Posted 2:45 PM by Luigi
Vanuatu's Root Crops Project Makes Progress

Summary of the first year's report of the project "Preservation and use of root crops agrobiodiversity in Vanuatu," with many thanks to Dr Vincent Lebot.

This annual report presents the various activities conducted by the FFEM project regarding « The agrobiodiversity of root crops species in Vanouatou » for the year 2005. This project started in February 2005 and will last five years (from 2005 to 2009). The partners of the project are: the Ministry of Agriculture (MQAFF-DARD), the Vanouatou Agricultural Research and Training Centre (VARTC) and CIRAD (in Vanouatou and in Montpellier, France). The partner who is the direct beneficiary of the financial agreement is MAQFF but this Ministry has requested CIRAD to be responsible for the scientific coordination and management of the project with the supervision of a steering committee based in Vanouatou.

The aim of this project is to develop a sustainable system for the on-farm maintenance of root crops genetic resources. The project proposes a dynamic system as an alternative to the traditional on-station conservation of germplasm which, in most cases, has a narrow genetic base. This project is testing the hypothesis that a system that would focus on distribution rather than on concentration, would be much more efficient and better adapted to these species and to the countries in which they are major staple crops (for details, see appendix 1).

The objectives of the project are:

1. To collect and record traditional knowledge associated with the traditional uses for different species of root crops cultivated in Vanouatou and to study socio-economic behaviours of producers and users.

2. To survey and record all cultivated varieties and to study the genetic diversity used in ten different villages (each located on a different island).

3. To identify new varieties aiming at broadening the existing genetic bases and to propose them to producers and users, taking into account their needs and preferences.

4. To conduct participatory assessments of the suitability of the introduced varieties and to attempt to understand why they are accepted or rejected.

5. To develop an information system for the civil society in Vanouatou aiming at discussing and explaining the importance of root crops genetic resources for present and future generations.

6. To elaborate a methodology for the “on farm” preservation and use of root crops species genetic resources which could be implemented in other countries.

The approach is participatory. The launching of the FFEM project was officially done through a workshop organised in VARTC on Thursday February 14th 2005. Agricultural officers and field assistants involved in the project (overall about 20 officers) were invited to debate the practicalities of the various project activities (see list of participants in appendix 2). The director of the Department of Agriculture (DARD) presented an historical review of the numerous attempts to preserve genetic resources conducted in Vanouatou since Independence. Diverse projects funded by FAO/UNDP, the EU, and CIRAD, failed to preserve germplasm on a sustainable manner and risks of on-station (ex situ) conservation of these resources are always a constraint. The director explained why a system that would rather favour on-farm conservation would achieve a lot for Vanouatou and food security.

Participants then discussed the different steps and objectives and a discussion on the choice of the project sites (villages) was undertaken. All participants recognized that this choice was critical and therefore requested that at least one full month was given to them to conduct a survey in their respective areas before making a final decision. Officers accepted to send by letter their final choice once theirs surveys would be completed and not later than May 15th 2005. The final field design of the project was therefore accepted by consensus among participants.

The project experimental design

The choice of the project experimental design takes into consideration the major characteristics of the archipelago. Vanouatou is composed of approximately 80 inhabited islands with ten hosting the majority of the population. Vanouatou is also divided into two major ecological zones (north and south) with an ecological limit crossing the Shepherds, north of Efaté. The choice of the villages was therefore based on their location on the ten islands and in the two different zones. Great care was taken to select five villages with taro as a dominant crop and five villages with yam as a dominant crop so that statistical comparisons could be conducted between the two major agrosystems of the country. For each agrosystem, four islands from the northern part of the country were selected and one from the south.

The final selection of the villages, on each of the ten islands, took into consideration: the fact that each village should be representative of the situation on the island, that it should have an easy access, that local knowledge and cultural traditions should be well preserved and that there are no other major development projects which could interfere with the FFEM project.

The following villages have been selected:

Island Village Cropping systems
Tanna Lamlu Taro
Erromango Ipota Yam
Epi Burumba Yam
Ambrym Endou Yam
Malekula Brenwei Yam
Santo Pessena Taro
Malo Avunamalai Yam
Ambaé Lolosori Taro
Pentecost Metaruk Taro
Vanua Lava Lalngétak Taro

All these villages were visited at least once during the second semester of 2005 and meetings were organised to present the project and to describe its objectives and activities.

Staff

The project selected and hired in march 2005 (via CIRAD in France) two PhD candidates: Julie Sardos, a molecular biologist, student a the university of Montpellier and Barbara Bouchet, ethnologist, student at the university of Strasbourg. B. Bouchet resigned three months after her arrival in Vanouatou and was replaced by Sara Muller, geographer, student at the university of Strasbourg, who arrived in Vanouatou in November 2005. J. Sardos went to Montpellier in December 2005 to conduct the molecular fingerprinting of the genetic resources that were collected in the 10 villages. She will return in December 2006. The two PhD candidates are employed locally by VARTC and are strengthening the institution capacities.

Thanks to the project budget, VARTC has also employed a local counterpart to the project coordinator, Roger Malapa, who obtained his doctorate from the university of Rennes in June 2005. A third PhD candidate, Charly Zongo (a biochemist at the university of New Caledonia) will be recruited in 2006 to complete the project team. The department of Agriculture has also assigned to the project two officers in charge of the propagation and distribution of planting material: Tari Molisale based in Santo, is responsible for six islands located in the north and Jeffrey Lavah based on Efaté is responsible for the other four islands.

Results

On average, the project team spent about a week in each of the selected villages and these visits were conducted during June and December 2005. Local varieties and traditional knowledge associated to those were collected. The information gathered is compiled into a database (excel format) with 1080 entries (accessions) presented in appendix of the report.

These results alone justifies the intervention of the FFEM project in Vanouatou. Considering the state of the art and what is known on this question in the existing scientific literature, this situation is unique in the world. It confirms the remarkable richness of root crops agrobiodiversity in Vanouatou. All these accessions are now in the germplasm collection at VARTC and are being studied at the molecular level in order to obtain an accurate picture of the existing diversity. The first results will be available at the end of 2006. This first part of the work allows the description of the state of agrobiodiversity in the ten selected villages at the beginning of the project and therefore will be used as a reference during the next four years to appreciate the progress made and the achievements realised.

Visits of experts

The project benefited from 4 visits of experts in 2005 :

• Annie Walter (IRD) in June, scientific backstopping in social sciences,
• Doyle Mckey (CNRS) in Nov-dec, scientific backstopping in diversity studies,
• Jean Leu Marchand (CIRAD) in Nov-dec, backstopping to CIRAD scientist,
• Anton Ivancic (University of Maribor) in Dec-jan, scientific backstopping in participatory taro breeding.

Regional collaboration and dissemination of results

The Pacific Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), a regional network on crop genetic resources coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community held its annual meeting in USP, Santo, Oct 26-29th and the project (Roger Malapa) took this opportunity to present the activities undertaken in Vanouatou to the participants. A web site has been created http://www.agrobiodiversite.org/, it can be visited and materials can be downloaded. More information will be put on line in the near future. T-shirts have been printed with the project logo ‘ol rus blong yumi ol i fiuja blong yumi’ and those of MQAFF, FFEM, CIRAD and distributed in the ten villages to thank people for their outstanding collaboration