News

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...

The state of the global coffee industry was thrown into the public eye this summer as two of the world’s largest coffee exporters faced dire situations: drought and frost threatened crops in Brazil and surging COVID-19 cases in...

Harnessing useful traits found in the weedy distant cousins (“wild relatives”) of domesticated crops to develop more climate-resilient varieties is a lengthy and complex process.

Wild relatives of the arid-zone grain sorghum have...

The Crop Trust has signed an agreement with Zambia’s national genebank under the Seeds for Resilience Project to help safeguard the country’s crop diversity and make it more accessible to farmers, breeders and researchers.

The...

Since 2021, the CGIAR Genebank Platform Policy Module has developed and promoted an online course for CGIAR researchers and other CGIAR staff to dive deeply into the evolving international laws and policies that govern the sharing...

The Crop Trust and International Plant Treaty

Cryopreservation is the key to conserving many crops we rely on for our food and agriculture.

While most of the world’s food plants, such as rice, maize and wheat, can be conserved...

Crop diversity is humanity’s lifeline. If we want to ensure our future food security, it must be protected. Genebanks contribute to this vital task by storing seeds under special conditions to ensure that they are available when...

Just like everybody needs somebody to love, every new crop variety needs a farmer.

Developing better seeds that can withstand the effects of climate change is only valuable if farmers show them a little love, and actually want to...

They say you get more flies with honey, but an experiment on alfalfa in Kazakhstan found you also get greater yields with honeybees.

The experiment is part of the Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) Project, a global initiative to adapt...

As part of its Seeds for Resilience Project, the Crop Trust has signed the first of five major agreements with national genebanks in sub-Saharan Africa with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), which...

An excerpt from our recently published 2020 Annual Report by Executive Director Stefan Schmitz

No aspect of the Crop Trust’s work in 2020 was left untouched by the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The shocks of the past...