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EUROPEAN CENTRAL FORAGES DATABASES 3
EGDS-ECP/GR Workshop on Central Crop Databases
Many of the European forage database managers attended the joint EGDS-ECP/GR
workshop on Central Crop Databases held in Budapest in October 1996. Among the topics
discussed were the role of Central Crop Databases (CCDBs), the inclusion of evaluation data
in CCDBs, the standardization of CCDBs, the role of the database managers, and the
facilitation of access to CCDBs.
The workshop adopted a slightly revised version of a multicrop passport descriptors list
proposed by FAO and IPGRI.
To make the CCDBs widely accessible it was decided to establish an Internet-based
information platform.
The question was raised why the forages are split into so many databases, even within
some genera. It should be recommended that in the future, any change would go in the
direction of merging rather than splitting databases.
European Phleum Database
After the recommendations of the EGDS-ECP/GR Workshop, the Phleum database was put
on the Internet in a searchable form in November 1996 at the NGB. This was the first
ECP/GR database to be put on-line in a searchable form. Agrostis, Phalaris and Poa databases
will follow soon.
Lolium perenne Core Collection
The Lolium perenne core collection was established at 16 locations in the spring of 1995, and at
two locations in 1996, in a total of 17 countries. Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton and Ian D.
Thomas elaborated the protocol for scoring the plants based on the discussions in our
previous meeting in Bulgaria. Dirk Reheul made the protocol for the quality analysis. Five
countries will do the quality analysis. Thirty-eight accessions were analyzed for isozymes by
François Balfourier.
EU projects on genetic resources (EC 1467/94)
Three project proposals were submitted to the EU, one on Medicago, one on Lolium and
Festuca, and one on Vicieae. The proposal on Lolium and Festuca was coordinated by
Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, the proposal on Medicago was coordinated by Vincent
Gensollen and the proposal on Vicieae by Frank Bisby. None of the proposals was successful
or resubmitted in the following second call for proposals in 1996. A new call for proposals is
expected to be announced in 1998. 2
Mid-term progress report
A mid-term report was distributed to all members of the Working Group in July 1996,
providing summaries of activities implemented since the previous meeting of the Working
Group.
2 The Third call for proposals for the Community programme on the conservation, characterization,
collection and utilization of genetic resources in agriculture was published on 9 April 1998 (closing
date for proposal submission 9 July 1998).