Joint Plan of Action between the Governments of the Kingdom of Thailand and Sweden
The Office of The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives allocated the budget of international cooperation in 2015 to increase efficiency of agricultural production and to support the database management of DOA Genebank for plant genetic resources (400,000 THB). In addition, the collaboration of Thailand-Sweden implemented through the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) for many activities viz. knowledge transfers and researcher exchanges.
NordGen is an organization for the safeguarding and sustainable use of plants, farm animals and forests of Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland), which mainly financial supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Currently, there are 968,557 accessions of plant genetic resources conserved in several types such as active collection (-18 °C), base collection (-18 °C) and deposited at Svalbard Global Seed Vault (-18 °C). In case of Thailand, the Genebank of the Department of Agriculture (DOA Genebank), Biotechnology Research and Development Office cooperated with NordGen to accomplish the conservation of plant genetics resources in Thailand, which was implemented into 2 phases.
Phase I, The DOA Genebank invited Professor Dr. Roland Von Bothmer (Advisor of Svalbard Global Seed Vault) and Mr. Jonas Nording (Documentation and IT Manager of NordGen) to visit DOA Genebank, Thailand. The two delegates presented special lecture about database management system in plant genetics resources of NordGen in the annual seminar entitled “How to manage a database of plant genetics resources in Genebank for efficienct and sustainable utilization” on 19 – 20 January 2015 at Biotechnology Research and Development Office, Sirindhorn Plant Genetic Resources Building, Pathum Thani. In addition, the NordGen guests had study visit on database management and plant genetic resources conservation at other institutes under Department of Agriculture, the Royal Chitralada Projects, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) and Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC) from 18 to 25 January 2015.
Phase II, Thai researchers visited NordGen, Kingdom Sweden in August of 2015 including Mrs. Kunyaporn Pipithsangchan (Director of Genebank Research and Development Group, DOA Genebank, Thailand), Ms. Assanee Songserm and Ms. Phatchara Piriyavinit. Furthermore, The Director of Genebank Research and Development Group gave a special speak entitled “Current Status of Plant Genetic Resources Conservation of Thailand: The Role of DOA Genebank”.
In 2016, Department of Agriculture officially invited Dr. Árni Bragason (Director of NordGen) and Mr.Kjill-Åke Lundblad (Documentation and IT Manager of NordGen), two specialists from Sweden, for presenting special lectures on the plant genetic resources and genebank management at Biotechnology Research and Development Office, Sirindhorn Plant Genetic Resources Building, Pathum thani and also visited other institutes under Department of Agriculture, Royal Chitralada Projects and NECTEC from 14 to 19 March 2016.
In August of 2016, Mrs. Kunyaporn Pipithsangchan (Director of Genebank Research and Development Group, DOA Genebank) and Ms. Saowanee Dachakumpoo (Agricultural Research Officer) visited NordGen (Kingdom of Sweden) to continue the joint plan of action between the governments of kingdoms of Thailand and Sweden. Moreover, Mrs. Kunyaporn Pipithsangchan was invited for giving talk on Genebank Management and Use of Genebank Work in Thailand at the NordGen and also for visiting Svalbard Global Seed Vault at the Svalbard Islands, Kingdom of Norway.
According to collaboration between Thailand and Sweden, this warm cooperation was continued between Department of Agriculture (Thailand) and Svalbard Global Seed Vault: SGSV (Norway). Recently, Dr. Suwit Chaikiattiyos (Director-General of Department of Agriculture), Mr.Danai Narkprasert (Director of Biotechnology Research and Development Office), Mrs. Kunyaporn Pipithsangchan (Director of Genebank Research and Development Group, DOA Genebank) and Mrs. Jintawee Thai-Ngarm (Director of International Agricultural Affairs Group) visited and joined the Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s 10 year anniversary and also consulted for seeds deposit agreement at SGSV from 26 to 27 February 2018.
Currently, Department of Agriculture signed the agreement for seeds deposited as Black-box at SGSV (Norway), 6 – 12 August 2018. The seeds were deposited at SGSV including the plant good quality seeds and certificated seeds by Department of Agriculture, which have been promoted for Thai farming.
According to Biotechnology Research and Development Office, Department of Agriculture has been cooperated under the collaboration of Thai-Sweden project, the coordination for conservation with The Nordic Genetic Resource Center; NordGen (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden) and Svalbard Global Seed Vault; SGSV, Norway. Department of Agriculture has invited the term director and senior expert of NordGen to DOA Genebank for visit and suggestion about plant genetic resource management and conservation of plant genetic resource (4-10 November 2018), which included Ms. Lise Lykke Steffensen (Executive Director of NordGen), Mr. Åsmund Asdal (Coordinator of Svalbard Global Seed Vault, NordGen) and Ms. Jette Nydam Hansen (Genetic Resources Officer, NordGen).
November 5, 2018
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November 9, 2018
