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From cutting-edge research to work saving seeds in communities, even our small actions can have a big impact on saving crop diversity and putting it to good use. Read the latest news highlighting these efforts and more.
Latest Article
Long-Term Funding Supports AfricaRice Genebank and the Future of Rice Diversity
Partnership ensures farmers and breeders have lasting access to the crop’s diversity.
Bonn, Germany, 29 August 2025 – Over 35 million smallholder rice farmers across Africa stand to benefit from the agreement signed last month...
29 Aug 2025
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Mainstreaming Crop Diversity: Dan Saladino Tells the Stories That Really Matter
Twenty years ago, ‘biodiversity’ was a niche term that was mainly used in scientific circles. Now, we – well, some of us – discuss the relative merits of heirloom apples and ancient cereals in supermarket check-out lines. This...
24 Apr 2024
Risky Business: Safeguarding Crop Diversity in Genebanks
Ensuring food security and the resilience of agriculture against environmental challenges relies on the preservation and use of crop diversity. Genebanks are the ultimate guardians of this diversity. However, they face a myriad of...
15 Apr 2024
Erna Bennett: A Crop Diversity Maverick
In this installment of our Seed Heroes series, we salute the Irish scientist Erna Bennett, whose unheeded calls in the 1960s to halt the rapid decline of crop genetic diversity are echoed in today’s global drive to save plant...
8 Apr 2024
Ahmed Amri: The Singing Scientist of Morocco
In this installment of our Seed Heroes series, we celebrate the life and achievements of Moroccan scientist Ahmed Amri, a pioneer of seed conservation in the Fertile Crescent who helped rescue ICARDA’s genebank during Syria’s...
11 Mar 2024
Seed Banks: A Last Line of Defense Against the Erosion of Agricultural Biodiversity
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Invitation to a press briefing with Dr. Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust on March 13, 2024 at 6 pm in the Auditorium of the Deutsches Museum, Museumsinsel 1, 80538 Munich,...
11 Mar 2024
Celebrating the BOLD Women Behind Crop Conservation
As the world celebrates International Women's Day, we highlight the invaluable contributions of women in agriculture in general and agricultural research in particular. In fields, laboratories, and genebanks around the globe,...
7 Mar 2024
A Date with the Future: Crop Trust and KIADPAI Join Forces to Protect Iconic Fruit
During the Winners' Honoring Ceremony of the 16th session of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation (KIADPAI), just held in Abu Dhabi, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) and KIADPAI...
28 Feb 2024
Svalbard Seed Vault Welcomes Baobab, Hairy Eggplant and African Rice
Longyearbyen, Norway - February 27, 2024 - The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a cornerstone of global food security, will open its doors for the first time this year to welcome 23 depositors, half from Africa.
Nine depositors –...
27 Feb 2024
Banking on Diversity in Nigeria: A Winning Team
With a pair of tweezers, Mary Aditiku picks up a tiny okra seed, turns it over, and puts it back in place. Her hand is steady; her movements are precise. She repeats this action dozens of times, moving quickly across the plastic...
20 Feb 2024
Jane Toll: Catalyzing and Celebrating Crop Diversity
In this second installment of our Seed Heroes series, we celebrate Jane Toll, the woman, the collector, and the influencer behind the creation of the Crop Trust, which this year celebrates 20 years since it was founded in 2004.
...
9 Feb 2024
Lentils: The Tiny Giants of Nutrition and Food Security
Pulses, the dried edible seeds of plants in the legume family, have been a staple in diets around the world for millennia. As we approach World Pulses Day, our focus turns to one of the most versatile members of the group, the len...
7 Feb 2024
Saving Every Grain of Rice: A Q&A with Jerry Tjoe Awie
Jerry Tjoe Awie is a rice breeder. The only one in Suriname, a small country on the northeastern coast of South America. Jerry is also the Director of the Anne van Dijk Rice Research Centre (ADRON), Suriname’s national rice...
30 Jan 2024