STATUS OF GENEBANK DOCUMENTATION SYSTEMS IN THE AMERICAS REGION

Lessons learned from the consultancies sponsored by the Global Crop Diversity Trust in 2015

Tito L. FrancoConsultant Global Crop Diversity Trust

Prague, February 2016

No. of Genebanks

No. of Species

No. of Accessions

Latin America genebanks

390 8,951 900,480

CGIAR Centers: CIAT, CIP & CIMMYT

3 1,305 253,083

392 10,256 1,153,563

Source: FAO WIEWS, 1008-2009

PGR in Latin America and the Caribbean Regions

The problem: Poor documentation

Genebanks will have problems managing their collections if they do not have up to date, accurate and reliable information stored in a systematic and easily accessible way

Without an effective documentation system genebanks cannot develop with a clear sense of direction and they cannot be of use for PGR researchers.

A documentation system allows genebanks to use information to plan their day to day activities and to maximize the use of their limited resources

The problem: Poor documentation

For decades genebanks in LAC have had problems in managing their genebanks because of the lack of a reliable documentation systems

Since the 90s efforts have been made to solve the problem but it has not been enough.

A number of documentation systems have been developed like GMS (1993), CSGRIN (1995) and pcGRIN (1996-2000), but they lacked long-term support.

Training on documentation of PGR has been delivered for many years to national programs

Previous experiences in documentation systems and training on best practices have contributed to improve data management

Documentation systems used by the region´s NPs

Doc. System Status CommentsGMS (1993-95) Obsolete Perhaps the first attempt to develop a systems

for PCs

CSGRIN (1993-1995) Obsolete Only for recording characterization data, developed by a FAO project

pcGRIN (1997-2001) Obsolete Developed by the USDA and Bioversity International.

DbGermo Used by Argentina’s NP Open source platform, Web site,

SIBRARGEN EMBRAPA/CENARGEN Used in Brazil

Centralized system for EMBRAPA´s genebanks

SIRGE INIA, Peru Open Source, still under in-house development by INIA (Peru)

GRIN-Global Used in several countries around the world

Open source

The Crop Trust Project to support genebanks

Global Crop Diversity Trust initiated in 2014 a project to overcome data management problems in genebanks around the world

The first step was to hire consultants to conduct an assessment on current information management in genebanks.

The second step was to use the findings of the consultancies as a backing for proposals for further support to genebanks.

A total of 28 consultancies were carried out around the world, nine of them in the Americas region.

Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica (CATIE), Cuba Ecuador, Guatemala, México, Perú .

Consultant activities

Workflow analysis of the genebank ,e.g., acquisition, regeneration, distribution, characterization, inventory management, etc.

Assessment of IT tools used to manage data.

Meetings with bank staff aimed at understanding current practices and constraints to data management.

Group discussions on the changes and improvements to current practices in managing data.

Delivery of a Report to the PGR national program managers.

Workflow of operations in a seed genebank

In-country collecting

Seed extraction/cleaning

Registration

Cleaning, drying, germination testing

Packing and storage

Regeneration

Monitoring

Distribution

Characterizatión & evaluation

A

Introductions

Plant quarentine

Regeneration

Documentation

Cleaning

Planting

Distribution

Characterization/Evaluation

Monitoring

In-country collecting Introductions

Plant quarantine

Sample registration

Regeneration

Multiplication

Documentation

Work flow of operations in a field genebank

Workflow of operations in in vitro collections

Acquisition

Disease detection tests

Disease eradication

In vitro propagation

Conservation by growth limitation & cryo-preservación

• Morphological and isoenzymatic characterization

• Agronomic characterization

Monitoring

Sub-culturing (multiplication)

Distribution

• In general the genebanks have made and effort to document all the procedures (workflow)

• All genebanks are making rational use of passport and characterization descriptors (standards)

• With a few exceptions, poor planning and lack of staff integration is still a problem for achieving the implementation of an information system

• Shortage of staff and high turn-over of qualified person is still a problem in some of the genebanks

• Unless they get strong backing some of the genebanks do not have the human and technological capacity to implement a documentation systems such as GG or any other.

• Those genebanks which have the capacity still need to do a lot of work in different areas such as team building and coordination, planning, prioritizing, and training of the staff.

Summary of results (I)

• Genetic erosion is still a problem in the genebanks of the region. Lots of germplasm needs to be regenerated

• Lack of modern computer equipment for documentation is still a problem in most genebanks.

• Data sharing is still “Tabu” in most genebanks, in particular those which posses high biological diversity.

Summary of results (II)