Japanese Government to Develop Access to International Plant Genetic Resources

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The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan started to publicly accept candidate institutions on January 17, 2014, to conduct research into enhancing the collection and provision of international plant genetic resources for fiscal 2014. The research includes analyzing and collecting genetic characteristics of international plant resources, and developing procedures to breed tropical plant resources that are hard to breed in Japan.

It is important to obtain plant genetic resources as breeding materials for developing new varieties of plants that can respond to global warming and contribute to agricultural competitiveness. However, developing countries in Asia, which own many of these plants, have not registered these resources with the Multilateral System of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources For Food And Agriculture. Therefore, there is no way to access to these resources.

The purpose of the research project is to develop the access environment for plant genetic resources in developing countries in Asia. The research will promotes the analysis of characteristics and the collection of plant genetic resources that are possessed by experimental and research institutions of governments in partner countries, including organizations for storing plant genetic resources, gene banks, etc. The project will make it possible to provide information to public experimental laboratories and private businesses in countries through the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) gene bank.