The National Programme of Plant Genetic Resources — development and priorities in Slovak Republic

gathering, documentation, base evaluation the using of crop descriptor and long- term conservation of

Through participation in above mentioned activities the Slovak Republic accepted engagement to protect and conserve PGR and to make them freely available for noncommercial use. On the other hand, the above mentioned agreements open access to world gene pools for Slovak users and allow equal sharing of benefits. Also information, technological and other assistance provided to institutions dealing with PGR through international collaboration are very important. We appreciate, that thanks to the support of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic could join those advanced countries which respect and protect wealth of gene pools in the world and cooperate by their conservation and utilization.

Collecting of Plant Genetic Resources
Collecting missions being continuation of those carried out in previous years aimed at endangered land races and wild relatives on the territory of the Slovak Republic. Altogether more 5500 accessions of PGR were gathered from the region of the Slovak Republic by all collecting trips. New increases in collections were also obtained through exchange of PGR, with partner gene banks, breeders and research.

Information systems and characterisation of Plant Genetic Resources
Documentation of all collections in all institutions dealing with PGR is provided by the Gene Bank with co-operation with working places of collections within the Genetic Resources Information System of Slovakia (GRISS) -https://griss.vurv.sk/ (front office) and https://kurator.vurv.sk/ (back office). Total amount of PGR registered in the passport data base reached 26 926 by the end of the year 2017 and this figure is close to the real status of collections in the Slovak Republic (excluding not high number of duplications and some new accessions not yet registered in collection). The largest collections are collections of cereals, followed by fruit species, legumes and other collections lower than 6%. The Slovak Republic provides every year the database of passport data to the web catalogue EURISCO.

Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources
Number of samples provided depends on demands of users and it is influenced by effectiveness of available information. In the year 2017, 2146 samples of PGR were provided to local users and 493 samples were sent abroad. In general, breeders, research workers and gene banks were main recipients of PGR and to a lesser extent PGR, were provided also to universities, schools and other institutions.

Education and training of Plant Genetic Resources
In Slovak Republic, education in the field of environment protection, agrobiodiversity and plant genetic resources is provided by secondary schools and universities under supervision of the Ministry of Education SR. At the Ministry of Environment SR, the Central Council for Environmental Education and Training has been established as an advisory and coordinating body of the Minister. At the institutional level, especially at the universities, there are created sufficient professional capacities for educational process. Education in the field of conservation of agrobiodiversity, land and landscape, is provided by faculties at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Technical University in Zvolen.

National legislation for Plant Genetic Resources
In accordance with intentions of the Government of SR in biodiversity conservation, namely its part concerning conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, the basic documents are: Future perspectives -Improvement of cooperation, between the sectors of agriculture and environment protection, which are responsible for a global protection of nature and landscape in Slovakia.

-Improvement of cooperation between the institutions involved in the National
Programme and other potential holders of gene pools. -Support for creation of non-governmental organizations, which would be more involved in conservation of selected plant species, because this type of organizations, taking care of biodiversity conservation, is not common, is Slovakia. -Development and financing of projects oriented to education of society in biodiversity conservation.
During several years of activities, the Slovak gene bank has managed to assemble a fairly large number of accessions of obsolete and current crop plants and their allies in a well operating conservation programme. Although most of this material has been fairly well managed there are still gaps to be filled. Another extremely important issue to be resolved is a preservation of wild species such as those of grasses and legumes. Populations of wild species usually have narrow adaptive abilities and therefore, outside their natural environment they have diminished chance to survive without loss of less fit genotypes.