Plant Genetic Resources and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Conservation Toward Resilience to Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is a stark reality and its effects are discernible even today. Changing climatic parameters will have impact on the global agriculture conditions with variable severity from region to region. On the one hand, unpredicted changes in climatic factors are quite likely to threaten the production and productivity of economically important plant species particularly that of food crops; at the same time, agriculture productivity requires significant increase to meet the expected growth in demand for food by the ever-increasing world population. Crop diversity, an important component of total plant biodiversity, is considered essential for sustainability of agriculture systems and for achieving food security under changing climate scenario. Plant genetic resources (PGRs) serve as the key ingredients for breeding crop varieties with resilience to different types of biotic and abiotic stresses resulting due to changes in climatic parameters. It makes the conservation and multiplication of plant genetic resources an essential strategy for development of crop genotypes with resilience to climate change and for achieving the overall goal of food security. Indigenous traditional knowledge, handed down from generation to generation over centuries, has been recognized as a treasure of information which can be utilized for developing resilience to climate change and for framing strategies for natural resource management in response to environmental changes. Indigenous traditional knowledge and judicious use of PGRs underline indigenous and local communities’ understanding of phenomenon of climate change and strategies to develop resilience in response to such changes for global sustainable development. Documentation, recognition, and scientific validation of traditional practices of local communities for conservation of biodiversity and sustainability of agriculture are essential for resilience to changing climatic conditions.