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Fibre Crops (Flax and Hemp) Working Group

Sugar, Starch and Fibre Crops Network

NEWSLETTER Articles

 

Report of a Working Group on Fibre Crops (Flax and Hemp).
First Meeting,
14-16 June 2006, Wageningen,
The Netherlands
REV. DRAFT June 07
(PDF file 258KB)




The International Flax Database

The European Hemp Database


International Flax Data Base (IFDB) descriptors



Fibre Crops
Working Group members

Fibre Crops
Meetings & Reports
  Background information   The European Hemp Database
  The International Flax Database

Background information

During its first meeting in Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom, in September 1999, the ECPGR Industrial Crops and Potato (renamed as Sugar, Starch and Fibre Crops as of October 2003) Network Coordinating Group (NCG) suggested the organization of an ad hoc meeting on flax, with the main objective of facilitating the development of the International Flax Database, as well as to exchange information about the status of flax genetic resources in Europe.
As a result of this proposal, an ad hoc group of representatives of European flax collections met in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2001.

A proposal for the establishment of a formal ECPGR Working Group on Fibre Crops, including Flax and Hemp was prepared, following the second NCG meeting (Bologna, Italy, 2002). On that occasion the establishment of the European Hemp Database was also agreed.
The proposal was submitted to and approved by the ECPGR Steering Committee in October 2003.
The main objective of the Working Group is to facilitate the implementation of the workplan agreed by the ad hoc group on flax and to help the development of a European Central Database for Hemp.

The first meeting of the formal Fibre Crops (Flax and Hemp) Working Group took place in Wageningen, The Netherlands, on 14-16 June 2006.

The International Flax Database (IFDB)

In 1993, a channel of communication established with the genetic resources working group of the FAO/ESCORENA European Cooperative Research Network on Flax and other Bast Plants, promoted collaboration for the development of the International Flax Database (IFDB).

The IFDB has been managed and coordinated by the AGRITEC company (Šumperk, Czech Republic) since 1994. It currently includes data for 8387 accessions, stored in 13 contributing genebanks in 11 European countries. These are described by 22 passport and 25 specific characterization and evaluation descriptors. The contents of the database are estimated to be 33% of the total number of accessions (possibly around 25 000) in storage in Europe. Passport data are included in the database for 82% of the accessions, while only 16% are described by characterization descriptors.
In order to evaluate flax genetic resources properly, a set of standard varieties including both fibre and linseed varieties was defined and their relevance to the respective trait’s expression was published (see: list).

For the IFDB it was recommended to use the EURISCO passport data based on the new version of the FAO/IPGRI Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors (MCPDv2).
It was also recommended to add new passport descriptors i.e. Year of release, Type of use and Pedigree.

The current structure of the IFDB is in Access format and the data are accepted in Access or Excel format. It is planned to make the IFDB searchable on line, with the help of the ECPGR Documentation and Information Network.

The European Hemp Database

The European Hemp Database, established in October 2002, is managed by the Istituto Sperimentale per le Colture Industriali (ISCI, Bologna, Italy). This database, under construction, has actually been created starting with a download of hemp data from EURISCO, and currently holds 1257 accessions from 37 countries. It will contain passport data of cultivated material, breeding material and wild accessions maintained in germplasm collections in European research institutes and genebanks, according to the FAO/IPGRI Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors.

There are plans to develop the Cannabis descriptors book in the near future.



For more information or comments:
Please contact the Chair of the Working Group: Mr Martin Pavelek [click here] and
Vice-Chair: Mr Giuseppe Mandolino [click here]