News

This month, Melinda Smale enters the pantheon of Seed Heroes for her influential research on the economic value of crop diversity, helping shape agricultural policies across the globe and inspiring a generation of young...

World Agroforestry’s (ICRAF) genebank hosts the world’s largest holdings of agroforestry tree genetic resources but encounters several unique challenges in getting some of the seeds in its collection of 190 species to germinate.

Key messages

CGIAR genebanks work closely with germplasm health units (GHUs) to ensure that the plant material they send is safe to cross borders. The GHUs have had a huge economic impact in recipient countries. IRRI’s...

CGIAR genebanks are using cryopreservation for the long-term conservation of crops that can’t be stored as seeds.

Molecules in living organisms are always racing around. That movement is what keeps us alive – and what...

Take home messages

Potato landraces collected in farmers’ fields are being “repatriated” back to the farmers. A study was conducted to determine how long Andean farmers continue to use repatriated landraces after...

Daniel Debouck doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he says he saw one once... or rather a ghost species. 

Debouck, the former head of the genebank at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical...

This is part of a weekly series in honor of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science featuring interviews with inspiring, talented women scientists whose work involves conserving crop diversity.

Sophia Lüttringhaus...

As a young boy growing up in Niger, Hamidou Falalou fell in love with the search for answers and knew he wanted to become a scientist. When, later, he saw climate change threatening local food security, he decided to dedicate his...

All genebanks need sound data management to keep track of the inventories of seeds in their cold rooms and fields, and of all their interlinked processes.

For a long time, the CGIAR genebanks have taken their own unique...

As one of the world’s most widely produced and consumed fruits and staple foods, bananas (including plantain) are of vital importance.

But pests and diseases, such as the Tropical Race 4 fungal infection, and climate change, have...

Scientists from across the CGIAR, and its partner and donor organizations met in July 2021 to identify opportunities for enhancing use of crop germplasm collections.

Hosted by the CGIAR Genebank Platform, the workshop addressed...