CalaviGen

The Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization dedicated to conserving crop diversity and making it available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone.

We work with donors and partners to lead global projects that protect crop diversity, conserve crop wild relatives and develop technology to make this diversity accessible worldwide.

We seek professionals with a passion for global food security and a strong drive to contribute to our mission of conserving crop diversity for future generations.

Headquarter: Benin Website: https://gbios-uac.org/calavigen/

Location

Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin

Parent Organization

University of Abomey-Calavi

Overview

Founded in 2015, CalaviGen plays a vital role in supporting the plant genetic resources conservation policy of the University of Abomey-Calavi. It is currently the largest genebank in Benin, housing over 20,000 accessions of more than 70 species, including over 50 vegetable crops. It assists university staff in planning and executing germplasm collection missions focused on Benin and West Africa.

Mission

The genebank’s mission is to:

Safeguard plant genetic resources from any part of the world.
Promote and facilitate access to genetic resources for end-users (e.g., students, farmers, breeders, researchers, policymakers) from various government and non-government organizations.
Conduct robust research on its existing accessions and collections to enable informed utilization.

The Collection

Nearly 20,000 accessions of more than 70 species, including more than 50 vegetable crops (August 2025) (Genesys)
Most are conserved as seeds in the genebank, while nearly 400 accessions are conserved in field genebanks.
The collection includes cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruits essential for regional food security.
Crops in the collection include tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpum), peppers (Capsicum spp.), jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), and miracle berry (Synsepalum dulcificum).
CalaviGen holds the largest worldwide collections of jute mallow (1,566 accessions) and Egusi gourd (274 accessions) (August 2025).

Opportunity Crops in Benin

The top three opportunity crops grown in Benin are fonio (Digitaria exilis), African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa), and Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea). Fonio is an early-maturing cereal that grows well in poor soils and provides a rich source of iron and amino acids. African yam bean produces both edible seeds and tubers, offering a dual source of protein and energy, while Bambara groundnut is drought-resistant and improves soil nitrogen.

Opportunity crops are important for food security in Benin because they enhance dietary diversity, withstand climate variability, and strengthen smallholder resilience through low-input, sustainable production systems.

Related Projects

BOLDER: The Genetics, Biotechnology and Seed Science Unit (GBioS), of which CalaviGen is part, is involved in BOLDER in conservation activities, capacity building, and the implementation of the tricot (triadic comparison of technologies) approach—a research methodology that helps farmers identify the most suitable technologies for their local conditions.

CalaviGen is one of the four genebanks involved in the conservation activities of the BOLDER project. As such, CalaviGen is expected to collect, regenerate, characterize, and safety duplicate a total of 200 opportunity crop accessions.

GBioS is co-leading with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) the training of PhD students on target crops for West Africa—Bambara groundnut, fonio, jute mallow, and sweet berry in Benin, and amaranth, baobab, sesame, and turkey berry in Ghana. GBioS is hosting and contributing to the supervision of four selected PhD students who will be registered at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi.

GBioS is co-leading the implementation of the Tricot approach in Benin alongside the World Vegetable Center. A pilot phase on jute mallow was completed in December 2024.