Under the Joint Research Agreement (JRA), the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (currently, integrated with the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization NARO), Japan, and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) have collaborated since 2014 to survey plant genetic resources in Lao PDR. The main objective of the current survey was to collect samples of fruit vegetable and leafy vegetable and related crop species in the Luangprabang and Xayabouly provinces of Lao PDR. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the January 2022 survey was conducted by only Lao PDR scientists. During January 10 to 22, 2022, we collected 210 samples, including Solanum melongena L. (124), additional Solanum spp. (19), Brassica spp. (57) and Raphanus sativus L. (10). The collected seeds were deposited at NAFRI; a subset of the collection will be transferred to the Genetic Resources Center, NARO, Japan, as backup under the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Seeds from these genetic resources will be reproduced via self-pollination, and NAFRI staffs will evaluate the characteristics of the plant material next season. Our plan is to evaluate the accessions’ morphological characteristics and resistance to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, bacterial wilt, powdery mildew, and nematodes in Japan.
Miyatake et al. (Sat,) studied this question.