The Role Of Plant Genetic Resources In The Sustainable Agriculture

The sustainability is defined as the use of natural resources without risking their exploitation by future generations. Agriculture can only be considered as sustainable if it includes a suitable system of plant genetic resources conservation. Modern agriculture has caused a drastic reduction of fields' biodiversity. Over the last four decades, considerable efforts in collecting, characterizing and conserving crops genetic diversity have been carried out, although for minor crops this conservation has been sensitively lower. The genetic resources of the crops include both the old and neglected varieties and the relative species. The conservation of plant genetic resources can be achieved by different ways: ex-situ conservation, in-situ conservation and on-farm conservation. This last type of conservation has increasing attention, since conserves the dynamic process of crop evolution and includes the traditional knowledge associated with its use.Our group is working in the evaluation and characterization of on-farm conservation systems in Spain, both on neglected crops and agroforestry crops. Among the neglected crops, the hulled wheats (einkorn, ernmer and spelt) present a new revival in diverse regions of the World. In Spain, spelt continues being cultivated in Asturias (Northern of Spain) where it is associated to traditional and sustainable agricultural systems. Other crop with traditional management and use in Spain is the chestnut, which is associated to regions with special environmental interest (Natural Parks). Our studies have indicated that both cases are valued systems of on-farm conservation. The recognition of this fact could allow increasing the economic and social sustainability of these traditional agricultural systems.