7 March 2012: While seed conservation is a common approach to conserving genetic diversity of plants, not all crops can be kept in seed form and thus their conservation requires alternative storage methods, which have been catalogued in a set of three publications from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Crops that do not produce seeds, or that are propagated vegetatively can generally be preserved in vitro or through cryopreservation using plant tissue. The set of publications, titled “Refinement and standardization of storage procedures for clonal crops,” has been produced by research staff from the CGIAR centres, namely: Bioversity International; the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); the International Potato Centre (CIP); and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). These hold the in trust collections of Musa, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yam and Andean root and tuber crops (ARTCs).

The set of publications was produced through a survey of CGIAR facilities and their storage protocols and practices, resulting in the production and validation of multi-crop best practices guidelines. It includes three parts on: project landscape and general status of clonal crops in vitro conservation techniques; the status of technologies for Andean root and tuber crops, cassava, Musa, potato, sweetpotato and yam; and multi-crop guidelines for developing in vitro conservation best practices for clonal crops.
[CGIAR Press Release] [Publication: Refinement and standardization of storage procedures for clonal crops] [Part I: Project Landscape and General Status of Clonal Crop in vitro Conservation Technologies] [Part II: Status of in vitro Conservation Technologies for Andean Root and Tuber Crops, Cassava, Musa, Potato, Sweetpotato and Yam] [Part III: Multi-crop Guidelines for Developing in vitro Conservation Best Practices for Clonal Crops]