Soil, water, and genetic resources constitute the foundation upon which agriculture is based. Out of these, genetic resources are perhaps the least understood and least valued even though they are responsible for the essential and magnicent diversity in agricultural products. They depend on our care and safeguard and many of them are threatened by extinction. When plant species were domesticated some 10 000 years ago, they still carried with them the myriad of characteristics and defences which typically make wild plants adaptable to their environment and resilient to challenges such as drought, pest and disease attack.