Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources in Oman.

The Sultanate of Oman has abundant biodiversity in local grain, forage, horticultural, and medicinal plants that are adapted to the unique and diverse topographic and climatic conditions of the Sultanate. However, there is currently a decline in global biodiversity which threatens plant genetic diversity, the raw materials we rely on for food, fiber, medicine and industrial products.

 As in many developing countries, the Sultanate has resorted to the introduction of modern crop varieties (bred and selected in other countries) into the research programs and some have been released to farmers. Thus there has been a replacement of the generally viable lower yielding local land races with introduced varieties, leading to genetic erosion of adapted land races as well as indigenous knowledge and cultural diversity. To ensure that valuable genetic resources and indigenous knowledge are preserved, an extensive research project titled “Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources in Oman” was taken up by Sultan Qaboos University. It aims to survey, identify, characterize and conserve indigenous food and forage legume germplasm by incorporating molecular approaches. This paper discusses the germplasm collection missions as well as the results of morphological and molecular characterization and conservation of the collected germplasm.