Landrace

A landrace is a locally adapted crop population maintained through traditional cultivation and farmer seed selection. It is genetically diverse rather than uniform like a modern commercial variety.

Crop wild relative: A wild plant species closely related to a domesticated crop that can exchange genes with it. Wild relatives can contribute traits that landraces carry or that breeders introduce into them.
Mass selection: A breeding method that saves seed from many plants chosen for desirable visible traits. Farmers can alter a landrace without crossing it to create a uniform line.
Modern plant breeding: The systematic improvement of crops using controlled crosses, selection, and genetic tools. Modern breeding often targets predictable performance, whereas landraces retain farmer-managed diversity.
In situ conservation: The conservation of species or genetic resources within their natural or traditional settings. Continued cultivation keeps landrace diversity evolving within the farming systems that sustain it.
Artificial selection: The change in inherited traits of a population caused by humans choosing which organisms reproduce. Farmer seed selection shapes landrace populations across generations.
Seed saving: The practice of collecting and storing seeds from one crop for planting in a later season. Saving seed from the harvest carries farmer choices into the next generation.
Pure line: A genetically uniform plant line produced through repeated self-fertilization and selection. A pure line contrasts with the mixed inherited variation common within a landrace.
Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: Heritable material of plants with actual or potential value for food and agriculture. Landraces are a component of the genetic resources used to sustain and improve crops.
Genetic diversity: The variety of genetic differences within or among populations of organisms. Landraces often retain more within-population variation than uniform commercial varieties.
Gene flow: The movement of genetic variants between populations through migration and reproduction. Pollen movement and seed exchange can introduce new variation into landrace populations.

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