IRRI Seed Health and Logistics Unit leads quality management and cost recovery systems implementation across the CGIAR CoP at the 7th CGIAR GHU Workshop

CIAT, COLOMBIA, 15 April 2024 — Germplasm/Seed health units staff members from various CGIAR centers, including the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), meet once again for the 7th International Workshop of the CGIAR Germplasm Health Units, held from 15-19 April at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Headquarters in Palmira, Colombia.

The Germplasm Health Units (GHUs) provide phytosanitary services to genebanks and to the CGIAR’s Agri-food System CRPs, ensuring their products are free of pests and diseases that pose a quarantine risk. They have a crucial role in monitoring germplasm health and ensuring disease-free materials are supplied to seed systems for multiplication and distribution to farmers.

The workshop brought together participants from 11 CGIAR centers to review the objectives and action plans of the GHUs groups, their community of practice, and their phytosanitary diagnostic activities, including germplasm evaluation of seed and clonal crops, quality management systems, seed treatments, emerging pests and diseases, process improvement, capacity and cost recovery, and proposals for inter-center projects in plant pathogens.