On-farm conservation priorities through a multicriteria monospecific approach

Abstract

Landraces are key plant genetic resources because of their adaptation to the local environment, which makes them likely to contain alleles or gene complexes that confer local adaptation. After massive loss of landraces in the past century, the diversity that persists in farms is currently threatened and, thus, it must be safeguarded with the highest priority. On-farm conservation is an important management approach that allows landraces to evolve according to environmental changes. A methodological approach to systematic identification of the most appropriate areas (MAPAs) for on-farm conservation of landraces is presented, using Spanish tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) landraces as a case study. Among a set of potential factors that might condition the selection of the MAPAs, a panel of experts determined that the most important criteria in the assessment of the MAPAs were related to agrobiodiversity and to ecogeographical parameters. For each important criterion, a specific 5- by 5-km resolution GIS layer was created, and six different prioritization strategies were applied on the area of study to obtain a final priority value per cell and then an average priority value per county. The MAPAs were assigned to the counties with the highest average priority values according to the selected strategy. They were widely distributed in rural areas across the Iberian Peninsula mainly in the autonomous communities of Valencia, the Basque Country, Extremadura, northern Andalusia, Catalonia, northern Aragon, and western Castilla-La Mancha. The methodological approach and priority counties identified could be used by governmental agencies to allocate in situ conservation projects.