Crop Trust

Global Crop Diversity Trust

The Global Crop Diversity Trust was established in 2004 by CGIAR and FAO to help ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity in genebanks for food security worldwide. The Crop Trust provides funding from its endowment for the long-term conservation of globally significant crop diversity held in major genebanks around the world. Additionally, the Crop Trust supports genebanks through various short-term projects that promote capacity building and partnerships in the conservation of crop diversity. The Crop Trust has been a partner in the management and funding of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault since its inception and is an essential element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The Crop Trust is playing a crucial role in building the global system of ex situ conservation of crop diversity.

Role in PRO-GRACE

The Crop Trust operates and maintains Genesys, a globally recognized online platform providing access to information on crop diversity conserved in genebanks worldwide, including accession passport data from EURISCO. Drawing on this knowledge, the Crop Trust will collaborate with the project team to develop standards for decentralized databases and their interfacing with EURISCO. Additionally, the Crop Trust's experience in establishing an evidence-based quality management system (QMS) for national and international genebanks will help in building a framework for quality-certified management of ex situ collections. Moreover, the Crop Trust will help disseminate the project's results.