| IV. Miscellaneus Recommendations of the Workshop on Rice Genetic Conservation1) December 12-15, 1977 IRRI, Los Banos, Philippines Participants in the Workshop on Rice Genetic Conservation recognzied the extreme urgency of collecting, preserving, and evaluating all of the older, unimproved cultivars and wild relatives of Oryza sativa and O. glaberrima wherever they exist. Recommendations of the participants follow. I. General considerations related to field collection a. All national and regional centers concerned with the genetic conservation of rice and IRRI should accelerate and intensify their collection rates in the next 5 years. b. Definite guide lines are needed to determine which areas and countries should be assigned the highest priority for exploration and collection of traditional, unimproved varieties and wild relatives of both O. sativa and O. glaberrima. Criteria to be considered should include: 1. the rate at which improved cultivars are replacing local or traditional varieties; 2. the richness of genetic diversity and range of environments within the country or area; 3. the time and extent of past collection efforts. 4. the accessibility of potentially rich germ plasma areas to field collectors; and 5. the extent of local (in-country) support for collecting. c. The priority for collection should be primitive cultivars, wild species of the A-genome (which can contribute to the breeding programs), improved local varieties, mutants (including structural chromosome variants), and wild species distantly related to the cultivated species. d. The participants recognize the relative priorities of geographical areas for collection of rice cultivars and their closely related wild and weed taxa. The participants recommend that IBPGR, FAO and national governments consider these proposals in the respective regional symposia before initiating on field collection programs. e. Not distracted by the size of existing collections, the participants recommend that all collaborating scientists continue to identify the gaps in world wide collections and communicate with respective regional and national programs to ensure that missing cultivars and wild taxa are collected. f. The participants recommend that field workers collect enough seed of each sample and send a portion directly to IRRI or a regional center that participates in the coordinated collection activities, or both. This will help ensure against loss of any accession. g. Where possible, the germplasm collectors should be trained within the country. International institutes can provide suitable literature and training opportunities to ensure uniformity of criteria for collection, evaluation, and data collection. |
| 1) The workshop was cosponsored by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resoruces (IBPGR) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and was attended by Dr. H. Kihara and Dr. K. Yamashita. |
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