Virchow, Detlef (ed.) (2003): Efficient Conservation of Crop Genetic Diversity: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Studies. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp: 247.

The conservation of crop genetic resources is one of the important components of the effort to increase sustainably the agricultural production in low-income countries, and to guarantee the food security in the long-term especially for the low-income population groups in these countries. Without sufficient and long-term secured financial resources at national and international level the will to conserve crop genetic resources expressed by all governments will become a lip service, threatening all conservation efforts.

The contributions of this publication want to the ongoing discussion about the costs of the world-wide efforts to conserve crop genetic resources on the basis of theoretical and applied studies. Based on case studies in Columbia, India, Kenya and two genebanks of the CGIAR as well as some theoretical analysis, the publication aims to serve decision-makers at different levels with information on costs involved in the conservation of genetic resources and hence to increase the sensitiveness for the importance of increased cost-effectiveness of different conservation methods in order to identify an optimum portfolio of conservation.

Implications of these studies are especially the necessity of a sustainable financing of the conservation of crop genetic resources, an improvement of the cost effectiveness of the conservation activities and the establishment of a constant quality and cost monitoring process.