Regenerating crop wild relatives in the fertile crescent

ICARDA is regenerating massive amounts of crop wild relatives in their place of origin – the Fertile Crescent. Until recently, ICARDA had been conducting its genebank operations in Syria, but due to the conflicts, ICARDA developed a new genebank at its Terbol station in Lebanon. “This is the center of diversity of these crops. This is no doubt the best place in the world to undertake such a massive task,” says Dr. Ahmed Amri, head of the Genetic Resources Section at ICARDA.