Do Folk Crop Varieties Have a Role in Sustainable Agriculture?

Abstract

R ecently there has been increasing attention to the importance of biodiversity in agriculture (NRC 1993), especially for ecological sustainability (NRC 1992, Pimentel et al. 1992). The role of folk crop varieties, and their wild and weedy relatives, has been especially well publicized (Keystone Center 1991, Plucknett et al. 1987). Folk varieties, also known as landraces, traditional varieties, or primitive varieties, have been defined as geographically or ecologically distinctive populations which are conspicuously diverse in their genetic composition both between populations and within them (Brown 1978, p. 145) and as the product of local selection by farmerbreeders (Harlan 1992, NRC 1993). The level of international attention achieved by crop genetic resources, folk varieties, and farmerbreeders was reflected at the 1992