Managing and funding germplasm preservation in Papua New Guinea — for improved indigenous foods
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-7-2001
Journal Title
Food Policy
ISSN
ISSN 0306-9192 eISSN 1873-5657
Keywords
Germplasm, Food crops, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Economic waste, Germplasm loss, Germplasm maintenance, Indigenous agriculture, Pests, Environmental conditions
Disciplines
Agribusiness | Agricultural Economics | Agricultural Science | Agronomy and Crop Sciences | Biotechnology | Genetics | Genomics | Horticulture | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Plant Biology | Plant Breeding and Genetics | Survival Analysis | Sustainability
Abstract
Since the 1960s, several countries and international agencies have embarked on collection and preservation of the germplasm of food crops. Such has been the case in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, as outlined in this study, in PNG there has been considerable economic waste in germplasm maintenance. Over half the original PNG collections of taro, yams, sweet potato, cassava, aikiba, sago and bananas have been lost. This study outlines how funding vagaries, combined with pest, environment and staff problems have led to these losses. The study concludes with a suite of options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of maintaining PNG's ex situ field collections of germplasm. Avoiding losses of germplasm is potentially important for indigenous agriculture in PNG and South Pacific.
Recommended Citation
R Kingwell, D Godden, R Kambuou, G Jackson, Managing and funding germplasm preservation in Papua New Guinea — for improved indigenous foods, Food Policy, Volume 26, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 265-280, ISSN 0306-9192, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-9192(01)00003-3.
