ベトナム北部山岳地帯におけるトウガラシ・ナス属等植物遺伝資源の共同探索，2024年1月

Several explorations from the Plant Genetic Resources in Asia project have been implemented in Vietnam since 2014, through a collaborative effort between the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and the Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Plant Resources Center (PRC). As part of the project, we mainly explored and collected Capsicum and Solanum plant genetic resources in Northern mountainous of Vietnam from January 15 to 25, 2024. We visited Bao Lac district in the Cao Bang province and Na Hang district in Tuyen Quang provinces. Consequently, we collected a total of 94 accessions from the storage, backyards, and fields of farmers or local markets. These accessions included 53 Solanaceae (39 Capsicum spp. and 14 Solanum spp.), 19 Fabaceae, 16 Cucurbitaceae, and 6 others. Focusing on the collected Capsicum accessions, we observed that Capsicum frutescens L. was the most dominant species in Northern mountainous of Vietnam, regardless of differences in the ethnic groups present. This species was mainly utilized as a pungent spice for self-consumption. These peppers were not grown by farmers, but some plants grew wild on their own. Regarding the Solanum accessions, local people were revealed to not only eat Solanum melongena L. but also its relatives, such as Solanum nigrum L. In contrast, they hardly utilized Solanum torvum Sw. Regarding the collected plant genetic resources, half of the seeds were preserved in PRC, while the subsets will be transferred to the Gene Bank in NARO under a material transfer agreement.