MG Seed Bank History
Within the frame of the “FAO/IBP Technical Conference” held in Rome (Italy) in 1967, three gene banks had been proposed for establishment: Lund (Sweden) for northern Europe, Braunsweig Folkenrode (Germany) for central Europe and Bari (Italy) for the Mediterranean Region.
In 1969 the Committee for Agricultural Sciences of the Italian National Council of Research approved the creation of the Germplasm Laboratory in Bari after the proposal of Prof. G.T Scarascia-Mugnozza. Thanks to the collaboration with the Faculty of Agruculture of the University of Bari, the Germplasm Laboratory became active starting since 1970.
Explorations
Seed and germplasm collection at the MG genebank started in 1971. Thenceforth, more than 120 expeditions have been carried out in southern and eastern Africa, Middle East and the Persian region, and all around the Mediterranean basin. Such explorations resulted in more than 13,000 samples collected that are currently conserved and maintained at the genebank.
Following is a partial report concerning the expeditions organized and carried out in the past by the personnel working at the former Germplasm Istitute (now included in IBBR):
| Country | Years of expedition |
|---|---|
| Algeria | 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 |
| Egypt | 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 |
| Ethiopia | 1973, 1974 |
| France (Corsica) | 2003, 2004 |
| Greece | 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 (mainland) and 2005, 2006 (Crete e Ionian islands) |
| Libya | 1981, 1983 |
| Morocco | 1984 |
| Somalia | 1980 |
| Spain | 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979 |
| RSA/Lesotho | 1988 |
| Tunisia | 1976, 1977 |
| Italy | every year between 1971 and 2015, more recently focusing on “geographic islands” and “etno-cultural islands” |
Snapshots from the past
