Morocco Inaugurates New Gene Bank To Face Climate Change

Rabat – Morocco inaugurated on May 18 a new gene bank of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) to promote resilient and sustainable agriculture.

The gene bank aims to preserve native crops by collecting, conserving, and developing the genetic resources in drylands. These play a key role in protecting agricultural biodiversity, as well as mitigating the food security and climate change crises.

Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests Mohammed Sadiki, stressed in Rabat that genetic resources are a valuable heritage that must be safeguarded and preserved.

Wild accessions and related species are vital for the development of new crops, he argued, adding that the selection of traits capable of coping with increasingly difficult weather conditions due to climate change is important.

“This gene bank is a symbol of the regeneration, resilience, and expertise of the people in this region who are working so hard to build a climate-smart future,” said the Secretary of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Kent Nnadozithe, during the inauguration ceremony.

The event was attended by the Director-General of ICARDA and the Regional Director of the CGIAR, Aly Abousabaa as well as senior officials from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and embassies. Experts from universities and research institutes were also present during the ceremony.

In early 1977, the collaboration between Morocco and ICARDA focused on research programs covering fields such as food grain and pulse breeding, integrated crop-livestock systems, water management, and capacity-building.

Sadiki praised the quality of the collaboration, noting its role in strengthening the capacity of Moroccan national research institutions by providing training and technical support to develop projects such as the Moroccan System of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Moreover, the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) gene bank in Settat currently houses a collection of nearly 72,000 accessions, including at least 13,000 accessions from the ICARDA gene bank. The progress made by INRA and ICARDA has led several other partners to join the collaborative program (FADES, CGIAR, FEMISE, IDRC, etc.).

In 2020, INRA added a part of its collection to the one million seeds of the Svalbard World Seed Reserve in Norway.