The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have pooled their resources and established the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC) in Lusaka, Zambia where base collection for long-term storage are maintained and plant genetic resources activities for the region are co-ordinated; whereas, the National Plant Genetic Resources Centres (NPGRCs) maintain active collections for short-term storage for immediate use in crop improvement.

The SPGRC which falls under the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) Directorate (one of the four) of SADC Secretariat aims at conserving and guaranteeing safe preservation of crop and wild plant genetic resources; document the plant genetic resources of the region to ensure their efficient and sustainable use and provide a forum for exchange of scientific as well as cultural, traditional and indigenous knowledge and experiences; to train personnel in plant genetic resources and co-ordinate plant genetic resources activities in the region.

An assessment of existing collections in the various countries that are held by plant breeders and in genebanks has been carried out together with herbaria surveys of important indigenous crops and their wild relatives. Information has also been gathered through the NPGRCs and the Regional Crop Working Groups. SPGRC mandate and priority species for collecting and conservation have been developed for cereals, food legumes, forage and fodder, vegetables, oil producing plants, fruit and nut trees and vegetatively propagated crops of the region.

Complimentary to ex-situ conservation, on-farm conservation is a new concept/approach of conserving traditional crop diversity at farmers’ fields. Materials maintained by farmers are exposed to the ever-changing climatic conditions and evolves with the changes in surrounding areas and thus need for its conservation. Indigenous knowledge on farming systems is also maintained.

Flora for in situ conservation, which includes wild relatives of crops, under-utilised plants, and rare or endangered indigenous plant species, is the natural plant species of the SADC region potentially found in protected areas whose inventory has been made by SPGRC. Most of wild relatives of crops, wild tree nut and fruit trees, endemic to the region have been identified and strategies for their conservation developed by SPGRC.

On-farm conservation mainly deals with the identification of target areas for conservation; evaluation of collected crop landraces and identification methods and strategies used to maintain plant genetic resources on-farm. It is also involved in development of databases for on-farm plant genetic resources management; landrace restoration and enhancement; as well as monitoring of on-farm conservation.

Farmers need different varieties with different characteristics in order to be able to respond to the ever-increased demand for food. Crop diversity appears to be one strategy to create stable subsistence and food security assurance among farmers. In other words, crop diversity contributes to household crop security. The traditional agricultural systems of mixing several crops tend to encourage and promote stable production and thus access to food. We can then safely say crop diversity minimises risks, it promotes stability and satisfy household nutritional needs.

In terms of farmers’ roles, they have maintained germplasm from time immemorial and they are the major depositors of materials held in the national genebanks and at SPGRC.

Farmers benefit from the collections in that, if they ever loose whole or some of their materials, they can always get it from the genebank. Crop restorations are done in case of crop losses due to floods, change in farming systems, relocation of homesteads to pave way for other development activities like dam building, road extensions, etc. The ex-situ materials are used for crop improvement and plant breeding trials for increased agricultural production.

Before SPGRC was established, the International Agricultural Research Centres carried out most collections. More than 14,000 accessions were collected from the region and deposited in genebanks outside the SADC region and most are now being repatriated in order to establish active and base collections at the NPGRCs and SPGRC respectively.

Since inception of SPGRC more than 37,000 accessions of different crops have been collected in SADC countries and over a third of the accessions have been deposited in the base collection at SPGRC.

Ex-situ conservation deals with the establishment of functional seed handling activities at SPGRC and the NPGRCs. This includes processing of seed from harvesting, cleaning and threshing, drying, packaging and storing in freezers. It also includes determination of seed moisture content and germination tests to assess viability of the seed going into storage.

From the conserved seeds, multiplication/regeneration has been done on over 6,000 accessions to increase seed sample sizes to the required international standards. Characterisation has been done on over 5,000 accessions, mainly on sorghum, finger millet, cowpea, pearl millet, maize, bean, groundnut and bambara nut.

Practical field courses have been organised for curators from all the NPGRCs to train in pollination in sorghum and millet; pollination in cucurbits; and on handling vegetable germplasm.

Conservation of Vegetatively-Propagated Materials

The Regional Vegetatively Propagated Crop Working Group identified vegetatively propagated crops that are threatened with genetic erosion, which should initially be conserved in field genebanks in various countries. These crops are cassava, sweet potato, banana/plantains, sugarcane, coffee, tea, sisal, pineapple and strawberry.

There are limitations in terms of complementary conservation facilities and capacities to enable the conservation of a broader range of germplasm such as species that are vegetatively propagated and those whose seed may not survive the adopted conditions of storage. SPGRC also has no facilities for molecular characterisation but plans are underway to establish a biotechnology laboratory for this purpose.

The standardisation of genebank information for the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Network has been made possible through the development of the SPGRC Documentation and Information System (SDIS) at SPGRC and installed at all the NPGRCs. The network has adopted international standards of plant genetic resources conservation and documents its information in a standard computerized format on SDIS. The system was developed as a source of information to assist the SPGRC together with its network of NPGRCs in planning and operating the network's genebank activities. Currently, a web-based system is under development.

The SDIS facilitates decision making and taking action in genebank activities such as: registration, inventory of genebank collections, collecting priorities, regeneration and multiplication time, production of catalogues, distribution and exchange of germplasm, finding relationships and detecting duplicates.

Publicity materials depicting activities at SPGRC and its network including annual reports and other publications have been produced as part of information dissemination. An SPGRC web page can be accessed through http://www.spgrc.org where SPGRC discussion forum is hosted.

Increased usage of the available information through training of regional experts on data analysis, interpretation and increased use of materials for breeding, conservation, re-introduction, multiplication, is eminent in order to justify the collections and their conservation. In order to increase usage, SPGRC has deliberate efforts for supporting to local seed systems and linking with seed production, recognizing and incorporating medicinal plants and traditional knowledge in her systems, as well as mainstreaming HIV/AIDS.

As part of its collaboration efforts, SPGRC is closing into working partnership with the SADC Seed Security Network (SSSN) in its mandate to ensure that: regional seed trade is promoted through harmonized seed rules and regulations; collection and dissemination of information on seed; and in the improvement of national and regional disaster preparedness requiring seed interventions is improved; as well as capacity building in the above mentioned areas.

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