Abstract:

The biodiversity conservation was included in environment problems at the ONU conference for environment and development, from Rio de Janeiro (1992). Important parts of the conservation are traditional varieties and local populations of crop plants. The UE regulation 98/95 comes to protect the vegetal genetic resources. Unlike the other countries with advanced agriculture, Romania still has a rich genetic diversity of culture plants, especially in the zones that were non-cooperativized during the communism. However, if there will not be any proper measures of their conservation, these populations and varieties are in danger of extinction. Our objectives presume finding the small seed producers, collecting carrot, parsley and lettuce seeds, building experimental zones for the characterization of varieties and local populations as well as the conservation of their seeds at the Gene Bank Suceava and gene microbank from USAMV Cluj-Napoca, which is in the stage of project. In 2007 spring, 188 traditional varieties and local populations of carrot, parsley and lettuce seeds, from 69 producers within 15 counties of our country, especially from Transylvania were collected. The seeds were mainly from the agro alimentary markets collected. A questionnaire for every seed producer was filled in order to obtain information regarding: the tradition in the seed production, technology of culture, seeds sale, sex and age of the producers etc. Every variety has a unique code, after the proposal of FAO/IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute), valid for all vegetal varieties. The obtained data confirm that vegetable genetic diversity, in the studied area, is big but the risk of extinction is high. The most important cause are the advanced age of traditional seed producers (about 70% of them are over 60 years old) and the recession of vegetable cultivated zones. In 2007 year, an agrobiologic characterization on carrot, parsley and lettuce was done and lettuce seed was obtained. The experiments will continue in 2008.

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