Annual Technical Report 2025: Genebanks Accelerator

The genebanks operated by CGIAR Centers are custodians of the world’s most diverse publicly available crop germplasm collections. They conserve more than 720,000 accessions of more than 3,000 plant species. The genetic material is freely available to researchers, breeders, local communities, and farmers under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty), helping them find solutions for a more resilient, sustainable agriculture. The Genebanks Accelerator aims to ensure the reliability of CGIAR conservation and genebank services now and into the future and to build a stronger global system of policies, mechanisms, institutions and conservationists making genetic diversity more widely available, and contributing mostly to CGIAR Impact Area on Environmental health and biodiversity. By conserving and making available biodiversity, Genebanks are responding to SDG 2.5 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Targets 4, 10, 13, and 20, and the FAO’s Global Plan of Action on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) and giving new users access to plant diversity sources.