CGIAR Genebanks

🌱 Our peer reviewers, Muzamil Baig and Theo van Hintum, have been on their travels again. This time to the ICARDA genebank in Morocco 🇲🇦 . These visits are an important part of our Quality Management System and are a chance to exchange knowledge and drive up standards. The ICARDA genebank was re-established in Rabat, Morocco and Terbol, Lebanon 🇱🇧, after conflict meant it had to leave its original home in Syria 🇸🇾. This was possible because the collection had been backed up at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The genebank in Morocco contains globally important diversity of wheats, barley, chickpea and lentil. ICARDA; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN) #Genebanks #CropDiversity #QualityManagement #PeerReview

#DYK? Some of our genebanks have regional hubs to provide easier access to crop diversity and to allow partners to back up their collections. One example is the ICRISAT regional genebank near Niamey which welcomed the FAO representative for Niger 🇳🇪, Al Hassan Cissé, earlier this week. This was part of a broader visit to advance joint initiatives and develop funding proposals. The regional genebank was established in 1991 to serve National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in West and Central Africa. 🌾🥜🫛 The team, led by Dr Falalou Hamidou, conserves and makes available diversity of 51 species mainly pearl millets, groundnut, sorghum and pigeonpea, but also crops like cowpea, rice and okra. All part of our commitment to getting these precious genetic resources into the hands of those working to make agriculture more resilient, productive and sustainable 🌱. #MoreThanColdStorage #Agrobiodiversity #Africa #Niger #CropDiversity

Good quality data is essential for making decisions about the use and management of genebank collections.   Monica Carvajal leads the digital genebank team at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Future Seeds genebank in Palmira, Colombia 🇨🇴 .   Watch the video to learn how Monica and her team use genomics, digital phenotyping and data technologies to:   🌱 provide users with information to find the precise samples they need 🌱 identify duplicates in the genebank’s cassava collection, optimising conservation and saving money   #MoreThanColdStorage #Agrobiodiversity #WithScienceWeCan Crop Trust

It's not too late to respond to our survey for national partners! Any further insights welcome until Monday 20 July: https://lnkd.in/dY-ZfVz3

It was a pleasure to welcome a CGIAR delegation to the Crop Trust offices in Bonn this week, including Chief Scientist Sandra Milach, Clemens Breisinger and Juliana Knapp. Our discussions focused on CGIAR's new initiative, "Unlocking the Potential of Agrobiodiversity: from genebanks to food security", which aims to transform genebanks into active drivers of innovation for food security, climate resilience and improved nutrition. We’re looking forward to contributing to this important effort and thereby strengthening ongoing collaboration with CGIAR Genebanks and CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow. The initiative will play a vital role in unlocking the value of crop diversity conserved in CGIAR genebanks by generating strategic, actionable data and supporting equitable access to both data and germplasm in collaboration with national and regional genebanks, universities and breeders.

The rules governing how seeds are conserved, used and shared internationally are set through patient, technical work. That work continued last week during the 13th Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITWG-PGR) at the FAO in Rome. The main topics were: 1️⃣ Revision of the 2nd Global Plan of Action for PGRFA - the key reference guiding national, regional and global efforts to conserve and sustainably use plant genetic resources, and to share the benefits fairly and equitably. 2️⃣ Review of a desk study on the impact of seed policies, laws and regulations promoting farmers’ varieties and landraces (FVLs) - coordinated by scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT with the Secretariat of the FAO CGRFA. In both cases, the Working Group agreed to compile written comments from members and observers to prepare for the submission of revised documents in 2027. The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT organized two side events on behalf of the CGIAR Genebanks Accelerator: 🌱 Presentation of the study on seed policies, laws and regulations on FVLs and an analysis of their effects on farmers’ ability to access, use and sell diverse, locally adapted seeds. 🌾 Monitoring plant genetic resource diversity on farm and in situ – an overview of approaches, tools, challenges and opportunities. Both offered valuable chances to exchange views with governments, public research organizations, NGOs and FAO. 🙏 Thank you to our speakers: Barbara Pick, Niels Louwaars, Isabel López Noriega, Claudio Chiarolla, PhD, Aladdin Hamwieh, Elizabeth Fernandez Huaytalla, Justify Gotami Shava, Francois Meienberg, Stef de Haan, Agnès Bernis Fonteneau, PhD, Paola de Santis and Álvaro Toledo. #PlantGeneticResources #Agrobiodiversity #Genebanks #FoodSecurity #FAO

Every deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is important. But ICARDA’s latest delivery carried a particularly powerful message about international unity.   A number of the samples from the genebank were packed by students from across the world who attend the Rabat American School.   In each case, the origin of the seeds matched the nationality of the students. For example, the box included:   🍝 A landrace of durum wheat known as Enano de Jaén (dwarf of Jaén) from Andalusia in Spain 🇪🇸.   🧆 A type of chickpea from the village of Bir Tamtam in the Fès region of Morocco 🇲🇦. It was one of 350 traditional landraces collected by ICARDA in the area in 1987.   🍞 A form of primitive wheat known as Leventis, historically linked with cultivation in the Peloponnese region of Greece 🇬🇷, but collected in Hérault, France 🇫🇷.   The students each placed a certificate with their name alongside the samples and travelled to Svalbard to witness the seeds’ arrival at the Vault.   They reminded us that the Svalbard Vault - and the wider global system of crop diversity conservation and use - isn’t just about food security. It’s about countries working together to tackle our shared challenges.   Many thanks to NordGen, Crop Trust, Sandy Netzel, Oumaima ZAHER, Athanasios Tsivelikas, and others for their support on this initiative.   📸 Jonatan Jacobson/NordGen and ICARDA; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas   #AgroBiodiversity #InternationalCooperation #FoodSecurity #Svalbard

Exciting news for the genebanks and genomics community! Gigwa-MCP built specifically to support our teams working with genomic data and is now ready to connect to your own GIGWA database instance in few clicks. Great work by Anestis Gkanogiannis, PhD. This is exactly the kind of AI-powered tool that can accelerate how we analyze and leverage our genetic resources data at scale. CGIAR Genebanks ICARDA; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas