ARCAD brings together the main collections of crop genetic resources from CIRAD, IRD and INRAE. It holds some 50,000 samples, including vines, maize, sorghum, durum wheat, rice, millet, cotton, fonio, groundnuts, cocoa, coffee and forest trees, in the form of seeds or in vitro plants.

INRAE reports that ARCAD is built in the form of an H around the seed conservation platform, at the heart of which is a robot stacker. It explains that this is surrounded by three technical platforms for genotyping-sequencing, seed phenotyping and cryoconservation equipped with the latest technologies to conserve and study genetic diversity.

“Studying the diversity of crops and their wild relatives is essential in a context of globalisation and global change,” says INRAE. “Certain heirloom or wild varieties, which are sometimes endangered, may be less sensitive to climate conditions or to the emerging diseases and plant pests that are spreading throughout the world. They can also be used as parents of new varieties that are better suited to these new contexts.

“Moreover, growing a range of different species and varieties is a guarantee of resilience, especially for family farms, which provide more than half of the world’s agricultural production. This contributes to food and nutrition security.

“Finally, conserving, studying and disseminating this diversity by articulating the different modes of conservation in a complementary manner (in the field with farmers or in centres such as ARCAD) and by recognising the different processes and actors involved in the creation of diversity (farmers, researchers, plant breeders) are key to successful food and agroecological transitions at the global level.”

CIRAD’s nearby AbioPhen greenhouses are designed to further research on adaptation to climate change in crops such as rice and examining in detail the mechanisms at work and identifying associated genetic traits. Climate conditions (light, temperature and humidity) can be controlled and CO2 can be increased up to four times the atmospheric level, enabling the greenhouses to simulate future climates (higher temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels, or drier air).

INRAE reports: “These high-tech greenhouses will be used to study the behaviour of new varieties, resulting from controlled crosses or from new associations of varieties or species, in the climate conditions of the coming decades.”

For more information:

• Read more on the INRAE website here