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The conservation and sustainable use of our agricultural
biodiversity is critical to future sustainable development,
both in Ireland and internationally.
In response to this, on Thursday, 9 February, the NUI Galway
Plant and AgriBiosciences Centre is hosting AgBioDiv2012 -
a free event and Ireland’s first Annual AgroBiodiversity Conference.
Agricultural biodiversity - or agrobiodiversity - refers
to all biological and genetic diversity which is directly
relevant to agriculture and food production.
Agrobiodiversity concerns the variability of animals, plants
and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for
food and agriculture - including crops, livestock, forestry
and fisheries. It comprises the diversity of genetic resources
(varieties, breeds) and species used for providing the food,
fodder, fibre, fuel and medicines that we depend on for our
everyday lives.
AgBioDiv2012 organiser Professor Charles Spillane, Head of
Plant and AgriBiosciences at NUI Galway, said - “Since the
early 1990s, there has been a tremendous upsurge in activity
to conserve Ireland’s rare livestock breeds and threatened
crop varieties. A coalition of activities by the Department
of Agriculture and Food, universities, NGOs and dedicated
individuals across Ireland has led to a vibrant community
now involved in agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable
use.
“The time is right for an annual conference to bring everybody
together to take stock of what has been done, what can be
done and what is necessary to do over the coming years to
ensure that agrobiodiversity contributes to a vibrant and
sustainable food and agriculture sector in Ireland.
“Such agrobiodiversity conservation efforts have ensured
that native livestock rare-breeds such as Galway sheep and
Kerry bog ponies and many threatened plant varieties have
not become extinct over the past decade. Many such rare-breeds
and varieties have become eligible for REPS support. Ireland
now has a national genebank and we now store Ireland’s threatened
crop varieties in the long-term Svalbard Global Seed Vault
on the island of Spitzbergen inside the Arctic circle.”
The line up of 19 invited speakers assembling for AgBioDiv2012
includes international speakers from the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Bioversity International
and the National History Museum in Paris.
A wide range of speakers from Ireland will cover agrobiodiversity
topics - including rare breeds of livestock, rare and threatened
crops wild relatives, seed saving, forestry and tree conservation,
seaweed diversity, horticultural and ornamental plants, energy
crops and honey bees.
AgBioDiv2012 will be held at NUI Galway on Thursday, 9 February,
2012 and is open to all who are interested.
Registration is available at the conference website
and is supported by the Department of Agriculture Food and
the Marine, the NUI Galway Plant and AgriBiosciences Research
Centre and Genetic Heritage Ireland.
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