Crop Diversity and the Stories That Matter
16 September 2026
As conflict, climate change and consumer tastes reshape agriculture, plant breeders are responding with new, more resilient varieties of our favorite crops. But even the most advanced technologies depend on the crop diversity conserved in genebanks. Genomic tools can help breeders identify useful traits faster, but they cannot recover diversity once it has been lost. Modern genebanks are also becoming knowledge hubs, making crop diversity easier to find, understand and use.
Ahead of the 2026 World Congress of Agricultural Journalists, the Crop Trust’s Dr Sarada Krishnan spoke to the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists about crop diversity – a resource vital to the future of food, yet often overlooked or misunderstood. She explains why genebanks matter and why credible journalism is essential to bringing their stories to a wider audience.
The interview highlights Jabal, a drought-tolerant durum wheat variety developed using cultivated wheat and a wild relative conserved in a genebank. Bred with support from the Crop Trust’s BOLD project, Jabal is poised to make a difference for farmers facing persistent drought. It is also a powerful example of why safeguarding crop diversity for the long term matters – we cannot know today which traits farmers and breeders will need tomorrow.
Category: For The Press