Author
 |
Hannan, Richard |
|
Submitted to: Popular Publication
Publication Type: Popular Publication Publication Acceptance Date: 1/30/2004 Publication Date: 7/1/2004 Citation: Hannan, R.M. 2004. Germplasm collection in Turkmenistan. 2004. Seed Savers:Summer Edition. P. 22-24. Interpretive Summary: Agriculture in America has always been highly dependent on species of plants introduced from parts of the world outside of the United States and Canada. All of our basic foods are exotic introductions. Acquisition of plant germplasm is achieved in several ways. There are times when seed from the wild relatives of crop plants are needed to broaden the genetic diversity of the crop species, and to get this wild material, the NPGS directly supports or collaborates with other institutions to go to the areas of the world where the wild relatives of our important crops grow freely on the hillsides. In 2002 a plant exploration was undertaken in Turkmenistan, a country bordered by the Caspian Sea on the West, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the northeast and Kazakhstan to the northwest. Turkmenistan is part of the geographical center of genetic diversity for many crops important to American agriculture, such as wild barley, oats, lentil, pea, vetch, pistachio, apricot, pomegranate, grape, fig, lettuce, poppy, carrots, onion relatives, important forage legumes and grasses, and other medicinal and ornamental species. Our expedition began at the end of May 2002 when we assembled the team and gear in Ashgabat, a modern city and capital of the country. Over the course of the expedition we collected 413 total accessions in 30 genera, at 48 recorded sites. As with all information on NPGS collections and repositories, information on the Turkmenistan collections will be available on the publicly accessible Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) at http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/.. Technical Abstract: Agriculture in America has always been highly dependent on species of plants introduced from parts of the world outside of the United States and Canada. All of our basic foods are exotic introductions. Acquisition of plant germplasm is achieved in several ways. There are times when seed from the wild relatives of crop plants are needed to broaden the genetic diversity of the crop species, and to get this wild material, the NPGS directly supports or collaborates with other institutions to go to the areas of the world where the wild relatives of our important crops grow freely on the hillsides. In 2002 a plant exploration was undertaken in Turkmenistan, a country bordered by the Caspian Sea on the West, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the northeast and Kazakhstan to the northwest. Turkmenistan is part of the geographical center of genetic diversity for many crops important to American agriculture, such as wild barley, oats, lentil, pea, vetch, pistachio, apricot, pomegranate, grape, fig, lettuce, poppy, carrots, onion relatives, important forage legumes and grasses, and other medicinal and ornamental species. Our expedition began at the end of May 2002 when we assembled the team and gear in Ashgabat, a modern city and capital of the country. Over the course of the expedition we collected 413 total accessions in 30 genera, at 48 recorded sites. As with all information on NPGS collections and repositories, information on the Turkmenistan collections will be available on the publicly accessible Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) at http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/.. |
