Nepal is a landlocked country, surrounded by China in North and India in East, West and South. The east-west length of the country is 885 km (Longitude, 80° 4' E ~ 88° 12' E) and an average north-south width of 193 km (Latitude, 26° 22' N ~ 30° 27' N) (Jha et al., 1996). Nepal is roughly rectangular shape in World Map and it includes eight of the existing 14 summits in the world (Choi, 2015). Nepal possesses a wide range of physiographic regions, ecosystems, climates and vegetation from tropical to alpine tundra-type. The altitude ranges from 60 masl to the World’s highest summit Mount Everest (8,848 masl) which creates huge variation in climate, and it is one of ‘hotspots’ of agricultural biodiversity in globally (Ghimire et al., 2015).

PGRs are living material that includes genes of present and potential value for humankind. PGRs include all agricultural crops and even some of their wild relatives since they have valuable traits. In crop varieties, the value of genetic diversity can be distinguished as direct, indirect and option (Brush, 2000). Direct or use value refers to the harvest and uses of crop varieties by farmers (Smale et al., 2004). Indirect value refers to the environmental services or ecological health the crop varieties contribute to, but which farmer may not observe (Hajjar et al., 2007). Option value refers to the future use of crop varieties (Krutilla, 1967). Agricultural genetic resources are the major basis of world food and nutrition security and genetic diversity gives a species or a population the ability to adapt to changing environments (Sthapit et al., 2008). At present, the vulnerability of genetic resources in agricultural crop species is clearly visible in the Terai and mid hills where improved agricultural technologies (e.g. modern varieties) are popular among the farmers. In addition, increased human population pressure, poverty, land degradation, environmental change, and national policy have contributed to the erosion of crop genetic resources in Nepal.

In Nepal, works on PGRs had been started first since 1937 from a German missionary. Later, the study team of Japanese researchers of Kyoto University had been collected and researched in some PGRs during 1952 ~ 53. Later, a team of British Scientists reported the collections of some native crops in 1971. Work on the exploration and collection of PGRs increased only after the inception of Bioversity International, formerly, it was known as International Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). (Bhatta, 2013). Importance of agricultural biodiversity increasingly recognized due in part to international agreements such as the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the work of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that have highlighted the issues over the last decade (Jarvis et al., 2004b). Collection, characterization and conservation of PGRs had been done through Department of Agriculture (DoA) since 1980s, but after the establishment of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) in 1991, DoA mandated to Agriculture Botany Division of NARC for the exploration, collection, characterization and conservation of PGRs. The Government of Nepal (GoN) and Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) realized the long-term conservation and agricultural PGRs for food security, and then established National Agriculture Genetic Resource Centre (NAGRC) in 2010.

The crops grown in modern agriculture are narrow genetic base and cannot withstand extreme of biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, large number of landraces with a substantial genetic variation will be useful for plant breeder to develop crop varieties to cope the extreme biotic and abiotic stress. Therefore, exploration, collection, characterization, evaluation and conservation of plant genetic resources are important for sustainable food production and enhancing food security of the country. The previous reviews on PGRs was concerned on their conservation status and utilization taking the reference to forestry (Shrestha and Lee, 2005) and medicinal plants (Baek et al., 2009) but authors had not sufficiently reviewed about research and management of agricultural genetic resources. After the establishment of Genebank in Nepal, there is a need to review and document the present status of PGRs and their management with changing time and developmental context. This paper reviews about the current status of plant genetic resources, management and utilization of PGRs in NAGRC, involvement of private organization in PGRs management, and some issues of PGRs management in the country.

STATUS OF PGRs IN NEPAL

Nepal exhibits a remarkable range of elevation, and can be divided into three agro-eco-zones. The upper most ranges belongs to High Hill, middle range is Mid Hills and lower range is Terai and overall, Nepal has its 77% of total areas under hills and mountains. Terai, mid hill and high hills experience tropical, subtropical to warm temperature and temperate to alpine climate, respectively. Owing to climatic variation exist in different eco-zones, it is 10^th richest country for agricultural biodiversity in Asia (Ghimire et al., 2015) but it ranks 31^st in the World (Gautam, 2008). Nepal holds 0.09% of the earth’s surface (Jha et al., 1996) but supports 2.2% of flowering plants, 1.4% reptiles, 2.2% of fish, 8.5% of birds, 4.2% of butterflies, and 4% of mammals of the world (BPP, 1995) and it has 7000 flowering plant species. Among them, 370 species are endemic and about 600 food plant species have been estimated to be grown within the altitude range of 60 to 4,200 masl (MOFSC, 2002; Upadhaya and Joshi, 2003) (Fig. 1). Rice landraces had reported the highest (2,000) and about 700 species of medicinal plants are reported. Many medicinal plants of Nepal from tropical plains to high altitude are in the state of threat. About 50 medicinal plants have been feared to have been under various categories of threat: rare, endangered, and commercially threatened (Baek et al., 2009).

Nepal is endowed with rich in cereals, grain legumes, vegetables, fruits etc. The four species of wild rice named Oryza nivara, Oryza rufipogon, Oryza granulata, and Oryza officinalis, two wild relatives; Hygroryza aristata and Lersia hexandra and several types of weedy rice Oryza sativa f. spontanea are reported in Nepal (Gautam, 2008). Similarly, wild relatives of wheat are available in the hilly and mountainous regions. So far, Aegilops and Agropyrum species of wheat have been reported in Nepal. Major crops and underutilized species are grown all over the country. The diversity exists in variety and species levels across the country. The lists of underutilized species available in the natural and cultivated population are quite large. Out of 60 reported species of amaranth in the world, at least 11 species have been reported with cultivated types for grain, green vegetables, wild and weedy types in Nepal. Among 32 species of Hordeum reported around the World, only three species have been reported in Nepal. Hordeum vulgare is only cultivated species and the remainders two are wild type. Covered and naked barley are commonly available in the country and used for diverse purpose including religious use of rural and urban community. Diversity in buckwheat (Fagopyrum sp.) and finger millet (Eleusine sp.) in wild and cultivated form has been reported in Nepal.

Wild relatives of vegetable crops recorded in Nepal are Colocasia (3 spp.), Amaranthus (4 spp.), Chenopodium (2 spp.), Rumex (3 spp.), Pisum (3 spp.), Alium (3 spp.), Ipomoea (5 spp.), Dioscorea (4 spp.), Mentha (3 spp.), Trigonella (2 spp.), Solanum (2 spp.), Curcuma (5 spp.). Nine species of Prunus, 3 species each of Castanopsis, Malus, Morus and Rubus and 2 species each of Barberies, Ficus, Hippophae, Olea, Pyrus and Vitis are documented as temperate wild fruit relatives. Similarly, subtropical and tropical wild fruit relatives having more than one species are Annona, Citrus, Mangifera, Musa, Foenix and Rhus (Ghimire et al., 2015).

PGRs MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN NEPAL

NAGRC’s Management System on PGRs

NAGRC has adopted the diverse strategies to manage the available agricultural genetic resources in the country. The strategies include were; 1) Conservation method and efforts, and 2) Types and groups of genetic resources.

Diversity mapping and Geographical Information System (GIS) application, characterization and evaluation of PGRs, trait distribution study for the identification of unique PGRs, duplicates identification, diversity study, pre-breeding, landrace enhancement, and participatory varietal evaluation, developing documents for ownership and utilization and distribution activities are regular research activities of NAGRC (Joshi et al., 2013).

Exploration, Collection, Conservation and Utilization of PGRs

In the review of Shrestha and Lee (2005), altogether 8,383 accessions of about 64 crop species had been reported as preserved form but these collections were mostly found dead in 2009 due to poor storage facility. Since 2010, diversity and gap analyses were done based on the old and new collections and literature review. Old collection sites and new sites have been regularly explored and again collected the PGRs. After joining at International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture(ITPGRFA), NAGRC has been safely duplicated a total of 2,238 accessions of eight crops species in different Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) banks (Fig. 2). Besides this, 69 accessions of barley also safety duplicated in World Seed Vault and Rural Development Administration(RDA) genebank, Korea. Additionally, NAGRC safety duplicated 250 accessions of barley in ICARDA and 261 accessions of wheat in CIMMYT (Genebank, 2014).

GoN and Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI), Rural Development Administration (RDA), Korea supported to build up the infrastructures and facilities in NAGRC after 2010 (Joshi et al., 2012a). The facilities included in NAGRC are 1); Long term storage (called Base Collection Room): with -18°C and 35 ~ 45% RH for storing about 100,000 accessions for 50 ~ 100 years; 2) Medium term storage (called Active Collection Room) with 4 ~ 10°C and 35 ~ 45% RH for storing about 50,000 accession for 5 ~ 10 years, 3) In-vitro culture lab and tissue bank: Facility for tissue culture and in-vitro cold storage, 4) Field genebank: Field plot within Khumaltar, at different NARC stations, 5) Molecular research laboratory: Facilities for DNA works e.g. genotyping, genetic diversity assessing, identification (DNA finger printing, marker assisted selection), genes mapping and tagging, 6) Seed testing and processing laboratory, 7) Experimental plot, and 8) Database management: Facilities for passport, management, characterization, evaluation, pre-breeding, genotyping and utilization data.

NAGRC has been collected PGRs from different parts of the country since 2010 and about 7300 accessions of more than 100 crops species have been collected from 62 districts (Genebank, 2014). A total of 7,962 accessions of 49 crops regenerated whereas a total of 8,581 accessions of 46 crop species characterized and evaluated (Genebank, 2014). Under ex-situ conservation, NAGRC holds 11,051 accessions of more than 110 crop species with their passport data. Among them, 5,850 accessions of cereals, 1,150 accessions of pseudo cereals, 1,800 accessions of pulses, 185 accessions of oilseeds and 565 accessions of vegetables crops are preserved at NAGRC and 1,501 accessions of various crops species are conserved in the field genebank (Table 1).

Genebank facilitates for utilization by providing easy access to PGRs and databases, strengthens utilization with elite line development, collaborative marker assisted selection, tagging and mapping genes, screening germplasm, pre-breeding works and collaboration. Genebank distributes PGRs to research organizations for their utilization in crop improvement program. Total 1204 accessions of 18 crops distributed to research organizations (Table 2) and the germplasm distribution for overseas are not recorded so far. During 2010 ~ 12, total 3,638 of 76 different crops collected and total 2,818 accessions of 16 crop species regenerated, and conserved in genebank (Genebank and AFACI, 2013). Total 5,088 accessions including the past collections of 15 crops characterized morphologically. Two landraces of broadleaf mustard registered officially for the cultivation and two aromatic rice varieties promoted to variety testing process. During 2012 ~ 2014, total 1,044 accessions of 22 crops (11 cereals, 10 legumes and okra) collected and conserved. Total 2,560 old accessions of 13 different crops regenerated and conserved in medium and long-term storage. Total 3,158 accessions of 10 different crops characterized morphologically (Genebank and AFACI, 2015). Researchers standardized the formats, guidelines and protocols for genebank activities and awareness about the crop diversity, and its conservation created among the farmers. A total of 138 accessions of tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tartaricum) characterized at NAGRC (Ghimire et al., 2015).

Public and Private Organizations for PGRs management

Though Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD) has more than 100 public organizations, Genebank is the major public organization working in national system for PGRs management. There are more than 100 CSBs involved in agrobiodiversity conservation in the country. In addition, National and International Non-Government Organizations (GOs and INGOs) are working and some of them are working in PGRs management but many of them are working in seed business (Joshi et al., 2013).

Under NARC, NAGRC, Different Disciplinary divisions, Different Crop Commodity Research Program and Regional Agriculture Research Station (RARS), and Agriculture Research Station (ARS) are working in PGRs research and management. But under MoAD, Different Program Directorate, District Agriculture Development Offices, Different Horticultural Farms, Seed Quality Control Center, Plant Quarantine, Department of Plant Resources, Agricultural Input Company are involved in genetic resources management. Under institution, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Himalayan Genebank, Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University (TU), Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), TU, Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Himalayan Collage of Agricultural Science and Technology (HICAST), Purwanchal University, Kathmandu University and Council for Technical Education and Vocation Training (CTEVT) are working in PGRs management.

Private organizations including NGOs and INGOs [(Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LIBIRD), Forum for Rural Welfare and Agricultural Reform for Development (FORWARD), USC Canada- Asia, SAHAS Parivartan, Oxfam, Action Aid, Tissue culture laboratory, Godavari, Permaculture Group, International Corn Foundation, Nepal Biotech Nursery, Rural Reconstruction Nepal, CARE, PLAN, HELVETAS, Luthern World Federation, Agricultural Enterprise Center, NAF, SAWTEE, CEAPRED, World Vision, and CGIAR Centers like IRRI, CIMMYT and CIP] are involved in PGRs management. About more than 110 CSBs, seven regional and crop improvement networks (AVRDC, SAARC, SANPGR, ANSAB, TANSAO, ANSWER and AGLN) and more than twenty private seed companies are involved in agricultural genetic resources management.

ISSUES/CHALLENGES IN PGRs MANAGEMENT

Limited human and financial resources

NAGRC has limited human resources. Exploration, collection and characterization of PGRs need multidisciplinary team but due to lack of technical manpower, collection, characterization, seed health and seed physical/ physiological test, and regeneration activities are not effective and efficient. Limited financial resources is become the challenge for PGRs management.

Lack of technical know-how

Collections are more effective from standing crops to capture adequate diversity, to identify the samples, and to get enough seeds so that collections can be directly conserved in short and long term storage without seed multiplication. But, most of the collections are taken from farm store which limits the PGRs collection. Due to limited knowledge on plant taxonomy and local languages, researchers face the problem to identify the samples in the field and farmers’ samples. Name of same landrace may be different among and even within a village among different castes and in such situation, researchers collect many duplicates. Due to the interests of taking large number of accessions at donor and recipients level, many samples collect within limited areas and from few farmers. Due to lack of clear guidelines applicable to different crop species and locations, collectors face problem to identify sampling sites and sampling method.

Issues at farmers’ level

During collections of seeds and associated information of PGRs, farmers are requested to provide free of cost but farmers were not found willingness to provide seed samples and associated knowledge. Farmers provide few seeds especially for vegetable crop species but they are not interested to provide enough seeds. Due to the limited sample, diversity within a landrace could not capture during collection.

Lack of infrastructures

PGRs should collect from tropical to temperate areas of the country. But glasshouse equipped with modern facilities e.g. temperature regulation, is lacking, so it is difficult to regenerate the PGRs. Likewise, many accessions of rice and grain legumes could not set the seeds in Khumaltar, Kathmandu and Rampur, Chitwan condition due to low or high temperature and short or long photoperiod. Identification of right location for regeneration of different accessions and facilities of climate-controlled glasshouse can only overcome these problems.

Gaps in PGRs management between public and private organization

Weak coordination is existed between public and private organization in germplasm management, exchange and information sharing. NGOs and communities have not their standards for PGRs collection and management, and they carry out researches on PGRs independently. Limited knowledge on sampling strategies, ignorance on passport and characterization data, and poor perception of field genebank are the gaps between public and private organizations. There is a lack of governance mechanism to manage PGRs and also a policy gap exists to link country’s PGR with multilateral access and linking with community seed banks managed by NGOs and farming communities.

SUGGESTION FOR EFFECTIVE PGRs MANAGEMENT

The support for AFACI project in managing PGRs in Nepal is remarkable. In future, project support should be directed to the infrastructures development for PGRs characterization and regeneration. In addition, support should be focused on the characterization, evaluation and tagging of economically important traits to strengthen pre-breeding and utilize PGRs. NAGRC/NARC should increase financial and human resources. Public awareness, access to education and information, and increased public participation can be suggested to manage PGRs effectively. Very weak database sharing and germplasm exchange experienced among Asian countries and AFACI should consider making strong database among member countries. International trainings, workshops and exchange visit of researchers to AFACI member countries should be continued to build up research capacity, enhance technical knowledge and strengthen regional collaboration for effective management of PGRs. Support for molecular markers and infrastructure for Cryo-bank should be extended. AFACI will continue support to mobilize CSBs for exploration, regeneration and multiplication of local and wild PGRs due to support withdrew from NGOs.

CONCLUSION

This paper briefly reviewed the present status of PGRs, their research and management, some issues of PGRs management and suggestions for effective management of PGRs in the genebank of Nepal. The country has high level of agricultural biodiversity and systematic work on PGRs has been started since the inception of NAGRC under NARC. Agricultural genetic resources consist of food crops (rice, maize, wheat, millets, barley, buckwheat, sorghum, and potato), cash crops (sugarcane, jute, tobacco, tea, cotton and cardamom), legume crops (lentil, pea, cowpea, soybean, chickpea, soybean, green gram and black gram), oilseed crops (mustard, rapeseed, sesame, linseed, niger, groundnut etc.), vegetables (solanaceous species, cucurbits, legumes, leafy vegetables, roots and tubers), spice and agro-forestry crops and fruit crops (citrus, apple, walnut, mango, banana, peach, plum and pear) etc. The country has wide diversity in minor crops, wild plants, wild relatives of vegetables and fruit crops. Agriculture policy of GoN and Agricultural Research Strategy must focus to reduce the threat of genetic vulnerability and explore the diversity for food and nutrition security of the country.

Introduction of modern varieties and exotic crops, deforestation and distribution of wild species habitats, market pressure for few preferred varieties and low yielding of farmer varieties are the factors that endangering the genetic diversity of local varieties. In future, NAGRC has to prioritize research on assessment of genetic erosion and genetic vulnerability, diversity assessment at molecular and phenotypic level and scientific database management. In addition, communication network should be established among public, private, community based organizations and international organizations for PGRs management. Besides, link national genebank with community genebank, awareness creation to the local communities and organized biodiversity fair should be priorities for proper PGRs management.

Nepal has a cooperation and collaboration with international and regional organization and institutes since the beginning of research and development activities in PGRs for food and agriculture. NARC has collaboration with International Agriculture Research Centers (Bioversity International, IRRI, CIMMYT, CRISAT, ICARDA, CIP, and AVRDC) and FAO and linkage with them are supported to promote the conservation and sustainable use of PGRs. With support of AFACI, Genebank of Nepal succeeded to establish storage facilities, laboratory for in-vitro and tissue bank, molecular research, seed testing and processing and database management. In addition, researchers of NAGRC are capacitized their skills and expertise for the germplasm collection method, seed quality management and conservation (seed viability test, seed storage, characterization and evaluation of genetic resources and cryopreservation) and data management system through participation of organized training in RDA, Korea. This project has obviously changed the understanding of genetic resources as the essential material for development of bio-industry in AFACI member countries. Furthermore, future projects between Nepal and Korea should be related to crop-specific, products diversification, infrastructures as well as human resource development. Projects should be directed toward the characterization (morphological, biochemical and molecular) of PGRs and pre-breeding, and short and long-term training course for the effective management in PGRs. Besides, conservation activities to link genebank with community seed banks/farming communities and access to germplasm through shuttle breeding approach in the network of AFACI member countries should be the priorities in future. Developing crop specificshuttle breeding collaborative projects would enhance the exchange of germplasm among the participating member countries. The utilization of plant genetic resources can be enhanced through their proper characterization, identification of important traits and selection of such germplasm for breeding in order to produce new product.

적 요

네팔의 식물유전자원 보유현황과 국립종자은행의 자원연구 및 관리현황은 아래와 같다.