Crop landrace conservation, status, challenges and motivations in Great Britain

Societal Impact Statement Recent agricultural intensification has led to the widespread replacement of genetically diverse crop landraces with high‐yielding but genetically uniform modern cultivars, reducing the adaptive resilience of farming systems. In the United Kingdom, where large‐scale agriculture dominates, landraces require urgent conservation action. This study provides the first comprehensive overview of landrace cultivation in Great Britain, examining current cultivation trends, why they are grown and the challenges growers face. By documenting these dynamics, this research provides evidence to inform conservation strategies and policy decisions that support crop diversity, resilient farming systems and genetic resources that could be used in future breeding programmes to ensure long‐term food security. Summary Landraces, genetically diverse crop varieties that have evolved through generations of saving seed on farm, are becoming increasingly threatened with extinction. In Great Britain, initial attempts to document landrace diversity are outdated and incomplete. This study reviewed crop maintenance trends and identified the major challenges and opportunities in contemporary landrace cultivation. Through farmer interviews, questionnaires and expert discussions, 197 landrace maintainers and 566 landrace populations have been identified on farm, with two diversity hotspots in Pembrokeshire and the Scottish Islands. A further 1876 landrace accessions of British origin were identified ex situ, contributing to a total of 1201 distinct landraces overall. The most common reasons for maintaining landraces were history and tradition, local environmental adaptation and market demand. Maintainer numbers and cultivation scale for cereal and vegetable landraces have increased since 2004; however, forage landrace diversity is becoming increasingly threatened. Across all crop types, the major challenges reported by maintainers were climate change, labour shortages and the lower yield of landraces compared with modern cultivars. Landrace cultivation should be valued, not just to safeguard historic plant genetic resources for food security but also to sustain ecosystem services and environmental health. More effective conservation strategies are required to overcome the challenges facing landrace cultivation and so ensure this potential resource exists to aid future generations in the fight against food insecurity and climate change.