Muscat: A research team from the Oman Animal and Plant Genetic Resources Centre of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation will start a project on Sunday to collect and preserve plant genetic resources in Dhofar from August 27 to September 1.
The team will visit Jabal Samhan, Rakhyout, Thamrait, and its neighbouring areas in the governorate to carry out collection in coordination with the Nature Conservation Society and a group of local experts in the governorate.
The project aims to collect and preserve local plant genetic resources in the Sultanate of Oman, which are of social and economic importance. The research team carries out collection tasks in various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, according to the priority of plant species identified by researchers at the centre based on the data.
Dr Mohammed bin Nasser al Yahyai, an expert on genetic resources at the Oman Animal and Plant Resources Centre, said: The Sultanate of Oman contains approximately 1,408 species of local plants. The centre was able to identify about 1,200 plant species of economic and social importance. However, these numbers change day by day due to the discovery of new types of plants.
He pointed out that medicinal plants were given priority for collection. Some of the plants are important in food and agriculture while others are wild relatives of crops.
He added, "The team has so far carried out 65 missions in more than 29 wilayats in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, where it has collected more than 100 medicinal plants. Those seeds are tested and their data is entered into the Plant Genetic Resources Data Platform.
Al Yahyai explained that this data will be available for researchers through the platform’s website. The collected genetic resources will be preserved and protected from the risks of extinction, as these seeds are preserved in the seed gene bank. The seeds can be protected for more than 100 years in the genetic bank, which has a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius. — ONA
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