permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/cop27-israel-harnessing-dna-bygone-wild-crops-enhance-food-supply-2022-11-10/
COP27: Israel harnessing DNA of bygone wild crops to enhance food supply
<https://www.reuters.com/authors/ari-rabinovitch/>

Rishon Lezion, Israel, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Could the key to securing the
world's food supply for the future be hidden in the DNA of crops from the
distant past?

Scientists in Israel are creating a gene bank from the seeds of local wild
crops, some that have survived for thousands of years since the birth of
agriculture and that may help farmers deal with a harsher climate in the
coming decades.

In a eucalyptus grove nestled between an industrial zone and a new railroad
under construction, botanist Alon Singer collected seeds from a number of
plants recently spotted, including a variety of water mint, that will be
frozen and stored at the Israel Plant Gene Bank at the Volcani Institute,
the national agricultural R&D center.

Singer is combing the country along with other scouts and foragers in
search of varieties of wheat, barley and countless other wild crops so
their genetic makeup can be saved and studied before they are lost to
expanding deserts and urbanization as the climate warms.

"The plants here are very unique. They are the ancestors of many of the
cultivated plants used today," he said.

Resilient characteristics can be harnessed to genetically modify farmed
crops so they better withstand drought or disease.

*[1/5] *A man handles an ear of wheat in a greenhouse at the Israel Plant
Gene Bank at the Volcani Institute in Rishon LeZion, Israel November 3,
2022. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Sometimes they don't make it in time and a plant of interest falls victim
to a new road before its next bloom.

Tens of thousands of types of seeds are stored in the gene bank. It may be
smaller than some collections elsewhere in the world but the gene pool here
is unique, coming from an area that was part of the Fertile Crescent region
known as the birthplace of crop cultivation.

"This is where agriculture started about 10,000 years ago," said Einav
Mayzlish-Gati, director of the gene bank. "Species that were domesticated
here are still in the wild adapting along the years to the changes in the
environment."

The research has already been paying off. For example, the institute has
engineered a variety of wheat with an ultra-short lifecycle. It may not be
able to compete today, but it could be a saving grace in a hotter climate
with reduced growing seasons.

The World Bank warns that global agriculture is extremely vulnerable to
climate change. Negative effects, it said, are already being felt with
hotter temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and invasive
crops and pests.

Agriculture and global warming will be discussed by global leaders in Egypt
on Saturday at COP27, the latest edition of the United Nations annual
climate change summit.