“Research for gene conservation: research, development and innovation for the protection of genetic resources”

We organized a conference in 2012 titled “Research for gene conservation: research, development and innovation for the protection of genetic resources” and “Our traditional crops and farm animals in the new millennium” on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity held on May 22. The conference was organized in partnership with the Department of Strategy of the Ministry of Rural Development, the Institute for Small Animal Research and Co-ordiantion Centre for Gene Conservation (KÁTKI) and the Centre of Plant Diversity at Tápiószele. The two-day long programme gave a chance to review the scientific and technical issues serving the protection of genetic resources of traditional crops and farm animals, phrase answers and reconcile actions necessary to achieve future goals. On the first day there were 16 presentations and 11 posters within 4 sections dealing with the introduction of results achieved by research programmes related to gene protection. The second day session can be considered as the continuation of our technical conference held in 2011 with the title of “Our traditional farm animals in the new millennium”. We discussed here the actual issues of the biodiversity and breed conservation of farm animals and crops, the role of agro-biodiversity in the conservation of biological diversity, as well as the place and role of agro-ecology and native breeds with the help of invited speakers. The proceedings of the conference are available in our website.