ARMENIAN SCIENTISTS WIN IN CONTEST OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Azg/arm
10 Dec 04

USDA MAP (Marketing Assistance Program) informs that a group of
Armenian scientists from plants’ genetic resource laboratory at the
Agricultural Academy won a grant of US Department of Agriculture. The
money is going to be put in the project of “Preserving and using
wheat’s wild ancestors in Armenia”.

Prof. Mikhail Gyulkhasian, head of the scientists’, group told
journalists that the project will set to collect and preserve the gene
pool of wheatâ=80=99s wild ancestors which will be salvation for this
unique species and added that the wild wheat and rye were collected
from the regions of Ararat, Vayots Dzor and Erebuni resort. They will
serve as resources for breeding new species more enduring to cold,
drought and insects.

Prof. Gyulkhasian’s project together with two other projects
becamewinner within the US Agriculture Department’s program of
International Cooperation of Agricultural Research in the Central
Asia-Caucasus region among 125 other projects.

BY Ara Martirosian