2013 Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 190-195
Plant genetic resources (PGR) are plant materials of actual or potential value for the present and future generations. (Borromeo, 2007). Its conservation, management and sustainable utilization are important in environmental protection, crop improvement and food security. In the Philippines, the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory, ensures that a number of accessions of crops species are secure and accessible. (Hautea, 1998); Philippine Coconut Authority, Davao National Crop Research and Development Center, Bureau of Plant Industry (Bautista, 1994); and International Rice Genebank Collection (IRRI, 2012) also maintain germplasm collections. Foregoing institutions are non- academic. Hence, Bohol Island State University (BISU) in Bohol, Philippines with South- East Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) worked on PGR conservation through Farmers Field School (FSS) and Agriculture Curriculum Enrichment (ACE) Projects purposely to mainstream the principles of sustainable agriculture and development through conservation, improvement and utilization of PGR in the communities. Participatory basic needs assessment; FFS curriculum formulation; ACE following protocol and networking with Local Government Units, Department of Agriculture line agencies, non-government and peoples’ organization were employed. As a result, 16 FFS were conducted while ACE project successfully integrated Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Management (PGRCM) into the two Agriculture curricular programs of BISU. Seventy-five students passed the PGRCM course who also graduated from FFS with 290 farmers, five faculty-trainers and nine agricultural technician-trainers with skills in participatory varietal trials, selection and plant breeding that raised rice diversity in villages by 25-33 percent, produced three stable rice accessions, 25 selections and 18 breeding lines at F3 today apart from a number of bonus accomplishments. These developments are realities justifying that PGRCM can be successfully integrated into the state university’s mandates: instruction, research, extension and production and be capitalized as valuable initiative for sustainable development in the communities which the academe serves.
