FSC Short Course in Costa Rica

4-8 February 2019, University of Costa Rica

The Food Security Center and its regional partner in Latin America, the University of Costa Rica (UCR), organized the short course "The role of plant germplasm collections to generate plants adapted to a changing climate", lectured by PD Dr. Hans-Peter Mock, University of Kiel and IPK Gatersleben, Germany. The activity was conducted from 4 to 8 February 2019 at the Institute of Research in Agriculture (IIA) in the main campus of the UCR, with the attendance of 12 participants from the main public universities of the country. Participants learned about the basic concepts on conservation of plant genetic resources and in situ and ex situ collections and germplasm banks. A field trip to the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), an international organization located in Turrialba, Costa Rica, allowed the participants to take direct contact with the coffee, cacao and peach palm international collections and to the orthodox seeds gene bank located there, and to know and taste several less-known tropical fruits. Participants also contributed to the short course by working on databases and presenting the analysis of case studies and scientific literature.