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It is widely recognised that the genetic diversity of cultivated plants has narrowed as a result of thousands of years of domestication, migration bottlenecks and breeding activities. As a consequence, current varieties are generally less responsive to changing conditions, such as climate change, land degradation, water scarcity or pathogen evolution. Therefore, there is a need to review the extent and range of exotic genetic resources used in today’s breeding programmes in order to seek ways of increasing the genetic diversity available in the crop gene pool for the generation of better adapted varieties.

In this context, there is a concern that plant breeders do not exploit the current germplasm banks as much as they could. One of the goals of GL-TTP is to facilitate the access and exploitation of genetic resources for their use in breeding programmes.

Genetic resources survey
A genetic resources survey for GL-TTP is currently under evaluation. This survey aims to assess the breeders’ awareness of the level of genetic diversity effectively used in their breeding programme, to evaluate their current use of wild germplasm and germplasm banks, and to identify the bottlenecks of exploitation of wild germplasm.

GL-TTP training and projects for better exploitation of genetic resources
Upon analysis of the survey, GL-TTP will define collective projects or training workshops to evaluate the genetic diversity effectively used in grain legume breeding, and to facilitate the access and exploitation of wild germplasm in consultation with plant breeders, experts in genetic diversity, managers of grain legume germplasm banks, and international coordinators of genetic resources.