Scientific Interest By N.Z. Advised

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31209, 5 November 1966, Page 23

Scientific Interest By N.Z. Advised

New Zealand might well take an active interest in some phases of the International Biological Programme begun in 1964, said Sir Otto Frankel, until recently a member of the executive of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, in an interview in Christchurch.

Formerly director of the Crop Research Division of the D.S.I.R. in Canterbury, he has returned to continue research work on a group of New Zealand plants begun years ago. Sir Otto Frankel, now a science research fellow with C.5.1.R.0., was knighted in the Australian New Year honours, and has been a member of the Royal Society, London, since 1953. New Zealand had few active links with the programme which involved many nations, and some interest would be welcome, he said. He likened the scope of the programme to that of the International Geophysical Year and said biologists were collaborating in every way they could to assist human welfare. Its three-fold aims included the biological study of the

produce of the earth, the conservation of scientifically relevant communities and organisms, and the study of human adaptability and biology. The uniting feature of these three points was the need to stludy living things in relation to a rapidly changing world, and a population explosion. Sir Otto Frankel is a vicepresident of the programme, known as 1.8. P. and the president of the Australian National Committee of the organisation.

He explained a joint Food and Agricultural Organisation1.8. P. project concerned with the exploration and conservation of primitive and wild plants useful to man. With the advances in agriculture internationally, these plants were being displaced by more productive types, he said. But in many countries there was highly valued genetic material Which man required to evolve new, highly productive, disease and insect resistant types. “It is of the utmost importtance that these plants be collected and preserved,” Sir Otto Frankel said. ‘There is a treasure trove waiting, but soon it will disappear.” Every single improvement in New Zealand came from plants that were introduced. Many improvements by the Grasslands Division of the D.S.I.R. came from plants introduced into Australia by Australian plant collectors. C.5.1.R.0. expeditions had been active collecting plants in South and central America, parts of Africa and especially around the Mediterranean. Sir Otto Frankel said he spent several months as a consultant with the F.O.A. and was recently chairman of a meeting on plant exploration and conservation which finished a few days ago in Rome. These plants could be preserved and the means of doing this was being worked out at present, he said. “This material is of the greatest value to developing countries and has been in Iran, Turkey, and India, for instance,” he said. Crossed with the right types, they could be most important in plant improvement.