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Conserving Musa Diversity |
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Conserving Musa diversity is core business for Bioversity International in its service role to ensure that the future improvement and availability of the crop in all its forms is based on full and free access to Musa diversity
• Maintaining the International Musa Germplasm Collection. The banana cultivars, wild species and improved varieties that compose the International Musa Germplasm Collection are conserved at the International Transit Centre in Belgium as in vitro plantlets in medium-term storage and cryopreserved for long-term conservation. Part of the collection is held in trust for future generations and provided freely to requesting users through a material transfer agreement.
• Coordinating the Global Conservation Strategy for Musa. The International Musa Germplasm Collection represents the hub for a worldwide network of Musa collections in producer countries, which conserve and make available all parts of the Musa gene pool as plants in the field. This network is adopting a strategic and rationalized approach to conservation, which involves sharing roles and responsibilities for Musa conservation, making a wider range of germplasm available to more users and promoting the use of collections and diversity through good quality information. An open discussion forum exists to help address issues and constraints concerning Musa taxonomy and conservation. |
Grants
• Musa genebank upgrading
• Improving the management of banana and plantain genetic resources of Africa
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What we do 