News

The Crop Trust facilitated the update of a global strategy to conserve the diversity of sorghum and its wild relatives.

The “camel of crops” is a true physiological marvel. It’s one of our toughest cereals and can survive in...

Crop Trust and Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) invited partners from developing countries to a workshop. Benjamin Kilian, coordinator of the BOLD project and a former IPK staff member, explains...

When it comes to sustainability, the livestock sector has a bad reputation. One way to reduce its environmental impact is to breed better forages: the grasses and other plants that are eaten by farm animals. The genetic resources...

Zhongcao No. 3. When you first hear that name, you can be forgiven for thinking it’s an expensive perfume. But actually, it’s a Chinese variety of alfalfa. 

It stands out for more than just its unusual moniker. This variety has...

Yields of yams could be boosted—and with them food security—by using their biodiversity more efficiently, according to a strategy for yam conservation facilitated by the Crop Trust.

In the United States and the Caribbean, the...

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.

From Lima to Lusaka, open the menu of one of the fancier burger joints and you may well find fries made from sweetpotatoes rather than the more common, blander sort of tuber. The value chain that ensures that this delicious snack...

2023 marks the International Year of Millets – hardy, nutritious crops that are in decline. A recently published global conservation strategy maps out how to keep millets on our plates. 

They’re hardy, reliable, rich in...

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...