Just over a decade ago, we began an incredible global journey to adapt our agriculture to #climatechange. At the time, it was a pioneering initiative to use the wild, weedy cousins of our domesticated crops in developing new, resilient varieties. 📽️. 🧵⬇️.

The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System - An Overview via @YouTube.

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We will not be using this Twitter account in the future, but you can continue following the journey of crop wild relatives and their role in climate adaptation and #foodsecurity by following the @CropTrust on social media. Thank you.

Thank you especially to the Government of Norway, a forward-thinking donor, who, like the @CropTrust, believes in long-term investments for long-term impact. With their support, this journey will continue and be expanded through the #BOLDcwr Project.

The Crop Wild Relatives Project shows what we can accomplish together with a little daring, a lot of hard work and a shared conviction that we can adapt our agriculture to meet the challenges ahead. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to its success.

And more variety releases will follow, including through our just-launched #BOLDcwr Project, a new 10-year initiative to improve food security and climate resilience globally. BOLD will build on the successes and achievements of the CWR project 👉

Together with @Cipotato, we recently announced a new disease-resistant potato variety, called CIP-Matilde, which was developed with the support of Indigenous farmers in Peru. 🥔🥔 🥔🥔

Crops like rice, alfalfa, durum wheat or potato far exceeded our expectations and new varieties are already in farmers' fields or will be very soon. They confirm the value of working together as a global community to collect, conserve and use crop wild relatives.

Farmers shared their time and their expertise, working closely with plant breeders. They helped evaluate "crop wild relative-derived material" which will develop into new crop varieties that can withstand extreme weather conditions and pests and diseases, while also being tasty.

The scientists in this project spent long days and nights out in the field. In rainforests, swamps and deserts and in low-lands and high-lands. They diligently searched for these elusive and sometimes tiny plants that were once considered weeds at best.

We have 100+ valued partners in 50+ countries who have explored the value of these wild cousins of 19 priority food and forage crops. And in the process, we've trained 14,000+ people in collecting, safeguarding and using wild relatives for crop improvement.

What we did not know was the "how." . How much diversity was missing? How could it contribute to transforming our agriculture?. We've come a long way since then. We collected 4,500+samples of crop wild relatives which are now safeguarded in genebanks.

When we started, we knew that the wild plant diversity related to our food crops was often missing in genebank collections. We knew it was disappearing quickly from its natural habitats. And we knew it had great potential to adapt our agriculture to face climate change.

Always happy to get feedback from the farmers! . Crop wild relatives-derived pigeonpea lines in India are performing well in the fields. Farmers in Tirupati are intercropping them with cotton.

RT @spc_cps: 🇦🇺@dfat🤝SPC.🌱Logotonu Waqainabete coordinates the #CePaCT, the main gene bank in the Pacific,mainly funded by DFAT. Read her j….

The Crop Wild relatives project brought new, climate-resilient crop varieties to the farmer's fields and their family's tables. The project coordinator Benjamin Kilian explains how did so-called weeds become the main stars for future food security. #BOLDcwr

The scientists involved in the CWR project have spent really long days and nights out in the fields, rainforest, desert areas and swamps, in lowlands and highlands. They have diligently searched for these tiny plants that were once considered weeds.

After a decade of pioneering work harnessing crop wild relatives to develop climate-resilient agriculture, the Crop Wild Relatives Project is coming to an end. Join us at #GLFClimate as we take a look back at 10 years of impact for food secure future 👉

Great video about crop wild relatives and pre-breeding!.

RT @CropTrust: Kahnawa’kehró:non community members in Canada plant the seeds of native crops collected and stored through the community gar….