Wild Flora is an Asset and Safety
I have been emphasizing establishing local herbariums at community levels to safeguard the local verities of floral diversity in wild. Our wild flora is actually the ancestors of the present-day (narrowed genetic) food crops. Wild ancestors’ conservation is mandatory, especially in the climate change context. Plant domestication and crop improvement have resulted in reduced genetic diversity in most of our cultivated crops, thus limiting their potential to adapt to future challenges.
We Need to Establish Native Flora Herbarium
In local herbariums, we can conserve, study and use the wild floral diversity of a specific ecosystem for a specific purpose. It can be a great asset for humanity and the knowledge will be shared at the global level to benefit humanity. Each flora is an asset as well as an institution. The flora is an organization of highly adapted traits and a lot of information (knowledge) is linked to it. The native people have a huge set of knowledge, they have gained from their ancestry since unknown time about the flora, ecosystems, and the uses of the plant/s for the health and well-being of humanity.
Let Walk Back to the Wild Side
Plant domestication and crop improvement have resulted in reduced genetic diversity in most of our cultivated crops, thus limiting their potential to adapt to future challenges. Collecting, Protecting, and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives is one of the basic and mandatory steps to be practiced to widen the narrow genetic diversity of crops and to enable them to adapt to climate change as adaptation is the only way to ensure food security under challenges. We have to go back to the wild flora as here are the wild ancestors of our crops. The wild ancestors have a very broad genetic pool, highly adapted traits, and need very lesser inputs.
The wild ancestors’ conservation is mandatory and herbariums are very crucial to fulfill this cause. Adaptation to climate change is the only way to ensure food security. Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change is the key and genetic resources are the main players. On the other hand, mitigation is expensive as well as has negative and hidden costs.
I have come to read a fresh article to understand the power of adaptation in crops and the importance of the wild ancestors to broaden the genetic diversity of our food crops. https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/csc2.20418
