What are crop wild relatives?

Crop wild relatives, or CWR, are the wild ‘cousins’ of our cultivated crops. Just like the wolf is related to the dog, crop wild relatives are related to our food plants.

Why are they important?

Crop wild relatives are important because they contain useful genetic diversity, some of which is not present in cultivated crops. They provide the opportunity to improve the productivity and resilience of agriculture. However, in the coming century, as population increases to over 9 billion and climate change intensifies, exacerbating the spread of crop pests and diseases, Crop wild relatives may become indispensable.

Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives is a 10 year project aiming to collect many of the most important species of crop wild relatives, ensure their long-term conservation, and facilitate their use in breeding new, improved crops. The project is managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and implemented in partnership with national and international gene banks and plant breeding institutes around the world. Check out our Flickr to explore some of the amazing landscapes, plants and partners we work with and see how we tackle such an ambitious project. For further information see the project website: www.cwrdiversity.org