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Gmail.com (T.C.); [email protected] (K.A.); [email protected] (N.-M.K.) Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +30-210-529-4626 These authors contributed equally to this perform.Citation: Thanopoulos, R.; Chatzigeorgiou, T.; Argyropoulou, K.; Kostouros, N.-M.; Bebeli, P.J. State of Crop Landraces in Arcadia (Greece) and In-Situ Conservation Prospective. Diversity 2021, 13, 558. https:// doi.org/10.3390/d13110558 Academic Editor: Michael Wink Received: 11 DNQX disodium salt supplier October 2021 Accepted: 28 October 2021 Published: 1 Thromboxane B2 Biological Activity NovemberAbstract: Genetic erosion of landraces is escalating worldwide, on the other hand you can find still regions wealthy in landrace biodiversity, like islands and mountainous isolated areas. Defining the motives of landrace abandonment in these places, at the same time as collecting and preserving landraces, is of outmost value. Within this context, the Agricultural University of Athens organized missions in 53 villages of Arcadia, a prefecture wealthy in floral biodiversity and variable climatic conditions and topography. The aim was to gather samples with the on-farm (in-situ) conserved annual crop landraces and record the place of perennial crop neighborhood varieties. Since conventional information and practices have already been playing a important part within the survival of landraces and regional varieties, information was obtained by way of private interviews with locals employing semi-structured questionnaires. Despite the fact that the amount of accessions collected from Arcadia has been decreased (141 samples) compared to previous collections and genetic erosion is advancing significantly for cereals and pulses, a substantial quantity of landraces continues to be cultivated by the locals. The motives of landrace abandonment were other sources of occupation than agriculture, like public service jobs, mechanization, and commercialization of agriculture. Gastronomic and agro-tourism in addition to European Union trademarks and policies can help locals in landrace/local varieties in-situ conservation. Keywords and phrases: collecting mission; conservation; conservation varieties; diversity; ex-situ; genetic material; landraces; local varieties; farmers’ varieties; Peloponnese1. Introduction There are numerous references on the importance of landraces (recognized also as neighborhood varieties, farmers’ varieties, or conservation varieties) for their direct standard use by humans and their value as genetic resources. According to Zeven et al. [1], the initial reference regarding landraces was created in 1890s, even though 20 years later the initial definitions on this subject have been published. Landraces are normally defined as dynamic populations of a cultivated plant species with historical origin and distinct identity and are linked with a set of farming practices and knowledge [2,3]. For centuries, crop landraces have already been the genetic material employed for agriculture and have played a basic function in the history of crops worldwide, regarding crop improvement and production [4]. Landraces have extended been recognized as a source of traits for local adaptation, strain tolerance, yield stability, and nutritional high quality [5]. Benlioglu and Adak [6] highlighted that plant genetic resources are the biological basis of global food safety. Considering that cultivars often lack alleles that contribute to tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic anxiety components, breeders use plant genetic resources (landraces and crop wild relatives) for the improvement of varieties [6]. In addition, as mentioned by Azzez [2], despite the fact that landraces are.
