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Multiple crops, North-Macedonia, 2024
Collectors: Wouter Groenink1, Sonja Ivanovska2, Mirjana Jankulovska2
1. Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN), Wageningen University and Research
2. Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
Introduction
In October 2024 a multi-crop collecting mission for crop wild relatives was conducted in North Macedonia, spanning 2 days. The mission was funded by the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN) and carried out together with the Faculty of Agricultural Science of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. The mission was part of a broader collaboration between the two institutes, which also involved collecting and the multiplication of North Macedonian vegetable landraces in North Macedonia. Approval for the collaborative activities, including the exchange of the collected materials with the SMTA of the ITPGRFA, was obtained from the relevant North Macedonian authorities.
The primary goal of the mission was for the CGN to see how local landraces of vegetables are collected by Sonja and Mirjana, as part of our collaboration. At the same time this was an opportunity to collect crop wild relatives while on the road between villages. This report is about the crop wild relatives that were collected.
Collecting activities and material sampled
The collecting team included 3 members and the mission was focused on two areas. The first area was the Upper Polog valley north of Tetovo and the second area was the area east of Kumanova. Both areas are located in the north of North-Macedonia about an 1 hour drive west and east of Skopje. Collecting was done mostly from roadsides next to fields and in abandoned fields in a rural setting. Passport data were collected and the latitude and longitude were determined with the app Organic Maps (based on OpenStreetMap). Pictures were also taken of the plants in their natural environment. 15 accessions of 6 different species from 9 different sites were collected (Table 1).
| Botanical name | # accessions |
| Cichorium intybus | 4 |
| Daucus carota | 3 |
| Diplotaxis murale | 2 |
| Foeniculum vulgare | 2 |
| Lactuca serriola | 3 |
| Mentha arensis | 1 |
| Total | 15 |
Conclusion
This mission in North Macedonia may have yielded only 15 accessions of very common crop wild relatives species, but for CGN it was successful not the less. It was done in combination with other collecting activities as part of our collaboration with the Faculty of Agricultural Science of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, where most of the time was spent. So in that sense a minimal effort was needed to collect this material. After successful multiplication, by CGN, the material will be available for potential users.
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