Latin America Regional Program Major Activities and Key Achievements
The main objective of LARP is to strengthen collaboration in the improvement of barley, faba bean, lentil, and kabuli chickpea in the Latin America region. Emphasis has been given to develop improved, disease-resistant barley germplasm, particularly in the Andean region, where resource-poor farmers use barley as staple food.
Major Activities and Key Achievements
- National programs of eight countries have released 10 barley varieties with resistance to fungal diseases, such as stem, leaf and stripe rust, scald, net blotch, Fusarium head scab, and viral diseases.
- Marker-based mapping research with Oregon State University targets genes in the Ecuadorian barley ‘Shyri’ that are associated with resistance to a range of diseases, including resistance to stripe rust, leaf rust, net blotch, barley yellow dwarf virus and scald.
- A joint program with the National Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIAP) set up a barley seed project in southern Ecuador. The 500 farmers growing new varieties in 1998 had an average threefold increase over the national average of 700 kg.
- Irrigated hull-less barley is yielding up to 8 t/ha in Mexico.
- In food legumes, a joint evaluation with various countries looked at different elite lines, segregating populations from different crosses, and a large number of sources of resistance to various biotic (diseases) and abiotic (drought) stresses.
- Supply of germplasm of food and forage legumes to various cooperators in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru.
- In forage legumes, Fundacep (an NGO) at Cruz Alta, Brazil, tested promising lines of forage vetches, including Vicia sativa, V. dasycarpa, and V. ervillia. A wooly-pod vetch variety is being tested by the Hillside Project in Bolivia.
Current Emphasis - The potential of irrigated production of hull-less barley is being demonstrated at Yaqui, Mexico.
- The use of the doubled-haploid technique has accelerated transfer of genes for resistance to key diseases, such as stripe rust and Fusarium head scab. Some of this work is being done through the Latin America Barley Network (RECLA).
Future Directions - Strengthen cooperation on cool-season food legumes and initiate cooperation in on-farm water use. ICARDA also intends to contribute to the welfare of people living in dry areas of Latin America through the improvement of small-ruminant production systems, land and water management, germplasm improvement, and the overall improvement of the dryland farming systems.
- The role of barley to support potato-based crop rotations in the Andean region will be safeguarded.
Category: Poverty
2008-03-15 07:11:34: Posted by: jhon
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