Genebank Platform

The Genebank Platform supports the core activities of the CGIAR genebanks: conserving and making available crop and tree diversity. It ensures that the genebanks meet international standards, improve efficiency and ensure more effective use within an enabling policy environment.CGIAR genebanks conserve collections of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). Taken together, CGIAR genebanks represent the largest and most widely used collections of crop diversity in the world.Through the Platform, the genebanks will ensure the increased conservation and use of the collections they hold, in the framework of an improved and supportive policy environment. Information systems will make it easier for plant breeders and other researchers to find specific material, while germplasm health units associated with each CGIAR genebank ensure that the material they distribute is viable and free of quarantine pests and diseases.