Integration of Conservation Strategies of Plant Genetic ... - Genres

disciples, currently numbers about 350 thousand accessions and still remains the richest and unique
collection in the world. It comprises 2,539 plant species representing 304 genera belonging to 155
botanical families. The Institute also preserves more than 250 thousand herbarium specimens of cultivated
plants and their wild relatives (Appendix 1).
98% of the Institute's total funding come from the State Budget via the Russian Academy of Agricultural
Sciences. Budget allocations for 1993 amounted to 406 million roubles. Staff salaries consumed about
121 million roubles in 9 months.
The monthly salary of a leading researcher at the Institute currently makes 50 thousand roubles
(approximately U.S.$ 41), while that of a technical assistant is 26 thousand roubles (U.S.$ 20). It is worth
mentioning here that the subsistence basket in St. Petersburg is estimated by economists as 35 thousand
roubles. Heavy inflation keeps on devaluing the salaries.
The situation with the Institute's finances and procurement is serious enough. Problems are exclusively
numerous, and many demand urgent solution. The Institute needs modern equipment, chemical reagents,
climate chambers and freezing units, whereas the Institute's library requires new scientific publications and
periodicals.
What are the prospects in the development of the plant genetic resources system in Russia?
It should be mentioned that the state authorities pay much attention to the problems of VIR and its
network. However, the government is now at the difficult primary stage of reconstructing the social,
political and economic system of this country. For example, the government has allotted land for a new
experiment station to be built instead of the Sukhumi Station in similar ecological conditions. Moreover,
62 million roubles have been earmarked for reconstruction of the Kuban National Seed Store. There are
plans to provide certain funding of scientific events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of VIR scheduled
for early August 1994.
Great contribution to the Institute's re-equipment was made by USDA. Ten computers were supplied to
VIR in accordance with the agreement signed with ARS/USDA in 1991. Very active is the cooperation
with IBPGR. VIR currently stores 4 base collections of the Board. Joint activities made it possible to
conduct 5 collecting missions in Russia and the regions of the former USSR. Training courses were
organized for the representatives of plant genetic resources programmes of South America and Asia.
Step by step the data base on the world's collections is being accumulated (Appendix 2). We are
establishing contacts not only with national genetic pogrammes (Japan, South Korea, Germany, United
States, Netherlands, etc.), but also with commercial companies. Considerable mutual benefits are expected
from the joint project on vegetable crops with "ROYAL SLUIS". Also promising may appear the
cooperative programme with "PIONEER" who are now discussing an agreement with VIR concerning
the study of maize genetic resources. Together with the Finnish Institute for Horticulture a joint collecting
mission to the North-Western Area of Russia is planned ´for 1994. Another joint exploration with the
scientists of Nordic Genebank will be arranged in Kaliningrad Region. Efforts are made to send a Russian-
Japanese jount mission to the Far East.
The exchange of plant germplasm from VIR's collections is still intensive. In 9 months of 1993 about 3000
samples have been shipped abroad following the requests of foreign colleagues, while VIR has acquired
more than 5000 new accessions.
Promising joint research programmes are now developed on such topics as "Effects of Pathogens on Seed
Viability in Long-Term Storage" (Russia-Germany-IBPGR) and "Preservation of the Fruit Crop
Diversity" (Russia-Belgium-France) under the auspices of the E.E.C.