THEORETICAL METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING THE STATUS OF CONSERVATION OF CROP LANDRACES IN ROMANIA

On farm conservation of crop landraces or old traditional crops is essential for further supporting food security and new policies in relation with biodiversity conservation and climate change responses such as adaptation and mitigation. In order to improve the genetic resources knowledge regarding crop landraces' germplasm diversity a new methodology for assessing their status of conservation thorough a landscape approach by also taking into account the climate change vulnerability of certain ecosystems compared to others and specific environment requirements is proposed. Developing new policies in applying dynamic action plans in agriculture, according to environmental factors, climate change impact and tolerance degree of crop landraces, may originate from these types of integrated studies. Based on the above mentioned rationale this proposed methodology will be further used for developing a Red List for crops in Romania.