(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MoAF) has succeeded in registering 374 varieties of plants in the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) for the first time.
Speaking to Muscat Daily, Dr Hamoud bin Darwish al Hassani, director general for Agriculture and Animal Research at MoAF said, 'We have registered 374 plant varieties, of which 327 are palm trees, 13 citrus, 25 Omani mango trees, four guava trees, one coconut tree, one pomegranate tree and three banana trees.'
Talking about the importance of registering plants in UPOV, he said, 'The current status of plant genetic resources in the sultanate indicates that the genetic diversity of many agricultural crops and wild species has deteriorated. The reason for the deterioration is the replacement of local varieties with imported ones, the mixing of local varieties with the imported varieties in the field and the increase of load on leads to the shrinking of pastures.
'Degradation of plant genetic diversity is resulting in loss of farm wealth, which, if exploited properly, can be developed to produce local agricultural crops that withstand various environmental stresses such as drought, water and soil salinity, diseases and pests.'
Dr Hassani added, 'UPOV is known for credibility and transparency. We are members of it, so we have the right to register our genetic resources. It is able to protect intellectual property rights of our plant genetic resources to use it optimally and sustainably. It is also a plant gene bank that can be referred to in future research studies related to the development of plant varieties and their resistance to various conditions of environmental stresses.'
After registration these plant varieties in UPOV, Dr Hassani said, the sultanate has become the sole owner of them.
'In future, we will use it to develop our crops with high productivity that will have a great economic return due to cultivation or sale to other commercial entities.
'These plant varieties are spread throughout Oman and are found in difficult environments, such as mountains and wadis. This is a great effort by our staff who organised campaigns for days to get all information about them.'
Collecting information about the plants was not easy, Dr Hassani said.
"Some of plant varieties are unknown, so the specialists interviewed villagers and experts to collect information about their names and benefits. We have overcome all the challenges due to cooperation between people and government agencies.
'We are keen to register new wheat varieties, homogenous in their genetic traits such as Jibreen 1, Bahla wheat 1, Najd wheat 1 and Nizwa wheat 1.'
MENAFN2002201801410000ID1096487397
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.