Mainstreaming the wild gene pool in barley and grass pea breeding
Period of Implementations
Mar 03, 2016 - Jun 30, 2021
Total budget
787,322
Project Name
Trait discovery and deployment through mainstreaming the wild gene pool in barley and grass pea breeding programs to adapt to climate change
About
Barley and grass pea are among few crops with potential to withstand drought, heat, salinity and can contribute to sustaining the livelihoods of poor communities linving in the drylands, used for food and feed purposes. However, their productivities are low due to major foliar diseases and pest (barley) and to Orobanche (grass pea). Pre-breeding through introgressing useful genes from wild relative species to overcome these limitations offers opportunities for ensuring substential genetic gains.
Impact
Goals
The generated germplasm will yield parental lines to be used in the respective breeding programs and genetic stocks for identification of novel diversity. This project will reinforce the importance of and regain the interest in these two crops as viable options to overcome the effects of climate change and to sustain the livelihoods of poor farmers living under harsh conditions. The project will also strengthen capacity of national genebanks data management and documentation.
Objectives
The projects' target is to interrogress valuable genes from the wild species in different genepools using most advanced breeding and biotechnology tools. The focus for barley will be on transferring genes of resistance to complex diseases and pests, improving tolerance to drought, heat and salinity, and enhancing the nutritional value. For grass pea, focus is on transferring genes of low or no 13-0DAP, resistance to parasitic weed and heat to cope with the adverse effects of climate change.
Impact pathways
The project outcome will contribute to the mainstreaming of alien genes into international and national breeding programs for barley and grass pea. The availability of pre-breeding lines will allow the development of new varieties with climate smart traits and having better nutritional qualities. The scientific community will benefit from the knowledge to be generated in-terms of methodologies and the germplasm to be used in inheritance and identification of molecular markers associated to the targeted traits. The project will also trengthen the national genebanks documentation capacities.
The direct beneficiaries are the breeders around the world who will benefit from the germplasm and knowledge developed and the ultimate beneficiaries will be the barley and grass pea growers and users mainly those living under harsh conditions. The cultivation of barley and grass pea will contribute significantly to minimize the environmental impact of increased food production and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Locations
Azerbaijan
Lebanon
Morocco
Tunisia
40.5, 47.5
33.8333, 35.8333
32, -5
34, 9
Project Management
Ahmed Amri
Manager
Partners
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya University - BCKV
Global Crop Diversity Trust - GCDT
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research - ipk-gatersleben
King Abdullah University of science and technology - kaust
University of Calcutta
National Institute of Agronomic Research Morocco - INRA Morocco
