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The BOLD Project

Start year: 2021

View the BOLD Project website

Harnessing Crop Diversity To Adapt To The Climate Crisis

Funded with USD 58 million from the Government of Norway and launched in 2021, it builds on the work and achievements of the decade-long Crop Wild Relatives Project (2011-2021).

BOLD will support 15 national genebanks worldwide to conserve their existing collections, develop new crop diversity through partnerships with breeders, and collaborate with farmers to use that diversity in their fields.

Diversity For Long-term Impact

BOLD directly contributes to Target 2.5 of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 to “maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.”

Anne Beathe headshot

Biodiversity is crucial for sustainable food systems. This understanding is part of the reason for Norway’s establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. We are pleased to support BOLD as it effectively translates conservation of crop diversity in genebanks into development outcomes related to food security.

Anne Beathe Tvinnereim Minister of International Development, Norway

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New Climate-Resilient Alfalfa Gives Hope to Drought-Stricken Farmers in Kazakhstan
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New Climate-Resilient Alfalfa Gives Hope to Drought-Stricken Farmers in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan releases its first drought- and heat-tolerant variety of alfalfa, one of the world’s most important feed crops.  Developed thanks to wild relatives seeds stored in local and global genebanks, the new variety...

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BOLDER’s Citizen Science Approach Unlocks New Opportunities for Underutilized Crops in Benin and Tanzania

During the first few hours of daylight – before the sun gets high and it’s too hot outside – experimental fields at the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) research station in Cotonou, Benin, are buzzing with activity. Solar-powered...

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Key Partners

Crop Trust (facilitator)

  • International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty)
  • Nordic Genetic Resource Center
  • Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
  • Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Supporters

  • Government of Norway
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