The broad range of genetic diversity existing in Africa, particularly in traditional and wild gene pools, is presently subject to serious genetic erosion and irreversible losses. This threat, which involves the interaction of several factors, is progressing at an alarming rate. The most crucial ones include displacement of indigenous farmers’ varieties (landraces) by new, genetically uniform crop cultivars, changes in agricultural development strategies and systems and/or land use, destruction of habitats and ecosystems, and reduction in rainfall leading to drought.

In this book, Melaku Worede, a renowned Ethiopian plant geneticist, presents several programs that promote important community level seed activities, as well as possible startegies to promote the sustainable use and local conservation of plant genetic resources in Africa.