The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) conducted collaborative exploration in the southeastern region of Tonlé Sap Lake in Cambodia in December 2024. This area is known for its fertile soil deposited by seasonal flooding during the rainy season and was selected as a promising region for the collection of vegetable landraces. We visited 21 sites including local farmers and a roadside vendor and collected 105 accessions from 17 species across seven families. We conducted interviews with farmers and a vendor to get detailed information such as sowing and harvesting periods, local names, physical traits, and how the vegetables are used in cooking. All accessions are conserved in CARDI genebank, and half of them were transferred to NARO genebank under the Standard Material Transfer Agreement. These resources can contribute to the improvement of vegetable breeding and the maintenance of genetic diversity.
Ogura et al. (Sun,) studied this question.