Español: Sacar el máximo partido de las especies silvestres y relicto - experiencias y lecciones

From the beginning of the practice of agriculture around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent and other regions of the world (Zohary & Hopf 1993, Balter 2007), farmers and then scientists have selected crops and varieties with specific traits in order to satisfy a diverse range of human needs, including food and nutritional security, tasty meals, medicinal remedies, fibre for clothing, fodder for feeding livestock and also meeting social, cultural, religious and aesthetic desires (Heywood 2007). Along with these, other factors have also shaped crop production systems around the world. These include the ability of crops to adapt to specific agro-ecological conditions and their capacity to help farmers to seize emerging economic opportunities arising from new trends, market and uses for crop genetic diversity and its products.