Crop Diversity: The Foundation of Food Security
Governments can protect the diversity that agriculture depends on by funding the genebanks that safeguard it.
By Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of CGIAR, and Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust.
Ask people to picture biodiversity, and many think of rainforests, coral reefs or wildflowers. Fewer picture rice or apple varieties. Yet our food security depends on crop diversity. This biodiversity enables us to adapt agriculture to changing climates, resist emerging pests and diseases, and improve yield, nutrition and taste.
Governments, development actors and others gathering for the 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference are already protecting this diversity. Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 4 calls for safeguarding genetic diversity so that wild and domesticated species retain their ability to adapt. Conserving crop diversity in genebanks is a practical way to deliver that commitment.
Protecting crop diversity requires conservation in both natural habitats and genebanks. Some crop diversity and crop wild relatives continue to adapt on farms, in forests, and in fields, but genebanks allow us to put that diversity to use. They store samples of seeds, plantlets or trees in optimal conditions for long-term viability. Genebanks make it easier for breeders and researchers to access the resources they need to develop new varieties.
Keeping that crop diversity available requires continuous care. Genebank staff test seeds, regenerate collections by growing fresh plants, check seed health and document their characteristics. This work keeps diversity alive and ready for use. Even a minor funding interruption can put decades of investment at risk and cause irreversible losses of diversity.
The eleven CGIAR genebanks showcase the value of our crop diversity. They conserve and make available over 720,000 samples of over 30 important crops and form the backbone of the system for sharing diversity with breeders and scientists worldwide under the International Plant Treaty. Routine operations at these genebanks cost around USD 22 million a year, a sound investment when a single sample can help solve a problem that costs farmers hundreds of millions of dollars.
One example is a wild relative of the peanut from Bolivia, known as Arachis cardenasii ICG 8216. Conserved in the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) genebank, this one sample contributed to at least 251 breeding lines in 30 countries and helped breeders develop GPBD 4, a peanut variety resistant to damaging fungal diseases. The variety helped farmers in India protect their harvests, with estimated economic benefits of around USD 200 million between 2006 and 2022.
Genebanks also enable communities to recover traditional varieties that have disappeared from farmers’ fields. Between 1997 and 2020, the International Potato Center (CIP) genebank distributed nearly 15,000 samples, representing more than 1,500 native potato landraces, to 135 communities in Peru. Returned as disease-free planting material, the potatoes helped farmers grow healthier crops with higher yields, while restoring traditional varieties to their fields, exchange networks and food traditions.
According to FAO, more than 850 genebanks conserve nearly 6 million seed samples worldwide. Over 80% of these samples are held in national genebanks, many of which are chronically underfunded. They need investment in infrastructure, equipment and training, alongside reliable funding for essential operations. We urge governments to include these vital institutions in national biodiversity plans.
Advances in technology, expertise and shared tools can benefit collections worldwide. These include cryopreservation, which safeguards crops such as banana, potato and cassava in liquid nitrogen, and AI-powered tools to search collections and identify useful traits. Stronger international cooperation can help more genebanks benefit from these advances and share crop diversity and its associated data fairly and effectively.
Under the Global Biodiversity Framework, governments agreed to maximise the shared benefits of funding for biodiversity and climate. Investing in genebanks can help deliver both, while strengthening food security. But genebanks need reliable, complementary funding. Direct support to CGIAR and other genebank collections sustains the work and innovation that turn crop diversity into possibilities for farmers. Contributions to the Crop Trust Endowment Fund provide predictable, long-term financing for essential operations through investment income. Together, these approaches help sustain the collections, expertise and partnerships that help countries prepare for an uncertain future.
The biodiversity behind the food on our tables deserves attention. The varieties farmers have nurtured for generations, and the wild relatives whose potential we have yet to discover, are an inheritance we cannot afford to lose. By investing in the genebanks that safeguard them, we pass on more than seeds. We give future generations more choices for growing the food they will need in a changing world.
