Serendipitous In Situ Conservation of Faba Bean Landraces in Tunisia: A Case Study

Cultivation of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in Tunisia is largely based on improved varieties ofthe crop. However, a few farmers continue to produce local cultivars or landraces. The NationalGene Bank of Tunisia (NGBT) recently launched a collection project for faba bean landraces, withspecial focus on the regions of the North West, traditionally devoted to cultivating grain legumes,and where around 80% of the total national faba bean cultivation area is located. The seedphenotypic features of the collected samples were studied, and the genetic diversity and populationstructure analyzed using simple sequence repeat markers. The genetic constitution of the presentsamples was compared to that of faba bean samples collected by teams of the International Centerfor Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in the 1970s in the same region, and stored atthe ICARDA gene bank. The results of the diversity analysis demonstrate that the recently collectedsamples and those stored at ICARDA largely overlap, thus demonstrating that over the past 50years, little genetic change has occurred to the local faba bean populations examined. These findingssuggest that farmers serendipitously applied international best practices for in situ conservation ofagricultural crops.