La importancia de la utilización de la diversidad genética vegetal en los programas de investigación agrícola en América Latina

This article presents six cases of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture from numerous countries. Those resources (cacao, cratylia, yellow bean, ‘chocho’, cassava and single hybrid maize) were used in screening, selecting and breeding efforts to make improved material available to farmers. These studies demonstrated the importance of facilitated access to a range of diversity of crops or forages as broad as possible. Some of the cases also showed that some materi als not included in the Annex I of the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture ‑and, therefore, not subject to the conditions of the multi lateral system of access and benefit-sharing of the Treaty‑, are extremely important for food security in the Latin American region.