AID grant no. DAN-4200-G-00-1065-00 to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center for a project to regenerate maize accessions stored in national germplasm banks in Latin America and the Caribbean

The project will be implemented through cooperative arrangements involving national institutions in 13 developing countries. The project"s major activity will be an attempt to regenerate some 10,180 endangered germplasm accessions, a large proportion of which are stored in regional germbanks in Mexico and Colombia. It is expected that about 70%-75% of these accessions will be successfully regenerated, with A.I.D. funds covering the costs of half of the regenerations. Other project outputs will be: (1) appropriate processing and storage of seed of the regenerated accessions by both national and international institutions; (2) practical training for national program staff in the use of computer software for germplasm characterization, and in other procedures related to regeneration; and (3) for all accessions regenerated, the storing of passport and some characterization data in electronic form so that it can be exchanged among project cooperators and other researchers and eventually compiled into a single database.