News

Stefan Schmitz | Executive Director

It is often said that in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity. These insightful words apply to the predicament in which the world finds itself today as climate change and...

Plant breeders developing new crop varieties are finding success after shifting their gaze from the fields to the stars.

Scientists at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Rabat,...

In the face of climate change, improving wheat varieties is essential to maintain yields—and genebanks are at the center of the process, a new study shows.

Published in a special issue of the journal Food Security, the study used...

Chickpea is an excellent source of dietary fiber, with calcium and magnesium to boot, but new research shows we can do even more with the popular legume to combat malnutrition.

A study published in a special issue of Crop Science...

New varieties of pearl millet that are more resilient to the effects of climate change are off to a promising start, a new study shows.

Pearl millet is an important cereal crop of the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and...

Luigi Guarino | Director of Science

A healthy diet includes five servings of fruits & vegetables daily. Yet the cost of such a diet exceeds what the typical family spends on food in most countries in the Global South. Three...

Eyerusalem Arusi Morka shows what can be achieved when women have the opportunity to develop their talents.

In honor of International Women’s Day, which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of...

From the dry, freezing winters of Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia (China), to the parched summers of central Chile, to the blistering heat of Australia, alfalfa—also known as lucerne—is the go-to crop to provide livestock with...

Stefan Schmitz | Executive Director

A collaborative global system for ex situ conservation of crop genetic resources is the vision that guides the Crop Trust’s work. As we decide where to direct our efforts in the coming years,...

The arid-zone grain sorghum can be made even more tolerant of drought, new research shows.

Drought tolerance in sorghum—the world’s fifth most important cereal crop—is measured in a number of different ways, including by looking...

FAO’s International Year of Fruits and Vegetables is being recognized all around the globe—including at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Among the first deposits of 2021 were seeds of watermelon, strawberry and pumpkin. The...

When the Svalbard Global Seed Vault opens this week, for the first time in 2021, the seeds of something really sweet will be among those deposited.

A package of 500 Fragaria vesca (woodland or wild strawberry) seeds will be...