51st state

I understand that they hold a world Musaceae germplasm database in Belgium.

Any thoughts on approaching them to see if it would be possible to gain access to some of the wild species they hold? and doing some limited production runs. I understand that they levy a charge on commercial use but this is no different to royalties on other plants.

Any thoughts anyone?

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bikoro child

CIRAD researchers can get free plants, but for individuals here should not be possible...

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Ivan

Richard

Bioversity Int. is a cooperative between many sites in many countries. The database is headquartered in Belgium. The plant holdings are distributed around the world. For example, if you go to this page:

MGIS - Accession search

enter "dwarf" in the Vernacular Name field and click 'search' on the far right. Now click on any of the names returned and you will see the site where it resides.

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Gabe15

The international genebank is for research purposes only. The only time plants are introduced for non-research purposes is if they are trying to introduce a new variety into an area that needs it for small scale production of subsistence farming for the local people. If profit is going to be made on the material, payment must be made back to Bioversity. Every time material is transferred, a material transfer agreement must be signed and moved along with it. They have rules and regulations setup to avoid exactly this, using the genebank for commercial purposes, because they have limited resources and are research based. If members here honestly want to perform research with the material, it is available to you for free, but ordering and growing the plants just for the sake of it is wrong in my opinion.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

51st state

Don't completely agree with that. I understand the aims of the organisation which are great, but, why not supplement their "limited resources" by some complementary commercial activity? I also believe that it is unlikely that they will find subsistence farmers anywhere interested in growing truly wild species. Such germplasm does have future potential in terms of disease/drought/cold resistance so why not (for training purposes even) grow some on and sell them out. I note that some of the national member organisations do just this. If a species is threatened in it's natural environment (by man one way or another probably) then by all means save the germplasm (as RBG Kew and other organisations do around the world with many genera) but to not then allow the material out unless it's for research seems a little peverse, collecting for collecting's sake maybe.

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Richard

Time spent on distributing plant material is time not spent on research. If there was a steady market for plant material, then hiring someone for that purpose makes sense. Notice that you would need personnel in all parts of the world since the collection is geographically distributed.

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51st state

true. what better way then of getting local BI staff in the donor countries to benefit directly from the Germplasm they hold. Why shouldn't an Indian national research body benefit from their plant material. It's a way of subsidising the whole operation. If it's germplasm of commercial value it'll sell if it isn't it won't.
Why shouldn't BI run an operation akin to Agristarts for instance?

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Richard

Actually, some of the member organizations do have germplasm available for a fee although you might have to travel there with native currency to obtain the material. If its something you want to see Bioversity do as a coordinated effort, then you'd better get on the horn and start talking to them about it!

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51st state

Your right...

anyone know who at BI I should e mail?

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Gabe15

The wild species are held primarily with the intent that breeders may be able to use them and also as a DNA reference collection for work with banana genomics. The material is contract-bound under an FAO treaty for specific use only which does not include distribution to hobbyists. Its a non-profit genebank which is available to anyone who needs it, they are not understaffed or underfunded, but they don't have the staff or resources to be sending out plant material for hobbyists, and its illegal for them to do so anyways. I agree that it would be an awesome thing to have easy access to, but it must be understood that the genebank exists for specific purposes which they are legally bound to. It is used by many researchers every year without restriction and supplying the hobby market is nowhere near what they are focused on.

If anyone feels like you have a real use for the plants, then by all means, order them. But if its just for hobby growing, its against what the whole intention of the genebank is for.

Here is a summary of what the genebank is for:
International collection

Here is the material transfer agreement:
http://bananas.bioversityinternation...ta_english.pdf

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Richard

And yet, some sites have additional material at their location that is not part of the consortium germplasm repository and is distributed to the public by various means. The same is true at several USDA sites.

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Gabe15

This is true, you can ask the USDA for planting material and they will send you some. I have ordered from the genebank at Mayaguez before, it is a bit on the slow side and they cannot usually fill the whole order, but it is a great service none the less.

GRIN National Genetic Resources Program

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Richard

My impression is the TARS site at Mayaguez is understaffed and overrun by hurricanes. In the past they referred me to a broker on the island who has an excellent collection of material from the region. I have also received directly from TARS a Carissa spinarum cutting which was taken from a plant they had to dig out from under debris from Katrina.

Some of the germplasm sites here in the U.S. are located on "joint use" property -- for example a portion of a university agriculture station. Extra plant material moves from the germplasm collection to the university facility where it is propagated by students and/or volunteers and then sold by something like the horticultural club, or a (bi)annual "garden" sale, or directly to wholesale nurseries as part of a separate business activity of the university .

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Gabe15

It may be understaffed, but you can still request germplasm from any of the USDA sites, they may or may not be able to provide it but if its available they will generally send it.

The international banana genebank (ITC) is held in vitro in Belgium and when samples are requested, they are subcultured for you. So in this case, its not that they have extra material they could donate, they make each order by request. Some of the field collections from which some of the material came may provide people with suckers or tissue cultured plants but you would need to contact them directly.

But there is a huge problem right now in legally shipping plant material across borders from research institutions, mainly with countries concerned about intellectual property rights and use of a nations natural resources. As a result, the ITC actually has a very lacking collection of wild Musa because most of the plants that should be in it are not yet allowed out of the countries they were collected in, so they are held at that country's national collection or at botanic gardens. Everytime something is sent to or from the ITC, that material transfer agreement document must be signed and all the criteria must be met.

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Richard

All the more reason to pay a commercial international germplasm broker to find a local 3rd party and legally ship the plant material to you. For historical purposes, some of these brokers are named "seed company" (e.g., Ball Seeds) but in the present day they supply everything from invitro tissue to plant plugs.

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Gabe15

If you read thru the material transfer agreement, you will see that even once the material leaves the genebank and is repropagated, it is still subject to the terms of the treaty. It rather clearly states what acceptable use of the material is.

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Richard

True. However, I have not been referring to material from the genebank in Belgium.

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