Safflower Network
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Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a multi-purpose crop species for oil, medicinal and industrial uses. It is identified as one of priority crop species in the APO region, which covers most of the important safflower producing countries in the world. Safflower is widely distributed, from tropical to temperate zones. Globally safflower is grown in about 1.2 million hectares with annual production of 0.79 million tons. India is the largest producer with about half of the world production, followed by USA with about 184 thousand tons annually. Safflower genetic resources are rich in its centre of origin and producing areas. It was reported that around 25,179 accessions of safflower germplasm have been collected and conserved in 22 genebanks of 15 countries throughout the world (Zhang and Johnson 1999). According to the early studies, the diversity was mainly distributed in countries such as the Middle East, India, China, etc. Safflower has a wide range of related species. Within the genus of Carthamus, there are more than 20 species with 10, 11, 12, 22 and 32 pairs of chromosomes. The interspecific crosses could be made between some of the wild species and cultivated safflower.As safflower is considered as a minor crop, most of the producing countries have not given it priority in its research and development. IPGRI-APO has recognized the problem and included safflower in its research agenda. Since 1992, IPGRI has initiated a series of activities related to safflower conservation and use. As safflower has the characteristics of tolerance to hot and cold climates and drought, and potential to adapt to different ecological environments, the wide range of interests in safflower has been considered for conservation and use of safflower genetic diversity. ObjectivesThe major objective of the safflower programme is to promote the activities in the national programmes in the APO region to document, characterize and evaluate safflower diversity through a network approach and joint research efforts, and to promote the conservation and sustainable use of safflower diversity to benefit breeders, other researchers and farmers. 1. The Third International Safflower Conference The Third International Safflower Conference was held on 14-18 June 1993 in Beijing. The Conference was organized by the Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences and IPGRI, and co-sponsored by FAO, IPGRI, IDRC, Beijing Office of the Third World Academy of Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. A total of 83 scientists including 26 from outside of China attended the conference. During the conference, the International Safflower Germplasm Advisory Committee (ISGAC) held its second meeting and discussed the workplan on safflower germplasm research for the future. 2. Cooperation with ISGACThe International Safflower Germplasm Advisory Committee (ISGAC) was established during the Second International Safflower Conference in India, January 1989. At the ISGAC meeting in Beijing in 1993, Dr Ramanatha Rao, IPGRI was elected as the chair of ISGAC. Dr P. S. Reddy, Project Leader, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, India became the chair in 1994. In 1997, Dr Richard Johnson, USDA-ARS Plant Introduction Station, USA was elected as the chair at the ISGAC meeting held in Bari, Italy. In 2001, Dr. Zhang Zongwen, IPGRI Office for East Asia was elected as the new chair at the ISGAC meeting held in Williston, USA. For strengthening the activities of ISGAC,
IPGRI has worked closely with Chair of the Committee and it was decided that the committee is
responsible for making recommendations on the priorities of safflower germplasm
collecting, characterization, evaluation, documentation and conservation through
extensively assessing the status of safflower germplasm in the world. The purpose is to
develop an international network for safflower. The recommendations should include the
details for: Each member of ISGAC agreed to synthesize and analyze the information on safflower in
its country or region and submit the recommendation on above areas to the chair of the
Committee. The responsibilities of the chair of ISGAC are as follows: The International Safflower Germplasm Advisory Committee held a meeting during the
Fourth International Safflower Conference in Bari, Italy, 2-7 June 1997. The meeting
reviewed the progress and discussed future activities. Dr Richard C. Johnson was elected
the chair of ISGAC. The current members of ISGAC are as follows: Chair: Dr Zhang Zongwen, IPGRI
Members: See List of members for full
contact details. 3. Collecting safflower germplasm in China and India A collecting mission was organized to collect
safflower germplasm in the south and east part of China in 1990. A total of 48 samples of Carthamus
tinctorius with different characters, particularly medicinal uses were collected. It
was found that safflower is grown in the east part of China mainly for medicinal purpose.
The special characters found from the collections were cold tolerance and seed dormancy at
maturity. Variability was observed in plant height, branching, number of heads, size/shape
of head, and colour of corolla. Both spiny and spineless types were collected. Explorations were conducted in 1997 and 1998 for collecting safflower genetic resources
in West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir of India. A
total of 90 accessions were collected, of which 34 are landraces of cultivated C.
tinctorius and 56 were C. axyacanta. Another wild species C. lanatus
was located in the Kashmir valley. Intensive agriculture, weeding and burning of C.
axyacanta as it is a serious weed in some parts of Haryana and Punjab, led to near
extinction of this species in its native niches in these areas. In Himachal Pradesh,
genetic erosion of C. tinctorius is occurring and landraces were mostly collected
from housewives who have been maintaining them in their home gardens. 4. Characterization and evaluation of the diversity
of safflower germplasm 1) Beijing Botanical Garden characterized and
evaluated more 2000 accessions of safflower collected from more than 20 countries. More
than 30 descriptors were used in characterization. The results were published in a book (Li et al. 1993). 2) Joint studies on ecotype diversity of safflower were carried in
China and India. The studies involved 100 accessions of safflower with 50 from each
country. The objectives of the study were to identify and classify ecotypes of safflower
adopted to diverse ecological conditions, and to evaluate and utilize promising ecotypes
in genetic improvement programmes. The study consisted of field trials and isozyme
analysis. Twenty-two morphological characters and 24 agronomic, physiological, yield
parameters and reaction to diseases were observed in India, and more than 20 agronomic
characters were observed in China. 3) The ecological adaptability started
in 2000 in cooperation with the Institute of Industrial
Crops of Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China. In this stdy, 30 safflower varieties from 18
different countries will be evaluated for their adaptability in 4 locations covering
a range of climatic conditions and data on about 30 descriptors was
recorded. Analysis of the data is revealing associations between genotype and
the environment that will help in identifying most promising sites for
collecting genetic diversity for breeding as well as for in situ conservation. 5. Safflower germplasm information management 1) The Directory for Safflower Germplasm Conservation has been compiled in cooperation with ISGAC. The Directory contains the relevant information on 22 institutes from 15 countries. 2) An Electronic Safflower Germplasm Catalogue has been developed with the DIPVIEW software. The catalogue contains data on 30 characters for over 2000 accessions. 3) A Safflower Home Page has been developed in cooperation with ISGAC. The Homepage links to various web sites including the USDA germplasm database (GRIN) and relevant IPGRI sites.
Chair: Members:
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