Abstract
The American tropics are hotspots of wild and domesticated plant biodiversity, which is still underutilized by breeding programs despite being conserved at regional gene banks. The improvement of those programs depends on long-term public funds and the maintenance of specialized staff. Unfortunately, financial ups and downs complicate staff connectivity and their research impact. Between 2000 and 2010, Agrosavia (Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria) dramatically decreased its public financial support. In 2017, we surveyed all 52 researchers from Agrosavia involved in plant breeding and plant genetic resource programs to examine the effect of decimating funds in the last ten years. We hypothesized that the staff dedicated to plant breeding still suffer a strong fragmentation and low connectivity. As we expected, the social network among researchers is weak. The top ten central leaders are predominantly males with an M.Sc. degree but have significant experience in the area. The staff has experience in 31 tropical crops, and 17 are on the list of underutilized species. Moreover, although 26 of these crops are in the national germplasm bank, this has not been the primary source for their breeding programs. We proposed five principles to improve connectivity among teams and research impact: (1) The promotion of internal discussion about gender gaps and generation shifts to design indicators to monitor and decrease this disparity over time. (2) The construction of long-term initiatives and synergies with the Colombian government to support the local production of food security crops independent of market trends. (3) Better collaboration between the National Plant Germplasm Bank and plant breeding researchers. (4) A concerted priority list of species (especially those neglected or underutilized) and external institutions to better focus the collaborative efforts in research using public funds. (5) Better spaces for the design of projects among researchers and training programs in new technologies. These principles could also apply in other tropical countries with public plant breeding research programs facing similar challenges.
Highlights
Most of the biodiversity hotspots in the world are in the tropics
We found a gender disparity among researchers working on plant breeding and plant genetic resource (PB&PGR) within AGROSAVIA, where 71% (n = 37) are male, and 29% (n = 15) are female, and none declared an identity outside the binary male-female
(2) The construction of long-term initiatives and synergies with the Colombian government to support the local production of food security crops independent of market trends
Summary
Most of the biodiversity hotspots in the world are in the tropics. This ecozone overlaps with 28% of the centers of crop domestication. Of these centers of domestication, tropical Latin America is critical. Many others are important only locally, maintaining a category of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) [1]. Despite these extraordinary conditions, Latin Americans face many intermixed problems such as poverty, food insecurity, and climate change [2]. Latin America’s future is challenging in a context where the human population will reach 9 billion people by
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