Building a Yam Gene Bank

Worldchanging reports:

Crop scientists are attempting to collect and catalog more than 3,000 yam samples for international gene banks to preserve the biodiversity of a food crop that is consumed daily by more than 60 million people in Africa alone. Yam varieties collected in West and Central Africa will be sent to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, where the samples will be frozen in liquid nitrogen for long-term storage. While many crops can be conserved by drying the seeds, yams must be conserved as vegetative material in tissue culture. A large percentage of important yam varieties are currently preserved only in fields, where they are threatened by disease, pests, natural disaster, and civil conflicts.

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