The Food Security and Nutritional Crops We Are Working With

Interactive

Discover Our Seven BOLD Crops

Alfalfa

Why it’s important

Alfalfa is the most widely harvested forage globally, grown on 35 million hectares in more than 80 countries worldwide.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

We are using molecular characterization data to find diversity in alfalfa CWR that can be used in modern alfalfa breeding programs to improve drought tolerance.

Some highlights so far

New alfalfa diversity from the project is already improving smallholder livelihoods in Chile, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Zambia.

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Barley

Why it’s important

The fourth most produced cereal crop in the world (145 million tonnes in 2021), barley is widely grown in dry areas.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

Continuing on-farm trials and starting on-station trials with new partners in six countries (Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia) to identify varieties capable of facing the challenge of changing climates.

Some highlights so far

For the first time ever, we are field-testing material derived from crosses between barley and its perennial wild relative, Hordeum bulbosum.

Video

Durum Wheat

Why it’s important

Durum wheat is the sixth most produced cereal (about 35 million tonnes in 2021). It is a key ingredient in many important foods, including pasta, couscous and bulgur. It also has a very low glycemic index, making it a good source of energy for diabetics. Durum wheat is more drought and heat tolerant than bread wheat.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

We are testing elite lines derived from CWR and landraces in farmers’ fields under very severe drought and heat stress in six countries (Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia) to identify varieties capable of facing the challenge of changing climates.

Some highlights so far

Elite varieties derived from CWR under the project have already been released to farmers in Lebanon, Morocco, Senegal and elsewhere in Africa.

Video

Finger Millet

Why it’s important

Finger millet tolerates hot (up to 35°C) and dry conditions, and is well-adapted to poor soils.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

We are working with partners in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda to identify CWR and landraces with pest and disease resistance and drought tolerance, and crossing these with high-yielding cultivars to develop climate-resilient varieties for farmers across sub-Saharan Africa.

Some highlights so far

We have identified novel sources of drought tolerance and resistance to the parasitic plant Striga, which can cause almost total crop losses, and to blast disease, and breeding efforts are underway.

Video

Grasspea

Why it’s important

Grasspea is a pulse that is tolerant of drought, flooding, salinity and poor soils, making it valuable for smallholder farmers in difficult environments. It is an important source of food in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and Pakistan. But it also contains ODAP, a toxic compound that causes lathyrism, a neurological disorder that causes paralysis and brain damage if too much is taken in over a long period.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

We are working with partners in Bangladesh, India and Nepal to test grasspea crosses derived from CWR for yield, stability and ODAP content.

To accelerate breeding progress, 13 CWR-derived populations are being advanced under field conditions in Terbol, Lebanon, and through speed breeding in Marouch, Morocco.

Some highlights so far

We have identified high-performing CWR-derived lines with low ODAP content that have potential for release as varieties in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The First International Lathyrus Day held in Gent, Belgium, in 2024 provided a valuable platform for BOLD project partners from seven institutions in six countries to network and collaborate.

Video

Potato

Why it’s important

Potato is the third most eaten food crop in the world after rice and wheat. It is a staple food for more than 1 billion people and is grown in more than 100 countries around the world.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

Sources of heat and drought tolerance and pest and disease resistance are available in potato wild relatives, but pre-breeding is needed to transfer these into cultivated potato varieties. We are working with farmers in Kenya to develop disease-resistant potatoes suited to the East African highlands.

We are also working with farmers in Ecuador to evaluate advanced CWR-derived varieties.

Some highlights so far

Two CWR-derived potatoes that are resistant to late blight–an important disease of potatoes–have been released to farmers in Peru, making a difference in their lives.

The project also contributed to the publication of the Catalogue of Potato Wild Relatives of Ecuador, the first in the country.

Video

Rice

Why it’s important

Rice is the main source of food energy for more than half of the world’s population, including many of those living in poverty. It is grown commercially in more than 100 countries on all continents except Antarctica, in both tropical and temperate regions, and in both rainfed and irrigated systems.

What our BOLD partners are currently doing

We are working with farmers in 10 seed clubs in the Mekong Delta, North and Central Vietnam to evaluate promising varieties.

Some highlights so far

We have successfully identified and introduced traits such as drought tolerance and pest and disease resistance from wild relatives and local landraces into rice breeding programs in Vietnam.

Video

Interactive

Unique Stories of Unique Diversity

Here, we look in a little more detail at the characteristics of some of the crops and their wild relatives that the BOLD Project partners are working on.

Alfalfa

Hi, I’m Medicago sativa. I am native to Eurasia. I am a forage crop.
Hi, I’m Medicago arborea. I come from the Mediterranean region, including Spain, Italy, Greece and Türkiye and several islands.
Commonly known as alfalfa or lucerne, I am domesticated. I am grown around the world, mostly in temperate zones.
I'm commonly known as moon trefoil and shrub medick. I’m your distant cousin, a.k.a. a wild relative.
I am a herb and I’m usually less than 1 meter tall.
I am a shrub and can grow over 2 meters tall.
I am a legume, so I can “fix” nitrogen from the air.
Me, too.
I tolerate drought, cold and some salt in the soil. I am usually dormant in the winter and grow in the summer.
I tolerate drought and salty soil and water. I grow in the winter.
I have soft stems and a tap root up to 6 meters long.
I have a woody trunk and a big root system.
I have purple flowers.
I have yellow flowers.
I am rich in nitrogen and proteins.
Me, too.
I am perennial.
Me, too.
I am one of the world's most valuable fodder crops, planted for hay and pasture in more than 80 countries.
I have been used to revegetate degraded land in semi-arid areas.

Medicago arborea went from being irrelevant to food security to an exciting prospect when the late Professor Edwin Bingham from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) made and shared with the world the first hybrids between it and Medicago sativa, bringing along novel traits such as higher growth rates in mild climates.

In 2024, thanks to support provided by the Crop Trust’s CWR Project, Chile’s Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) announced Kauke, the first-ever alfalfa variety released in the country for rainfed areas – a huge breakthrough for Chile’s livestock farmers, who mostly rely on rainfed production of forage crops.

Genesys lists 21,064 accessions of alfalfa, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Barley

I am a domesticated plant, grown by farmers around the world, from as far south as Tierra del Fuego to as far north as Greenland.
I am a wild species, found in the Mediterranean basin through West and Central Asia.
My siblings and I rely on a handful of genes to give us resistance to pests or diseases. If one of us gets sick, we all will.
I have different resistance to specific pests and diseases than you.
I can cross easily with wild barley.
I’m very difficult to cross with domesticated barley.
I am an annual species. Farmers have to plant me every year.
I am a perennial species – I regrow year after year from my bulb.
I usually produce only a few, short, stiff stems, with big seed heads. My seed heads don’t shatter when the seeds are ripe, making it easy to harvest my grain.
I have a lot of weak stems, similar to ordinary grasses. I produces only a few, small, inedible grains and my seed head shatters easily, making harvesting difficult.
I grow in carefully tended farmers’ fields.
I am found in a wide range of habitats, from wet meadows to dry hillsides, on roadsides and in abandoned fields.
I am self-pollinating.
I am cross-pollinating, making a large amount of pollen that is transported by wind.
I am the fourth most widely grown cereal after wheat, rice, and maize.
You like to boast. I'm but your wild cousin.

Pre-breeding crosses between H. bulbosum and barley were developed in the 1980s and were found to offer new sources of disease and pest resistance. However, they were never tested under drought conditions. That changed when the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and Morocco’s Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) tested them under the CWR and BOLD projects and found that some of the plants showed greater heat and drought tolerance than the barley varieties that H. bulbosum had been crossed with.

Genesys lists 268,428 accessions of barley, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Durum Wheat

Hi, I am durum wheat. You use me to make pasta, flat bread and couscous, among other things.
Hi, I'm one of durum wheat’s distantly related wild cousins, also known as Araratian or Armenian wild emmer.
I’m originally from the Fertile Crescent, but now I am grown around the world. The largest producers are the European Union, Canada, Turkey and the USA.
I’m originally from the Fertile Crescent, too, and I still grow in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
I have big seed heads with many, big and round grains, ideal for milling and eating.
I have only small seed heads with small grains.
My seed heads don’t shatter when the grain is ripe, which makes it easy for farmers to harvest my grain.
My seed heads do shatter when the seeds are ripe, scattering widely.
Commonly grown varieties are based on few parents, limiting diversity in many traits.
I have a lot of genetic diversity for various traits, including pest and disease resistance and nutrient composition.
I can’t cross easily with Triticum araraticum but can with other of my more closely related wild relatives.
Yes, I can crossbreed with you only with difficulty, but when I do I can give you new diversity that you need.

Araratian, or Armenian, wild emmer wheat shows considerable promise as a source of genes for resistance to several key pests and diseases affecting durum wheat. These include leaf rust, stem rust, powdery mildew and Hessian fly. It has also been shown to be a source of traits affecting grain quality, such as milling yield, and grain protein and mineral content.

Genesys lists 122,317 accessions of durum wheat, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.

Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Potato

Hi, I am the potato. I am the fourth most eaten crop in the world, after wheat, maize and rice.
I am one of your wild relatives.
I am originally from the Andes in South America, but I am now grown by farmers in more than 100 countries around the world.
My home is a small area in northern Peru.
I have large tubers that contain lots of nutrients, including vitamin C, and can provide a lot of food.
My tubers are small, only about 1 cm in diameter, so I am not used as a food crop.
One of my big problems is I get a disease called late blight, which can turn my tubers to a nasty mush.
This is where I can help. I am resistant to late blight and can pass this trait on to you, cousin.
Thanks to you, dear wild relative, I now have some varieties that are resistant to late blight, like CIP-Matilde and CIP-ASIRYQ. Thanks, cousin!
You are welcome!

This wild species exhibits resistance to late blight, one of the most significant potato diseases. Studies conducted on its wild relatives collection by the International Potato Center (CIP) identified plants with moderate to high levels of resistance, constituting a valuable source of genetic diversity for use in potato breeding (Ordoñez et al., 2024).

Genesys lists 25,952 accessions of potato, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Rice

You all know me. I’m Asian rice, staple food of over half of the world’s population. I am an annual species – that means I grow from seed, produce my own seeds and then die, all in a few months. I then have to grow again from seed next year.
I am your ancestor and distant relative. I am a perennial species. I live for several years, producing new growth and new seeds each year.
I was domesticated in China – or India, or maybe both, scientists are still researching my origins – more than 8,000 years ago.
I was originally found throughout south and southeast Asia and Australasia.
Now I am grown around the world. The largest producers in 2023 were India, China, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
I too can now be found far from my ancestral home – in North, South and Central America and the Caribbean as well.
I grow in a wide range of conditions, from water up to 4 meters deep to dry upland fields.
I grow in swamps, marshes, open ditches, swampy grasslands and in rice fields. In the USA, I’m considered a weed.
I have a large seed head with up to 350 big seeds. I hang onto my seeds, helping farmers harvest them.
I have a smaller seed head, with fewer, smaller seeds. And my heads shatter easily, making it difficult to harvest my seeds.
Wild cousin, you have a lot to offer me, including adding to my pest and disease resistance and ability to grow in drier areas.
I’m looking forward to working with you.

Oryza rufipogon is known to carry genes for high grain yield, resistance to some important pests and diseases, and tolerance to drought, submergence, salinity and cold stresses. This species was crossed with domesticated rice to produce plants with the characteristics of both parents under the Crop Trust’s Crop Wild Relatives Project.

Genesys lists 272,948 accessions of rice, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Grasspea

Hi, I’m grasspea, an annual legume used in a few places for human food and animal feed.
Commonly known as red vetchling, I am considered a partly domesticated species, but still your closest wild relative.
I was first cultivated more than 8,000 years ago in parts of Turkey and Syria, but I’m now grown for food in parts of Europe, North and East Africa, across Asia and as far as Australia.
I am found in south, central and eastern Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far east as Kazakhstan and Pakistan.
I can grow in very poor conditions, from very dry to very wet, and on very poor soils. I am a good source of protein when the going gets tough.
Me, too. Except for the bit about being a good source of protein…
But I also contain a poison that can paralyze you if you eat too much of me and only me - for too long.
I can help here! I contain much less of this poison.
I do suffer (occasionally) from a few diseases like powdery mildew and rust, and the parasitic plant, broomrape, which can cut my ability to produce seed.
I can help here, too. I have genes for resistance to several of these diseases, including broomrape.
The future's looking good. I look forward to working with you!

Scientists working with the BOLD Project have crossed a much less poisonous line of Lathyrus cicera with grasspea in an attempt to create a grasspea that can be eaten safely in larger quantities. The offspring of this cross are now being tested in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

Genesys lists 6,697 accessions of grasspea, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Finger Millet

Hi, I am finger millet, one of the most nutritious cereal crops in the world.
I am your wild ancestor.
I was domesticated about 5,000 years ago in the East African highlands, probably in Uganda and Ethiopia.
I’m still wild.
I haven’t moved much since then, and I am mainly found in Africa and South Asia, notably in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, India and Nepal.
I am found in eastern Africa, from Egypt in the north to South Africa, across the Sahelian countries and on the Arabian peninsula.
I am somewhat drought tolerant and can grow on poor soils.
I prefer damp sandy soils beside rivers and reservoirs and disturbed ground at roadsides.
One of my big problems is that I am susceptible to blast, a fungal disease, which can reduce my yield by up to 80%.
Lucky for you, I have genes for resistance to blast that I can pass on to you.

E. coracana ssp. africana possesses useful traits such as blast resistance, striga tolerance, drought tolerance, and even high protein. Scientists used it to generate pre-breeding products under the CWR project. As part of the BOLD Project, selected CWR- and/or landrace-derived plants are being evaluated in on-station, on-farm and in National Performance Trials (NPT) under diverse conditions in Kenya.

Genesys lists 14,654 accessions of finger millet, including its wild relatives, landraces and improved materials. Some of these can be ordered directly through Genesys.
Disclaimer: Other genebanks also may hold seed samples of this species that are not currently listed on Genesys.

Living in an Interdependent World

What would pizza be without tomatoes? But, while pizza might be Italian, tomatoes came from the Andes in South America. So did the potato, a staple of the British diet. And your loaf of bread? Wheat originally came from the Fertile Crescent in the Near East. So we all depend on food that originates from somewhere else. And genebanks are key to making sure that this diversity remains available to breeders, farmers and consumers around the world.

Durum Wheat

From the field

Armenia, Italy and Syria

To the genebank.

USDA, Kansas State and North Dakota (USA); University of Nottingham, (UK); the University of Tuscia (Italy); ICARDA genebank Lebanon

If you are still with us, you will no doubt agree that the journey from CWR in a genebank to elite varieties in the hands of farmers is long and difficult. And there is still a lot more work to be done.

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