Vegetable germplasm conservation and use in Lao PDR

Protecting Lao PDR’s rich biodiversity begins with knowledge

Lao PDR is a country rich in biodiversity, harboring 8,000-11,000 species of flowering plants, 700 species of birds, more than 100 species of mammals, 700 species of non-timber forest products, 500 species of fish, and more than 2,000 plant species for medicinal uses. Apart from an overwhelming abundance of rice varieties, a wide choice of local vegetable varieties can be found in different provinces of the country. However, due to recent extensive land-use change, including the conversion of natural forests and other diverse agroecosystems into large-scale rubber plantations, the genetic diversity of locally well-adapted horticultural crops is rapidly declining.

Andreas Ebert and workshop participants examine plants in the field. Landraces need to be collected now to prevent further genetic erosion of the country’s agrobiodiversity.

The Horticulture Research Center (HRC) located in Haddokkeo Village near the capital Vientiane and operating under the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, maintains a small, modest vegetable genebank to serve farmers in Lao PDR. HRC aims to rescue locally adapted landraces and farmer-maintained varieties before they disappear from farmers’ fields and natural habitats.

With a modest grant provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Taiwan, AVRDC is assisting HRC to: build capacity in germplasm and genebank management; safeguard, characterize and use vegetable germplasm collected in different Lao PDR provinces; and upgrade and improve the HRC genebank and germplasm management system for medium-term conservation.

An in-country training was held from 14-17 December 2015 for 17 young trainees (14 women and 3 men, a clear sign that the gender balance is shifting toward a major role for women in Lao PDR’s agricultural sector). The majority of trainees hailed from HRS (9), followed by the College of Agriculture in Vientiane (4), the College of Agriculture in Dongkhamxany (2 professors), and the Agriculture Research Center of NAFRI (2).

Predominantly outcrossing vegetable crops were the main focus of the training course, as there was a lot of uncertainty among HRC staff on how to safely handle seed production of outcrossing species. Maintaining seed purity is not a major problem in highly self-pollinating crops, such as the vegetable legumes mungbean, soybean, black gram and chick pea, but could become an issue in predominantly self-pollinating crops with some natural outcrossing (lima bean, eggplant, okra, pepper) and is of major concern with predominantly outcrossing crops, such as amaranth, cabbage, cucumber, pumpkin, melon, etc. In the latter case, bagging or caging is required as it is difficult to maintain a safe isolation distance of 1000 meters or more for those crops. Yung-kuang Huang, GRSU curator of outcrossing species such as brassicas, alliums and cucurbits and Andreas Ebert, outgoing Genebank Manager, planned the training course and served as resource persons during the training.