The World Food Prize honored Cary Fowler and Geoffrey Hawtin for their lifelong dedication to preserving genetic resources critical to global food security. They have led efforts to protect seeds from over 6,000 crops by establishing germplasm banks worldwide, including the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, to safeguard biodiversity against climate threats. With partners like INIFAP, CIMMYT has played a key role in conserving the genetic diversity of staple crops, ensuring these resources are available for future agricultural resilience.
The World Food Prize this year celebrates the essential role of genebanks in global food security—a mission at the heart of CIMMYT’s work. Through its maize and wheat collections, CIMMYT’s genebank preserves crop diversity that is critical for developing resilient, climate-adapted varieties. Highlighted by former CIMMYT maize curator Denise Costich, this recognition underscores the value of conserving genetic resources, which allow CIMMYT and its partners to create solutions for a rapidly changing agricultural landscape. As a vital part of the global genebank network, CIMMYT’s efforts ensure that biodiversity remains a foundation for food security and resilience worldwide.
Scientists from the Research Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in Uzbekistan (RIPGR) attended training on gene bank management and genetic resources, coordinated by CIMMYT-Türkiye on 13-20 April 2024. Hosted at the Turkish Department of Agricultural Economics and Project Management (TAGEM), the training is supported by the World Bank Group, which is helping Uzbekistan to modernize the country’s agriculture. With one of the highest levels of wheat consumption in Central Asia, the modernization project aims to increase Uzbekistan’s wheat yield and meet demand for the crop.
The course included lectures on status and activity of the Turkish Seed Germplasm Bank (TSGB), policy instruments and international perspectives on plant genetic resources, herbarium techniques, biotechnology studies, and genetic resources. Uzbek scientists also became acquainted with scientific laboratories, visiting the field station in İkizce Gölbaşı and learned about the breeding, pathology, and agronomy activities at the station as well as the collaboration activities between CGIAR Research Centers and TAGEM.
Country-wide expertise
In addition to sessions at CIMMYT’s office in Türkiye, participants also visited the National Gene Bank in Ankara and the National Gene Bank of Izmir.
At the latter location, experts delivered sessions on a range of topics, such as the Plant Diversity and Genetic Resources Program of Türkiye; in vitro and cryopreservation techniques; the conservation, data recording, and documentation of plant genetic resources; conservation and utilization of vegetable genetic resources; conservation studies on mushroom genetic resources; studies on wheat genetic resources and wheat breeding at the international winter wheat breeding program; regional collaboration to combat wheat rust disease in Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA); and international winter wheat breeding strategies.
In addition to the seminar sessions, the participants also visited several locations to familiarize themselves with scientific processes in field and laboratory conditions. They visited the field gene banks, guided by Fatih Çağir, who provided brief information about the fruit genetic resources activities of Türkiye. They also visited the plant collection activities and herbarium techniques laboratory, the National Gene Bank, Herbarium, Fungarium & Seed Physiology Laboratory of the Plant Genetics Resources Department & Plant Tissue Center, and the Regional Cereal Rust Research Center.
The importance of the training course for Uzbek scientists is to study the system of rational use, conservation, and management of plant genetic resources of Türkiye and to introduce new innovative knowledge in Uzbekistan. It also consists of discussing aspects related to bilateral cooperation and sustainable development in the field of plant genetic resources as well gene bank management.
The delegation from Uzbekistan, on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the director of the Research Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, Zafarjon Mashrapovich Ziyaev, expressed their deep gratitude to the organizers and departments for this training course.
As hotter temperatures and drought become the norm in places used to growing wheat, yields will be reduced, climate change will have some effect on most of the world’s wheat. CIMMYT is working to strengthen seed systems as demand for staple crops like wheat is only expected to increase as the climate crisis makes the world’s food system more vulnerable.
Maize under conservation agriculture (CA) in Malawi (Photo: T. Samson/CIMMYT)
With many stresses facing agricultural food systems, including climate change, disease epidemics, growing populations, there is not one solution that will answer all the challenges. However, a foundational part of any attempt to strengthen food systems is the effort to conserve crop diversity. Maintaining a robust set of plant varieties serves as a building block for developing favorable traits, like increased yield, increased disease resistance, and drought tolerance, among others.
Dedicated to conserving crop diversity, the Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization with the mission of making that diversity available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone.
On April 3, 2023, Crop Trust’s Executive Director, Stefan Schmitz, and Director of Programs, Sarada Krishnan, visited the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for the first time to examine CIMMYT’s maize and wheat genebanks, with the goal of establishing a set of standards for genebanks around the world. The parties also discussed future collaborations between the two institutions that will be best amplify each organization’s strengths.
A key part of the Crop Trust’s mission is support for collections of unique and valuable plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in genebanks.
“CIMMYT is — and has been — one of the key partners in making sure crop diversity is safe and available for all of humanity,” said Schmitz. “Their maize and wheat genebanks serve a crucial role in assuring crop diversity, especially in Latin America.”
Maize seed samples, CIMMYT germplasm bank (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT manages the most diverse maize and wheat collections. CIMMYT’s germplasm bank, also known as a seed bank, is at the center of CIMMYT’s crop-breeding research. This remarkable, living catalog of genetic diversity comprises over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and 123,000 of wheat.
“CIMMYT is honored to host the Crop Trust as any global solution requires global collaboration,” said CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts.
Advances in genebank management
Representatives of the Crop Trust were eager to learn more about CIMMYT’s efforts in Digital sequence information (DSI). CIMMYT is using DSI to analyze structure, redundancies, and gaps within its own genebank and is now working to bring DSI tools to national genebanks in Latin America.
This visit builds on ongoing work, such as the third workshop of the Community of Practice for Latin America and the Caribbean on the use of genomic and digital tools for the conservation and use of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GRAA) held in November 2022.
In 2020, CIMMYT was the largest contributor to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, providing 173,779 maize and wheat accessions from 131 countries.
The Seed Vault, managed by the Crop Trust, is a repository collection holding duplicates of seeds from over 1,700 genebanks around the world.
CIMMYT’s most recent donation to the Seed Vault was in October 2022.
Colleagues from CIMMYT’s germplasm bank prepare a delivery of 263 accessions of maize and 3,548 accession of wheat. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
“All CIMMYT staff we met were passionate about their work and welcomed us kindly, generously sharing their knowledge and time with us. We look forward to continuing our collaboration, to strengthen it, and make sure that the crop collections held at the CIMMYT genebank are safe and available, forever,” said Schmitz.
At COP15, Sarah Hearne gives an overview of the CGIAR Allele Mining Initiative projects and their potential role in conserving biodiversity and nature. (Photo: Michael Halewood/Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT)
Prioritizing the protection of biodiversity is an essential part of mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change and global warming. At the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (COP15), held between December 7-19 in Montreal, Canada, emphasis was placed on the important role of nature in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), proposing the adoption of a bold global biodiversity framework that addresses the key drivers of nature loss to secure health and wellbeing for humanity and for the planet.
On December 7, scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), together with colleagues from CGIAR research centers and the secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, presented at a COP15 side event on how Digital sequence information (DSI) is changing the way genetic resources are used in agricultural research and development and implications for new benefit-sharing norms.
The session, organized by the CGIAR Initiative on Genebanks explored the role of DSI to conserve crop and livestock genetic diversity and explore and utilize that diversity in plant and animal breeding programs.
Attendees at the COP15 side event on DSI discover how genetic resources are used in research and development for agriculture. (Photo: Michael Halewood/Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT)
Carolina Sansaloni, wheat germplasm bank curator and genotyping specialist, illustrated how DSI is being used in the CIMMYT wheat collection to analyze structure, redundancies, and gaps, further detailing how generation and use of DSI to conduct similar analyses within national genebanks in Latin America is being supported through collaborative efforts of CIMMYT and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.
The take-home message was that genetic diversity and germplasm bank collections, when explored at “global scale” with modern tools and diverse partnerships, offer a powerful resource in the efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This potential is only realized through appropriate generation and sharing of DSI generated from collections of many countries of origin.
The workshop, attended by 33 participants from 14 countries, was held at CIMMYT headquarters and highlighted topics such as the analysis of genotypic data derived from the DArTseq platform and the analysis of gaps in germplasm collections.
“It was very gratifying to be able to form this Latin American network of germplasm banks together with our colleagues from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT,”said Carolina Sansaloni, Wheat Germplasm Bank Curator & Genotyping Specialist. “Training and knowledge exchange among germplasm banks is essential for better conservation, exploration and utilization of genetic resources in each country.”
Some of the participants shared the following comments and feedback:
“Excellent initiative, it is a fundamental support for the strengthening of plant genetic resources conservation systems and the creation of international collaborative networks. Thanks to CIMMYT and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT for the invitation.” Mexico’s National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research (INIFAP)
“Excellent workshop, a very important space for the exchange of knowledge and experiences, it also allows the formation of collaborative work networks between institutions and professionals from different countries with related research.” Escuela de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional Costa Rica
“This workshop has allowed me to get in contact with colleagues from Latin America and to open the possibility of working together to advance in the characterization and contribute to the conservation of the collections we manage.” Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Argentina
“This has been a very profitable week for me as curator of the germplasm bank in Brazil. I learnt new concepts and tools that will generate advances in my work.” Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)
COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference for 2022, took place this year in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, between November 6-18. Scientists and researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) represented the organization at a wide range of events, covering gender, genebanks, soil health, and digital innovations.
Gender and food security
In an ICC panel discussion on Addressing Food Security through a Gender-Sensitive Lens on November 7, Director General Bram Govaerts presented on CIMMYT’s systems approach to address gender gaps in agriculture. This event formed part of the ICC Make Climate Action Everyone’s Business Forum, which aimed to bring together experts to determine solutions to the planet’s biggest environmental challenges.
Govaerts highlighted the importance of extension and training services targeting female farmers, particularly those delivered by women communicators. This can be achieved through training female leaders in communities, which encourages other women to adopt agricultural innovations. He also emphasized the obstacles to global food security caused by conflict, climate change, COVID-19, and the cost-of-living crisis, which will in turn create more challenges for women in agriculture.
Hearne explained that the development of current and future varieties is dependent upon breeders sourcing and repackaging native genetic variation in high value combinations. The CGIAR network of germplasm banks holds vast collections of crops that are important for global food and feed supplies. Among the diversity in these collections is currently unexplored and unused native variation for climate adaptation.
Through strong partnerships, multi-disciplinary activities, and the harnessing of diverse skillsets in different areas of applied research and development work, the sprint will help to identify genetic variations of potential value for climate change adaptation and move that variation into products that breeders globally can adopt in their variety development work. Through these efforts, the sprint improves access to specific genetic variation currently sat in the vaults of germplasm banks and facilitates crop improvement programs to develop the varieties that farmers demand.
The sprint is a clear example of the shift in paradigms we are looking for, so that people in the year 2100 know we took the right decisions in 2022 for them to live in a better world, said Govaerts. He continued by emphasizing the need for the initiative to be integrated within the systems it aims to transform, and the importance of accelerating farmers’ access to seeds.
The initiative is only possible because of the existence of the genebank collections that have been conserved for humanity, and due to cross-collaboration across disciplines and sharing of data and resources.
Addressing soil fertility management
Tek Sapkota, senior scientist, presented at Taking Agricultural Innovation to the Next Level to Tackle the Climate Crisis, the AIM4C partner reception on November 11, which gathered critical actors committed to making agriculture one of the most impactful climate solutions. Hosted on the one-year anniversary of the AIM4C launch at COP26 and on the eve of the COP27 day on adaptation and agriculture, the event was a celebration of progress made to date to address the climate crisis by 2025.
Sapkota, who leads a project that is part of CIMMYT’s AIM4C innovation sprint submission, presented alongside the Minister of Climate Change and Environment from the United Arab Emirates, the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States, and the Regional Director for Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa at CGIAR.
In the Global South, farmers are being affected by unreliable weather patterns caused by climate change, which means they can no longer rely on their traditional knowledge. However, demand climate services can fill this vacuum, enabling meteorological agencies to produce accurate climate information, co-create digital climate services for agricultural systems, and support sustainable and inclusive business models.
Cover photo: A CIMMYT staff member at work in the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center, as featured in a session on Fast Tracking Climate Solution from Genebank Collections at COP27. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Wheat pathologist and geneticist Zhognhu He explained the spread of plant diseases such as wheat scab, which is spreading due to factors such as climate change and could threaten grain security and food safety. His work in wheat disease resistance using the vast germplasm resources in China is helping farmers worldwide.
China has also provided thousands of wheat germplasm resources to CIMMYT’s genebank in Mexico, contributing towards the development of new varieties.
Shelves filled with maize seed samples make up the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center at CIMMYT’s El Batán headquarters, Mexico. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Fast Tracking Climate Solutions from CGIAR Genebank Collections is expanding CGIAR’s and other organizations’ crop improvement research. This initiative is key to developing new crop varieties adapted to the stresses of climate change, including disruptions caused by drought, heat and flooding. Through this ambitious research program, scientists have already developed critical traits using the genebanks, strengthening the identification of high-value genetic diversity from germplasm collections and more efficiently leveraging this diversity to develop new varieties of climate-resilient crops.
Join virtually to learn more about this program’s pioneering research, the value of collaboration in this research and opportunities to engage further.
WHEN: November 11, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST
RSVP: Please register for the webinar to receive call-in information. This event is free and open to the public.
AIM for Climate is a joint initiative by the United States and United Arab Emirates seeking to address climate change and global hunger. The initiative brings together partners to increase investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation. Specifically, AIM for Climate is advancing research through Innovation Sprints. As an AIM for Climate Knowledge Partner and an Innovation Sprint Partner, FFAR has two other Innovation Sprints in addition to the genebanking project: AgMission and the Greener Cattle Initiative.
For more information, contact Jamie Nickel, communications & legislative affairs associate, at jnickel@foundationfar.org.
About the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.
Cover photo: Shelves filled with maize seed samples make up the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center at CIMMYT’s El Batán headquarters, Mexico. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
The Ambassador of Mexico to Norway, Ulises Canchola Gutiérrez, delivers a box of CIMMYT maize and wheat varieties to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. (Photo: Petra Pajdakovic/Crop Trust)
The Ambassador of Mexico to Norway, Ulises Canchola Gutiérrez, delivered a deposit from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on October 12.
CIMMYT was the ninth depositor in the Seed Vault in 2022, with a contribution of 263 accessions of maize and 3,548 accession of wheat.
“Professionally, I am pleased to carry out this activity that contributes to the conservation of genetic resources and guarantees food security of two of the major crops that feed the world,” said Rocio Quiroz, assistant research associate at CIMMYT. “When we prepare a shipment as a team, it is extraordinary because we contribute to the perpetuity of each accession deposited in the vault. Very few people have the privilege of doing so.”
Maize and wheat seeds begin their journey to the Seed Vault from CIMMYT Headquarters in Texcoco, near Mexico City, on September 22. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
What is the Seed Vault?
The Seed Vault is a genebank collection that holds duplicates of seeds from more than 1,700 genebanks around the world, playing the role of a backup collection. By protecting these varieties from catastrophic loss, the Seed Vault contributes towards food security for future generations.
Owned by Norway and managed in partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, NordGen, and the Crop Trust, the Seed Vault currently holds 1,165,041 seed varieties, with capacity for millions more.
In 2020, CIMMYT was the largest contributor, providing 173,779 maize and wheat accessions from 131 countries.
Colleagues from CIMMYT’s germplasm bank prepare a delivery of 263 accessions of maize and 3,548 accession of wheat. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
How is germplasm stored at CIMMYT?
CIMMYT’s own germplasm bank contains approximately 150,000 unique collections of wheat seed and its ancestors and is the largest unified collection in the world for a single crop.
For maize, the germplasm bank contains more than 28,000 samples, including the world’s largest collection of maize landraces, representing nearly 90% of maize diversity in the Americas.
Carolina Sansaloni, manager of the wheat genebank at CIMMYT, said, “I am proud of all CIMMYT germplasm bank staff that made a great effort to send an additional 3,800 accessions to the Svalbard as safety duplications. This contribution is for the food security of humanity.”
