Presented at Committee on Food Security 41 side event organized by International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food & Agriculture “Food security and Nutrition through the Sustainable Use and Innovation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as Key Elements for Implementing Farmers’ Rights”, 14 October 2014 http://www.planttreaty.org/sites/default/files/CFS_ITPGRFA-event-Farmers-Rights_en.pdf https://www.flickr.com/photos/faonews/sets/72157648758770702/

6. Crop Diversity
• The basis for productivity and resilience
of farming systems
• The raw material for crop improvement
• Conserved by farmers for millennia
• Endangered in many places
• Safeguarded in a global system of
genebanks, like...

8. International Crop Diversity
Collections

9. International collections:
conservation
– Barley: ICARDA 27,000
– Beans: CIAT 36,000
– Chickpea: ICARDA + ICRISAT 34,000
– Forages: CIAT + ICARDA + ILRI 66,000
– Maize: CIMMYT +IITA 28,000
– Potato: CIP 7,000
– Rice: AfricaRice + IRRI 129,000
– Wheat: CIMMYT + ICARDA 167,000
TOTAL for all crops ≈750,000
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10. International collections:
use
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• Distributed 672,296 samples to 187
countries 2004-2013
• Vital to public sector crop improvement
programmes in developing countries
• Significant distribution to farmers, farmer
organizations & NGOs: 3,520 samples
(2013)

11. International collections:
How farmers benefit
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• Back-up for on-farm conservation
• Direct use
– Restoration: eg Seeds of Hope (CIAT)
– Targeted evaluation: eg Seeds for Needs
(Bioversity)
• Crop improvement
– Hundreds of improved varieties released by
NARES

12. Global Crop Diversity Trust
• International organization
– Secretariat in Bonn, Germany from January 2013
• Policy guidance of ITPGRFA
– Essential element of funding strategy of Treaty
• Governed by Executive Board
– Treaty, Donors Council, FAO, CGIAR
• Endowment: long-term funding for genebanks
– Projects: to overcome key constraints

13. History of the Crop Trust
Oct. 2003, FAO CGRFA endorsed the establishment
of the Crop Trust:
“…. on the joint efforts of FAO and the CGIAR to establish a Global
Conservation Trust, to provide, in perpetuity, a flow of funds for ex
situ conservation by national and international institutions … The
Trust would operate in the framework of the International Treaty,
and be an essential element of its Funding Strategy. The overall
policy guidance to the Trust would come from the Governing Body
of the Treaty.
This initiative was universally appreciated and supported, and
appeals were made to donors to assist in the establishment of the
Trust…”
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14. International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources
• Calls for a global system for
conservation of crop diversity
• CGIAR genebank collections
covered under Article 15, replacing
earlier agreements with FAO
• Recognized as key component of
global system
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15. Project activities
Collecting Conservation Regeneration
Information systems Duplication Permanent backup
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16. Supporting National Genebanks
REGENERATION
• 79,725 regenerated
• 86 institutes in 77
countries
SAFETY DUPLICATION
• 43,676 accessions
• 56 countries
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17. Saving Crop Wild Relatives
• Conserving diversity that was
left behind during
domestication
• Making it available to farmers
through pre-breeding
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18. Svalbard Global Seed Vault
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21. Svalbard Global Seed Vault
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22. Phillippine National Genebank
Typhoon Xangsane, 2006
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23. 23
More than 820,000 varieties
stored in the Vault
Seeds from nearly every country
in the world deposited by 58
institutes

24. 24

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26. Genebanks around the world
• rescue and safeguard crop diversity
• make it available to users such as
breeders and farmers
• study it and make information
about available for research and
crop improvement
• need reliable funding ensure the
long-term availability of diversity
& data
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Summary

27. Thank you
www.croptrust.org
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