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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
Safeguarding Indonesian Crop Diversity: A Q&A with Standy Christianto
The Borneo Institute Foundation (BIT) was founded in 2007 to support the independence and culture of Indonesia’s Dayak community. Based in Central Kalimantan, a region rich in biodiversity, BIT works with farmers in the Manuhing...
12 Feb 2025
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The One That Makes the Daughter-In-Law Cry and Other Potato Recipes From the Women of the Potato Park
Is there a food that’s more emblematic of Peru than the potato? Long, round, bumpy, yellow, purple, red. Every imaginable shape and color is on the menu. And the women there know how to prepare them.
I have been in Peru doing...
30 May 2024
Carlos Ochoa: The Indiana Jones of the Potato World
In this installment of our Seed Heroes series, we remember the unique contributions of Peruvian scientist Carlos Ochoa, whose hazardous collection expeditions in search of wild potatoes paved the way for many of today’s improved...
24 May 2024
An Initiative to Save Cryopreserved Crop Collections, Forever
Many of the foods we cherish the most – bananas and potatoes, for example – don’t reproduce through seeds. They are propagated through vegetative means like tubers, suckers, and cuttings.
For this reason, the diversity of these...
28 Sep 2023
Global Guardians of Potato Diversity
In the highlands of Peru, a group of farmers safeguard their livelihoods and those of future generations. They are conserving the diversity of their staple food: the potato.
Some members of AGUAPAN (Association of Guardians of...
9 Aug 2023
Revival and Survival of Repatriated Potato Landraces in the Andes
Take home messages
Potato landraces collected in farmers’ fields are being “repatriated” back to the farmers. A study was conducted to determine how long Andean farmers continue to use repatriated landraces after...
21 Mar 2023
The Future of Food is Wild
Climate change is making it harder for farmers to grow enough food to feed their families. A new potato variety called CIP-Matilde, developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) with support from the Crop Trust, is the latest...
12 Oct 2021
12 Oct 2021
Potatoes for a Changing Climate
Climate change is reducing potato yields in some important production areas due to more drought, heat, and diseases like late blight and bacterial wilt.
Our partners from the International Potato Center (CIP) are working with the...
23 Mar 2020
David Ellis: Finding the Balance Between Manager and Scientist
Recipient of the inaugural Crop Trust Legacy Award David Ellis was once asked how to prepare for a career as a genebank scientist. “There’s no fricking way,” he responded. “You not only have to be well grounded in science but you...
8 May 2019
Wild Plants from Four Continents Deliver Climate Change Lifeline for Crops
Nearly 5,000 seed samples of crop wild relatives saved in challenging, six-year effort to secure the future of food.
Bonn, Germany and Washington, DC (3 DECEMBER 2019)—As the world grapples with the challenge of sustainably...
12 Mar 2019
Guest Post: Nourishing Collaborations
A social anthropologist tells us about her recent experiences amidst a large and global community working towards conserving and using plant genetic resources for food security and adaptation to climate change.
Imagine...
8 Dec 2015
8 Dec 2015
Four Things That Keep A Genebank Manager Awake At Night
Dave Ellis, Genebank Manager at CIP in Lima, Peru, shares with our Crop Topics readers his views and concerns regarding the present state and future challenges of plant genetic resources conservation around the world.
We know...
6 Jul 2015
6 Jul 2015