Plant genetic resources

Plant genetic resources describe the variability within plants that comes from human and natural selection over millennia. Their intrinsic value mainly concerns agricultural crops (crop biodiversity).

According to the 1983 revised International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), plant genetic resources are defined as the entire generative and vegetative reproductive material of species with economical and/or social value, especially for the agriculture of the present and the future, with special emphasis on nutritional plants.[1]

In the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (1998) the FAO defined Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) as the diversity of genetic material contained in traditional varieties and modern cultivars as well as crop wild relatives and other wild plant species that can be used now or in the future for food and agriculture.[2]

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2018-04-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "Plant Production and Protection Division: State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources". Fao.org. Retrieved 5 June 2018.