CGIAR Genebanks

🎉 Join us in congratulating the IRRI genebank team on winning an Asian Innovation Excellence Award! The award recognises two major achievements: ✅ The use of #AI for rapid identification of rice varieties, accelerating the evaluation of traits such as drought, flood, and salinity tolerance. ✅ The launch of a Released Variety Panel, offering both seeds and genetic data from over 130 modern rice varieties. The IRRI genebank conserves over 132,000 types of rice. It is one of eleven CGIAR genebanks around the world that make crop diversity available to farmers, breeders and researchers. Venuprasad Ramaiah International Rice Research Institute The Asian Business Review Crop Trust #ClimateSmart #Biodiversity #FoodSecurity

The Community of Practice (CoP) of Latin American genebanks met in Montevideo, Uruguay 🇺🇾 last week.   The CoP reinforces connections among its members and facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience on technical and legal issues involved in the establishment and sharing of core collections and related genetic data.    Core elements of last week's meeting were:   🥔🫘🌽 Genetic Diversity Analysis, interpretation and publication of genotypic data for target crops (potato, common bean and maize) at a regional level 🌱 Creation of core collections: theory, approaches, available tools ⚖️ Legal issues involved in the establishment of regional core collections.  🚜 Collaborative work among genebanks and farmers 🧬 Deep dive into DArTseq technology 🌾 Visit to INIA’s research station La Estanzuela, including the genebank and wheat experimental fields 🎓 Visit to the Facultad de Agronomía of the Universidad de la República, including the Genebank and the field collections and characterization activities   The Latin America CoP has been active since 2022 under the coordination of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and CIMMYT. Through online and in-person meetings, the CoP has facilitated sharing of knowledge and expertise among national and international genebanks on a series of genebank relevant topics as prioritized by the members, starting with the generation, analysis and interpretation of genotypic data derived from genebank collections and following with gap analysis of genebank collections, regeneration and post-harvest practices in seed collections and navigating the legal and policy frameworks governing the use and sharing of genebanks’ accessions and related information.    🙏🏾 Many thanks to our partners who helped make the meeting a success: INIA Uruguay, Universidad de la República and UTEC - Universidad Tecnológica

🌱❄️ Sending seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is always an emotional moment for genebank staff.   📽️ Solomon Fikre, a technician at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) genebank in #Ethiopia 🇪🇹, describes his happiness at preparing seed packets to be deposited in the Svalbard Vault.   Seeds prepared by Solomon were also sent to the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Future Seeds genebank in #Colombia 🇨🇴. Genebanks are also a vital part of the safety backup system. It’s worth having more than one level of insurance for these precious resources.   ILRI deposited 1,518 unique samples in Svalbard this week, representing 347 species of trees, shrubs, legumes and African forages.   Another CGIAR center, ICRISAT, sent 2,201 samples, including 25 species of sorghum, Pennisetum, Cajanus, Arachis, and others.   Thanks to staff like Solomon and those working at the Global Seed Vault, these seeds will remain available to both current and future generations.   Crop Trust NordGen regjeringen.no   #biodiversity #foodsecurity

Proud moment! FAO recognized ICRISAT at the #FAO80 and #WorldFoodDay ceremony in Rome for our technical leadership in sustainable agrifood systems. Under Sustainable Plant Production & Protection category of FAO’s Global Technical Recognition, ICRISAT was honored for conserving #chickpea germplasm and breeding improved, resilient varieties for a food-secure future. Himanshu Pathak Dr. Stanford (Stan) Blade, KSLA

🌱🐄 Feed has a big impact on how much methane livestock emit.   Three CGIAR Centers - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and ICARDA; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas – have therefore joined forces to screen forages from their genebanks for drought-tolerant, anti-methanogenic and nutritious compounds.   🎥 Watch Dr Bayissa Hatew, of the ILRI Animal Nutrition Lab in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, explain the screening process.   The most promising forages will be validated with animals and then promoted for direct use in livestock systems or used to develop new climate-smart cultivars.   The initiative aims to contribute towards a 1.5% reduction in global enteric methane emissions by 2030.   🙏🏾 Thank you to our partners on the project Global Methane Hub, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and AgResearch, and to the Bezos Earth Fund and Gates Foundation for their generous financial and technical support.   #ClimateAction #GHG #biodiversity #foodsecurity #sustainablefarming

📢 Call for proposals: we are seeking a team to conduct a systematic review and comparative analysis of the use of germplasm and associated data sourced from CGIAR Genebanks. Swipe/click through the slides for more details. Apply by 7 November here: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ep4N-ByK #ConsultingOpportunities #biodiversity #foodsecurity