Looking for plants to test the climate

Begins a worldwide search to find crops that are able to withstand climate change.

Faced with the threat facing the planet and global warming on arable land, a team of scientists looking for seed varieties “climate-proof”.

The project is coordinated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

The researchers analyzed varieties of seeds, including maize and rice in the national seed banks.

And select those with greater resistance to extreme events such as floods, droughts and sudden temperature changes.

It is expected that these varieties will help protect food production and to maintain world food security.

“Our culture must be capable of producing more food in the same amount of land, less water and energy increasingly expensive,” said the executive director of the Fund.

“And without a diversity of crops will be impossible to continue producing the food they need” he adds.

To carry out the project, has met with leading experts in each of the major crops like wheat, rice, lentils and corn.

They have the task of identifying the best conservation strategy for each of the crops.

“The experts we have identified what are the most important collections of seeds in terms of genetic diversity,” said Mr Fowler.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is also responsible for the so-called “Vault at the End of the World” in the Arctic, where they stored samples from all known varieties of crops.

And so now they are trying to find the exact characteristics that are needed to ensure that crops will have the best chance to prosper in the future.

One example, as explained Cary Fowler, is whether a plant shows an appropriate degree of resistance to heat during its flowering period.

“At that time a plant is experiencing an increase in stress, and yet there is very little information on this period of the life cycle of organisms.”

In the next 12 to 24 months, the researchers hope to establish a profile of individual traits that make a plant can withstand the climate.

“Then carry out programs for playback of varieties that possess such valuable features,” said Fowler.

Scientists want to put all the information on an Internet database available to public and private organizations.

If climate change continues at its current trend, by 2050 the world supply of rice, maize and wheat, which supply half the calories of food on the planet, could be reduced dramatically, up by 40 %.

In addition, global warming could gradually reduce the nutritional value of crops essential.

That is why, as stated by Cary Fowler, agricultural research must be a priority.

“Civilization depends on their crops and the best thing is to preserve what we have for the future.”