Abstract
Cultivated diversity is considered an insurance against major climatic variability. However, since the 1980s, several studies have shown that climate variability and agricultural changes may already have locally eroded crop genetic diversity. We studied pearl millet diversity in Senegal through a comparison of pearl millet landraces collected 40 years apart. We found that more than 20% of villages visited in 1976 had stopped growing pearl millet. Despite this, its overall genetic diversity has been maintained but differentiation between early- and late-flowering accessions has been reduced. We also found stronger crop-to-wild gene flow than wild-to-crop gene flow and that wild-to-crop gene flow was weaker in 2016 than in 1976. In conclusion, our results highlight genetic homogenization in Senegal. This homogenization within cultivated pearl millet and between wild and cultivated forms is a key factor in genetic erosion and it is often overlooked. Improved assessment and conservation strategies are needed to promote and conserve both wild and cultivated pearl millet diversity.
Highlights
Since the 20th century, major agricultural transformations have been taking place alongside social, technical and climatic changes
We found that 78% (54/69) of the initially surveyed villages were still growing pearl millet in 2016, out of which 16% (11/69) had introduced new varieties
The structure analysis findings fit those of the principal component analyses (PCA) analysis, with the most likely number of clusters being K = 2 (S3 Fig), representing cultivated and wild pearl millet forms (Fig 2B)
Summary
Since the 20th century, major agricultural transformations have been taking place alongside social, technical and climatic changes. Agriculture has been striving to keep step with these changes and population growth via specialization in a few major crop species and a handful of varieties [1, 2]. The first impacts of climate change were felt in the 1980s when the Green Revolution took hold in developing countries [2]. In West Africa, climate change had already led to a 10–20% and 5–15% decrease in pearl millet and sorghum yields, respectively [3].
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