CGIAR 6d ago

🌱 An important role of genebanks is to help communities recover traditional varieties that are disappearing in the field. #MoreThanColdStorage 🌽 Watch Alberto Chassaigne explain how the CIMMYT genebank returned important maize varieties to communities in Jala, Mexico 🇲🇽. The full story: In 2018, due to the concerning decline in cultivation of the Jala maize landrace in its place of origin, a seed collection was carried out from 28 farming families. The aim was to safeguard the genetic diversity of the variety, ensuring the availability of viable seed in case of emergency. All accessions were deposited at Mexico’s Centro Nacional de Recursos Genéticos - INIFAP (CNRG), with the collaboration of CIMMYT and the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP). CIMMYT not only took an active part in the collection but also provided training to local farmers in seed conservation and management practices. It also served as a bridge - alongside INIFAP - to achieve both the safekeeping of the accessions at the CNRG and their subsequent return to one of the original donors. This effort culminated in an exercise of rematriation, when one of the farmers requested the recovery of their seed after observing the loss of certain distinctive traits over his most recent growing cycles. The handover of the regenerated variety took place during the "World's Largest Corn Cob" Fair 2025 (Feria del "Elote Más Grande del Mundo 2025") - a chance to celebrate the return of the maize to its community of origin. #Genebanks #Maize #Agrobiodiversity #TraditionalKnowledge #Mexico