions |
Characterized accessions |
Site coordinates |
|
Barley |
25,461 |
24,708 |
8,923 |
|
Wheat |
35,073 |
27,737 |
20,964 |
|
Lentil |
10,113 |
7,998 |
3,559 |
|
Chickpea |
12,331 |
9,861 |
2,854 |
|
Faba bean |
10,810 |
2,913 |
1,974 |
|
Forage & Pasture spp. |
33,459 |
9,538 |
20,790 |
|
Total |
127,247 |
82,655 |
59.064 |
 |
