Yemen, with its unique geographical location, diverse agro-ecological zones and long history of agricultural development, harbours wealth of plant genetic resources. Cereals are grown on almost 60% of the total cultivated area. The danger of losing available germplasm is a major problem for most of the cereals grown in the country because of the introduction of high – yielding exotic cultivars and hybrids. The main aims of this paper are: to explore the biodiversity of local germplasm of cereals in the southern regions of Yemen, their conservation and utilization as sources to be used in breeding programs to improve their genetic architecture. This paper indicates that sorghum varieties grown in southern zones of Yemen, show limited genetic variations in each ecological zone for morphological and anatomical traits in addition to their ability to tolerate environmental stress. Local wheat varieties can tolerate drought stress. This may be accounted to their morphological and anatomical traits of less number of seminal roots and small size of seminal roots vessels.

Key Words :Biodiversity, Cereals, Seed Maintenance, Genetic Resources, Southern Region, Yemen.