NEWS OF THE WEEK
PLANT BREEDING
Scientists Seek Easier Access to Seed Banks
Frances Ogbonnaya believes Ethiopia’s tra-
ditional wheat varieties could hold the key to
staving off a global food crisis. Wheat
around the world is under siege from Ug99,
an especially virulent strain of the fungus
that causes stem rust, a plant disease. Few
commercial wheats can resist the devastat-
ing strain (Science, 8 May, p. 710). That’s
why Ogbonnaya, a geneticist at the Inter-
national Center for Agricultural Research in
the Dry Areas in Aleppo, Syria, is using gene
mapping to verify that Ethiopian durum
wheats in ICARDA’s collection harbor novel
“slow-rusting” genes that can steel crops
against the pathogen.
Still more genetic weapons against Ug99
might be found in Ethiopia’s own seed bank,
one of Africa’s best and home to a vaunted
collection of traditional durum wheat vari-
eties. But unlike ICARDA, the Ethiopian
seed bank isn’t always open to withdrawals.
In recent years, Ethiopia has been reluctant
to share seeds with other countries—for rea-
sons that threatened to drive a wedge
between rich and poor countries at a con-
tentious treaty meeting last week.
Free and timely access to seeds is
enshrined in the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,
which came into force in 2004. But “free and
timely” is not how plant breeders describe
their experience with five of the treaty’s 120
signatories: China, Ethiopia, India, Iran, and
Turkey. “Basically, they’re closed gene
banks,” says Kenneth Street, a legume cura-
tor at ICARDA. That’s alarming because
many seed collections are vulnerable. In the
past decade, Afghanistan’s collection was
lost when the Taliban dumped seeds to scav-
enge their airtight containers; Iraq’s was
destroyed in the most recent war; and the
Philippine seed bank sustained heavy dam-
age from a typhoon in 2006.
Last week, the treaty’s governing body
met in Tunis to review implementation and
coax reluctant nations to open their seed
banks and contribute to a “doomsday vault”
on Norway’s Svalbard island (Science, 23 June
2006, p. 1730). At the forum, Ethiopia and
other developing countries asserted that they
should be compensated for custodianship
and ongoing cultivation of landraces: tradi-
tional varieties adapted to local conditions.
Despite tensions over such issues, a deadlock
was averted when participants found com-
mon ground on the need for a major new
fund to support the work of traditional farm-
1376 12 JUNE 2009
ers. “One thing everyone here agrees on,” tion when dealing with 64 crop varieties
Francisco López of the U.N. Food and Agri- deemed vital to global food security. In place
culture Organization (FAO) reported from of bilateral deals, treaty signatories in 2004
Tunis, is that “there won’t be any agricul- adopted a standard material transfer agree-
ture in 50 years unless we have exchanges ment providing access to the 64 varieties
of germ plasm.” held in signatories’ seed banks. Any owner of
According to many observers, the recalci- an exclusively patented variety developed
trance of Ethiopia and like-minded countries from such seeds would pay a 1.1% royalty to
is a throwback to the days of the Convention a common FAO-administered pool to sup-
on Biological Diversity in port crop biodiversity and conservation.
1993. A key aim of the con- A bone of contention for some countries
vention was to thwart “bio- is that they will not receive direct payments
piracy,” by which foreign- for sharing seeds. “Countries think,
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on June 23, 2009
‘We give access in the here and now,
but what do we get back?’ ” acknowl-
edges Shakeel Bhatti, secretary of the
treaty’s governing body. “The benefits
are nonmonetary. It’s access to the
biggest [seed] bank in the world—the
global gene pool.” Sorting out which
countries should be remunerated for a
valuable variety would be daunting.
Pedigrees are complex, and “deter-
mining the value of any particular con-
tribution is nearly impossible,” says
Cary Fowler, who as executive director
of the Global Crop Diversity Trust
(GCDT) is charged with preserving
the world’s seed diversity.
In a bid for faster, more tangible
relief for traditional farmers, Worede
made a pitch in Tunis for a biodiversity
fund for developing nations on a par
Once bitten, twice shy. Frances Ogbonnaya says Ethiopian with GCDT. (The trust, which relies
durum wheats could help thwart a fungus now sweeping the on voluntary contributions, has so far
globe—but Ethiopia is reluctant to share seeds. received about $120 million of a
pledged $150 million.) Seed banks
ers reaped a windfall from a country’s like Svalbard are invaluable for preserving
genetic resources without providing com- landraces, Worede says, but so are the skills
pensation. Melaku Worede, founder of the and experience that traditional farmers bring
Ethiopian Gene Bank, notes that traditional to bear in selecting seeds to breed landraces
knowledge of the nation’s farmers gave the season after season. After all, he says, Sval-
world prized cultivars of coffee, barley, and bard’s dormant accessions won’t have a
wheat—without any benefit for Ethiopia. In chance to adapt to climate change.
the 1980s, he says, an Ethiopian barley land- In a remarkable and unexpected climax as
CREDIT: COURTESY OF FRANCES OGBONNAYA/ICARDA
race saved North America’s crop from an epi- the meeting drew to a close, the treaty govern-
demic of barley yellow dwarf virus, even as ing body agreed to raise $116 million for a
his country was suffering famine. The biodi- biodiversity fund that would support tradi-
versity convention was meant to redress that tional farmers. That helped avert a crisis of
imbalance. Instead, countries drafted an array confidence in the treaty, says Bhatti, who calls
of bilateral seed-trade agreements so complex the meeting “a real turning point.” Worede,
that they constricted the international more circumspect, describes the biodiversity
exchange of seeds and technical know-how— fund as a “little progress.” However, he says,
the lifeblood of plant breeding. “Anything voluntary is like the dew on a leaf:
That tourniquet was supposed to be It can fall down at any time. The contributions
undone by the genetic resources treaty, should be binding.” –ELIZABETH FINKEL
which superseded the biodiversity conven- Elizabeth Finkel is a writer in Melbourne, Australia.
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