Comparing costs for different conservation strategies of garlic (Allium sativum L.) germplasm in genebanks

The maintenance of plant genetic resources in living plant collections (genebanks) causes costs due to employment of staff, usage of buildings, equipment and consumables. Since this is especially challenging in vegetatively propagated material, studies were performed for the case of garlic, which is one of the major vegetatively maintained crops in the genebank of IPK Gatersleben. Data were recorded to compare various scenarios of the main strategies field maintenance and cryopreservation. A spreadsheet tool was developed to be used for cost assessment and for drawing conclusions concerning the most effective way of maintenance. Field culture is cheaper in the short term, whereas after a break-even point cryopreservation becomes the more efficient storage method in the long term. This break-even point depends on the particular scenario, which is determined by various factors such as field and in vitro multiplication rates of various genotypes, presence of bulbils in a part of the genepool, the sample size of the accessions as well as the number of stored accessions in cryopreservation. The comparative discussion is exemplified for a 1-year field rotation versus cryopreservation using either in vitro plantlets or a combination of bulbils and unripe inflorescence bases as organ sources. For the more expensive use of in vitro plants cryopreservation becomes less costly than field culture only after 13 years, whereas this is the case already after 8–9 years when using a combination of bulbils in winter and inflorescence bases in summer.